The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (Virago, £7.99 in UK)
Far less the thriller than might be suspected, Atwood's characteristically wry, intelligent performance is several things; a dark family saga, a bitter romance and ultimately, a meditation on old age. Runaway winner of last year's Booker Prize, it is densely and meticulously plotted, while the obvious clues don't matter - nor does the true identity of the author of the cult novel-within-the-novel. Atwood is a formidable technician with an interest in detail. The Chase family, the unhappy merchant clan at the heart of the story, has a fortune built on a button factory. The ironies abound. Iris, the narrator, is the surviving Chase. Now ancient, she recalls the shocking death of Laura, her beautiful doomed sister, a lifetime earlier. The bemused wonder of the narrator's voice as well as her humour and hope are the novel's strengths. With its shrewd echoes of the European fairytale in the characterisation of Iris's scheming husband and her Wicked Witch sister-in-law, this is a laconic, highly readable page-turner.
