North London Hospice, Whetstone. This 2013 Booker Prize winner was in (nearly) mint condition and only £1 – cheaper than many of the mangled paperbacks on offer. Should I take his as a warning that it's an unreadable disaster? It has 74 one-star reviews on Amazon, of which this one is typical: "A dreadful mess. A dreadfully long mess. A complex plot, delivered in a confusing way. Twelve sections of ever-decreasing length, with ever-shortening chapters with ever-lengthening preambles. Twelve characters representing (I assume) different signs of the zodiac, but all devoid of emotion. I failed to identify with any of them, and indeed most of them seemed indistinguishable except by name and profession. Their personalities lacked depth and I got no sense that the writer had any sensitivity or understanding of them – certainly if she did, she failed to convey it. How this got shortlisted for the Man-Booker prize is beyond me. It is simply not a good read. Brevity in writing is a virtue. 832 pages is a chore."
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