Reader’s Digest UK – July 2019

JULY 2019 • 123

READER’S DIGEST

misguided ways. Yet,
rather than condemning
their messy behaviour,
Moggach regards it with a
kindly and often amused
eye—understanding that,
as one character in The
Carer gradually comes to realise, pretty
much everybody is “just a normal,
faulty human being”.
The carer of the title is the cheerfully
brassy Mandy, who has been employed
to look after James, a cultured,
octogenarian ex-academic living in
the Cotswolds. Somewhat to the alarm
of his grown-up children, she soon
introduces him to the delights of such
things as shopping centres, daytime TV
and village gossip. But is she up to
something more sinister?
Halfway through, we get our
answer—in a terrific twist that I can’t
possibly reveal, but that adds an extra
layer of poignancy (and some great new
characters) to this sharp, witty,
characteristically generous and
gallopingly readable novel.

Can you guess the writer from these
clues (the fewer you need the better)?

1. His surname is also the name of the only
   official language, by law, in the UK.


2. An innocent hobby provided the title
   of his far-from-innocent first novel.


3. That novel, set in Edinburgh,
   became a Danny Boyle film starring
   Ewan McGregor.

Paperbacks

The Man Who Didn’t Call

by Rosie Walsh (Pan, £7.99)

After a perfect week together, Sarah’s

new man fails to contact her as

promised. Was he just using her or

is there another, far darker reason?

(Clue: he wasn’t just using her.)

Hitler’s British Traitors

by Tim Tate (Icon, £10.99)

Eye-opening, thoroughly-researched

account of the Brits who worked for

a German victory in the war.

Aftershocks

by A N Wilson (Atlantic, £8.99)

An earthquake has effects that go well

beyond physical destruction in this

clever and moving novel.

And Thank You for Watching

by Mark Austin (Atlantic, £8.99)

The TV journalist and foreign

correspondent spills the beans on his

long career from Mandela’s release to

Trump’s White House.

A Shot in the Dark

by Lynne Truss (Raven, £8.99)

One of those rare comic crime

novels that actually succeeds in

being both funny and a properly

constructed mystery.

Answer on p126

Name the author