Cressida Connolly

Time out of mind

Fans of Faulks will welcome the ambitious scope of his latest novel on the effects of war — but the aim is more admirable than the execution

issue 12 September 2015

There can hardly be two novelists less alike than Sebastian Faulks and Will Self, in style and in content. Faulks writes in the grand tradition of realist fiction: a list of his themes might include the brutality and waste of war, France and, of course, romantic love. Self, meanwhile, has created dystopias in which to satirise different aspects of humanity, while conjuring with all manner of stylistic invention.

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