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King Of The Badgers (2011)

by Philip Hensher(Favorite Author)

3.39 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0007301332 (ISBN13: 9780007301331)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Fourth Estate (GB)

review 1: Set in a small town on the coast of Devon, this book is an astute and observant social commentary set in the present day. A girl from a family on the wrong side of town goes missing, the local Neighbourhood Watch continues to put up CCTV cameras everywhere, an awkward teenager has her first romance, recent arrivals try to make friends, an old gay couple host an orgy... The author Phillip Hensher writes with great wit and insight. I only really gave it four stars as reading about the present day is not always that comfortable or much of a fictional escape. Still, there are some lovely characters in there (I especially liked Spencer the dog), and some kindness, friendship and humour to balance out the grittier bits. Oh, and if you are squeamish of reading about gay sex, this... more probably isn't for you - or you could skip over those bits.
review 2: Strange book, strange in a good way, ostensibly about a kidnapped girl but which soon loses track of that element of the plot and veers from thriller into an examination of the lives of the people in the girl's little town who gossip about her and then drop her as a topic of discussion, just as the book does, and thus we, like the townspeople, are implicated in our prurient fascination with her story and then the almost equally prurient look into the lives of the other characters. It continually baffled my expectations, but the baffling was a major part of the charm. less

Download links for: King of the Badgers

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