Paperbacks in brief: Glimmer by Warren Berger | Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucci | Worth Dying For by Lee Child

Our reviewer takes a look at the pick of recently released paperbacks...

Glimmer

By Warren Berger

(RH books, 8.99) ****

Warren Berger loves the art of design, and this book is about brilliant ideas. More specifically, it's about the thinking behind the brilliant ideas. One designer spotted a wheelchair user in difficulty and had a flash of insight - the poor guy can't talk to people face-to-face unless they are sitting down. and he can't negotiate kerbs. So he designed a wheelchair that solved both problems. Somebody else designed a bicycle that is also a waterpurifying machine – enormously helpful to a particular African community. Thoughtful, sparky and profound.

Pereira Maintains

by Antonio Tabucci

(Canongate, 8.99) *****

Lisbon, 1938. Portugal is being taken over by the sinister forces of the Axis. Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and the Portuguese dictator Salazar are in the ascendancy. Our unlikely hero, Dr Pereira, a sad old guy, feels overwhelmed. He's overweight. He has a heart problem. He's the arts editor of a second-rate newspaper. As his health fails and as evil closes in, he wonders how he can stand up to a world of oppression. He does. In its quiet, brilliant way, this is a novel you will read carefully. It is subtle and powerful; it deserves to be a classic.

Worth Dying For

by Lee Child

(Bantam, 7.99) ****

I'd never read a Lee Child book before, and wondered what the fuss was about. Well, this is a turbo-charged page-flipper; you're on page 300 before you take a breath. Jack Reacher is a tough, do-gooding loner. He arrives in a tiny Nebraskan hamlet and smells trouble. So he sets out to fix it, using farm tools, guns and, most impressively, his own fists. Then he drifts back out of town. Child is a master of distances, spaces and the physics of opposing forces. I'll try another.