Tales Of Persuasion

A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book for 2011 One of The Telegraphs Best Fiction Books 2011 Far from Londons crime and pollution Hanmouths wealthier residents live in picturesque heavily mortgaged cottages in the center of a town packed with artisanal cheese shops and antiques stores. Theyre reminded of the towns less desirable outskirts—with their grim flimsy housing stock and chain stores—only when their neighbors have the presumption to claim also to live in Hanmouth. When an eightyearold girl from the outer area goes missing Englands eyes suddenly turn toward the sleepy town with a curiosity as piercing and unblinking as the closedcircuit security cameras that line Hanmouths idyllic streets. But somehow these cameras have missed the abduction of the girl whose name is China. Is her blankeyed hairdresser mother hiding her as part of a moneymaking hoax Has she been abducted by one of the lurking perverts the townspeople imagine the cameras are protecting them from Perhaps more cameras are needed As it turns out more than one resident of Hanmouth has a secret hidden behind closed doors. Theres Sam and Harry the cheesemonger and aristocrat who lead the countys gay orgies. The quiet husband of postcolonial theorist Miranda everyone agrees shes marvelous keeps a male lover while their daughter disembowels dolls shes named Child Pornography and Slightly Jewish. Moral crusader John Calvins Neighborhood Watch has an unusual reason for holding its meetings in secret. And of course somewhere out there is the house where little China is hidden. With the dark hilarity and unflinching honesty of a modernday Middlemarch King of the Badgers demolishes the already fragile privacy of Hanmouths inhabitants. These characters exquisitely drawn and rawly human proclaim Philip Henshers status as an extraordinary chronicler of the domestic and one of the worlds most dazzling and ambitious novelists.