“I have a sister, but she’s older than me and we look nothing alike. Your hair was up to here!” He chopped at the base of his skull. “You were wearing grey slacks and a black top with little gold lines on it. He had a disagreeable expression on his face, a look halfway between fear and anger. Jean, confused, wants to know what he’s talking about. One day one of her regular customers, Mr Ronan, questions her ability to change clothing and hairstyles in a matter of minutes. When the book opens we meet first person narrator Jean Mason, who is married with two children and runs a bookstore in downtown Toronto. The opening chapters have all the hallmarks of a mystery thriller, but mid-way through it takes a dramatic turn and becomes a wonderful examination of mental illness, consciousness, identity and the blurring of lines between truth, reality and imagination. But when I picked up this book - ordered on import from Canada (there doesn’t even seem to be a UK publication date) - I discovered that it’s so-called billing wasn’t entirely correct.īellevue Square is one of those novels that starts off as one thing before it morphs into another. When I found out that Michael Redhill’s Bellevue Square was billed as a thriller, I wondered how it had slipped onto this year’s Giller Prize shortlist, which is primarily for literary fiction. Fiction – hardcover Doubleday Canada 262 pages 2017.
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