Paperback book reviews: The Almost Moon | The Spy's Bedside Book | Diary of a Bad Year

Published on 07/11/2008 19:30

THE ALMOST MOON BY ALICE SEBOLD (Picador, £7.99)

EVERYONE has probably dreamt of killing their mother, suggests Alice Sebold's middle-aged narrator, Helen. But how many have fantasised about "cutting them up into tiny pieces and mailing them to parts unknown"? In the follow-up to her best-selling debut, The Lovely Bones, a woman accustomed to satisfying the needs of her demanding family kills her dementia-afflicted 88-year-old mother. Beginning as a gruesome, solipsistic account of matricide, Sebold's story unfolds into an engrossing family drama in which a large cast of characters all grieve for their individual losses.

THE SPY'S BEDSIDE BOOK EDITED BY HUGH & GRAHAM GREENE (Arrow Books, 8.99)

THIS charming 1957 compendium of espionage vignettes, deftly edited by Graham Greene – who was actively employed by MI6 – and his brother Hugh, gives tips on things like concealing messages in hard-boiled eggs. Now updated, with an introduction by former head of MI5 Stella Rimmington, it brings us Fleming's 007 sprinkling pepper into his vodka to neutralise the poison he suspects it contains, and one (real) British spy who posed as a butterfly collector while wandering among enemy positions, encoding maps into what appeared to be drawings of butterflies.

DIARY OF A BAD YEAR BY JM COETZEE (Vintage, 7.99)

YOU'VE seen the split-screen film, now read the split-screen novel. The twice-winning Booker Prize writer lays out his tale like a three-part musical score. An elderly writer compiles political essays (top of the page) while scribbling down his feelings for an alluring neighbour (next strip down) whom he persuades to type up his manuscript. But as her jealous lover hatches an elaborate computer fraud, the writer grapples with something as alarming: his typist's opinions (bottom strip) are shaping his work.