Light Perpetual: 'Heartbreaking . . . a boundlessly rich novel.' Telegraph

Had me gripped from the start with the technicalities of the bomb’s mechanism.Whilst reading you find yourself forgetting how the book started and become immersed in the lives of the characters.A Sliding Doors story. I thoroughly recommend this beautiful, at times hard hitting, novel.

I bought this book as soon as it was released in paperback based on a review in the newspaper and had hoped for a good book. It had been sitting on my pile for about six months - I don't think I was inspired by the cover (although I see there is a much colourful version showing the five children which I think is better).The book has 323 pages with a structure that progresses through the lives of 5 fictional characters. They are all children when a bomb hits a branch of Woolworths in 1944 - in reality 15 children are killed in the blast, whereas in this fictional version, Francis Spufford imagines them to have escaped, enabling them to live their lives.The start of the book, on a Saturday lunchtime in November, is used to describe the process of the bomb being detonated and hitting the shop, along with the devastation it causes. These few pages are spellbinding and hooked me in immediately.We consider that the children may not have been blown to pieces and then track their lives, using each subsequent part of the novel to show each of five through snapshots of their lives in specific years (1949 then progressing by 15 years each time).Every time we visit the characters, they seem to represent some sort of topical social issue from the period and they become more and more rounded. As time progresses, the author explores how societal attitudes change. As an example, Ben has a mental health condition and we see the widely changing treatment that he receives from both professionals and other people around him. The range of issues are vast and dramatic - you can't help but sit back and consider the major shifts that this generation of people have had to navigate from WWII up to the latest technological advances.Clearly the topics have been well researched and that material used to create authentic environments without every showing off - industrial relations in the 1970s being a strong example. Aside from the major areas used in the plot, many other issues are mentioned in passing but are always worthy of a pause whilst reading (medical advancements, attitudes to aging, education, immigration, the list goes on and on).Strangely, for some reason, I had decided that the author was female and didn't realise I was wrong until reading the acknowledgements. This made no difference to my enjoyment but I thought it was an interesting observation.Whilst the details appear to be accurate, it is the descriptive style that is the star feature in this novel - not only will the reader be able to see what the author describes. they will also be able to smell it, hear it and even feel it.My biggest delight with this book was that I couldn't finish the author's previous novel as I disliked it so much and I think that made me nervous about reading this one.FS seems able to bridge the gap between the lives of individuals and huge worldwide changes. He writes in a way which shows how much he cares about the people, describing emotionally difficult times with empathy and encourages the reader to be concerned.

The first chapter of this book is one of the most memorable first chapters I have ever read and after this I had extremely high expectations of the book .The language poetry and sentiment are a fitting tribute to the soles who lost their lives in the war time bombing of Woolworths in New Cross in 1944 .The description bought to mind the epic scene on the film of Pearl harbour following the rocket on its inevitable destructive courseThe bulk of the book after this follows the lives of a group of people born around the fictional London borough of Bexford .So well was this area described I actually googled it as I felt sure it was an area I knew having lived in Lambeth in the past but had somehow forgotten.I found the characters brutally real and following their lives somewhat borrowing and slightly depressing .I recognised people I know in them and was invested quickly into knowing their outcomeThe author has a great eye and voice for the minutiae of life often sparking recognition with my own experiencesAfter such an epic start I have to admit I did find the bulk of the book a bit of a let down .I think the author meant the people who’s stories were described to represent those lost in the war time bomb who never got to experience their future ordinary lives .As such the stories are of ordinary people and are beautifully written with a rare understanding of human fragility but still I struggled to make the link .This is the main reason I’ve given the book 4 stars not 5

'What if?' is a question that has been explored by other authors including a favourite of mine - Kate Atkinson but I was curious to read how 'Perpetual Light' would play out. I have to say I think I read the first chapter totally holding my breath as it grew to such a powerful crescendo. An amazing first chapter. However, I have to admit I lost my way a little after that, forgetting who was who and wondering where on earth this novel was going if anywhere. I did then start to re-connect with the characters and enjoyed seeing how they evolved. Reconnecting, I was able to feel the heartache in the last chapter and appreciated how 'Perpetual Light' played out. A very strong closing chapter again. The prose however, is beautiful throughout and the description of Alec washing dishes with too many suds was such an inconsequential scene and yet so perfectly realistic.

As I read this accomplished book, stuffed with more metaphors than there is pork sausagemeat in a Christmas turkey, I began to suspect that the author was a Creative Writing tutor. So I looked up Wikipedia which tells us that the author comes from an academic family, went to Cambridge, worked in publishing and – yes! - he is now a professor of Creative Writing. It shows.Spufford describes the lives of a number of different working-class Londoners with surprising authenticity. My own background is much more similar to those characters’ than is his, so I was impressed. His prose contains some beautiful and clever moments, but at other times it seems to me to be over-written: a sermon goes on too long, and the description of passengers on a tube train in London could be cut by half without loss of impact. Some of the similes hit the mark (people’s faces peering out of the window of a passing train look like peas) whilst others don’t work for me.The thought-provoking underlying question to the novel is ‘Why only this? Why this life and not the other? Why this ending and not another?’ All in all an enjoyable book, even a good book, but not a great one. It tries too hard.