Book review: The Heart Broke In, by James Meek

IN HIS previous books, foreign correspondent-turned-novelist James Meek has tackled what might be thought of as big serious topics: war, ­revolution and politics, the rights and wrongs of global morality.

In The Heart Broke In, he’s concerned with what might seem the smaller question of how we treat each other, the individual compromises ­between selfishness and ­generosity that make up ­domestic morality and which, he ­suggests, may be just as important.

It is a book about goodness, that perennially misunderstood quality, not to be confused with niceness. Particularly not in the case of Ritchie Shepherd, a Simon Cowell-esque TV talent show producer who constantly rationalises his own bad behaviour.

Worse, though, is the sanctimonious Val, editor of a Daily Mail-style tabloid, who presents Ritchie with what even he can see is a moral dilemma. To save himself, he would have to betray his saintly sister Bec, a dedicated scientist trying to cure malaria in Africa. It doesn’t seem as if Bec would have any dark secrets to betray though – until she falls in love, which makes her own moral path suddenly full of treacherous potholes.

Over all of this is the question of how, in a largely secular society, do people decide how to behave without externally derived rules? There are still socially agreed immoralities, but the little lies and sins of omission slip down more easily.

The book has a few weaknesses over its long stretch: Ritchie’s incessant egotism becomes overdone, Val slips from being a believable hypocrite to a shadowy Satanic villain and certain events happen at a peculiarly convenient pace.

But it’s an enjoyable, thought-provoking read, going beyond satire to throw the questions back to the reader: not just “what would you do?” but “how do you know that would be the right thing?”

Canongate £17.99

Edinburgh International Book Festival, tomorrow