I May Be
Backroom Boys, charting the overlooked achievements of British scientists; the âstrangely noveloidâ
Red Plenty, about postwar Soviet economics; and
Unapologetic, his lively apologia for religion and riposte to the ânew atheismâ of Richard Dawkins and co. If such an eclectic writer could be said to have a niche, it was to make nerdishness interesting. Then at 52 he published
Golden Hill, a glittering take on the 18th-century novel, set in New York, which was the surprise hit of 2016, winning him a Costa first novel award and an enthusiastic new readership. Now
Light Perpetual, which, after that explosive beginning, follows the lives (had they lived) of five Londoners from the second world war to 2009, looks set to be one of the stand-out novels of this year.