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This is beautiful, in that it’s beautifully written. In alternating first-person chapters, we follow a contemporary couple, Miri and Leah, who have undergone a catastrophe. Miri’s chapters are in the now, the aftermath, and Leah’s are in the when, the disaster itself. After crewing a deep-sea research vessel that became stranded in the Mariana trench for several months, she’s returned with severe nerve and tissue damage from prolonged compression. But although Leah has made it back, their relationship has largely broken down. We see this only though Miri’s eyes, as all Leah’s chapters are in the past. The implicit question…

Well now, there’s a title. I’m dyslexic, so I had to read it twice before I realised it didn’t have the word fifty in front of it. Now, it’s always kind of weird when a story riffs on a title from a different genre … so it was relief to discover that Jasper Fforde published this first. Almost a relief, because it also made me ask the awkward question, why didn’t I ever hear of this novel before? Because this is, no doubt, original. Original with a capital O, the kind that monks would have painted with deranged, frolicking hares.…