Roving reflections in the best Literary Fiction out now: ABSENCE by Issa Quincy, MUCKLE FLUGGA by Michael Pedersen, THE BOOK OF RECORDS by Madeleine Thien

Daily Mail​

15-05-2025

ABSENCE by Issa Quincy (Granta £14.99, 192pp)
A big influence on the 21st-century literary novel is the essayistic fiction of the late German writer WG Sebald, whose imprint can be seen on Rachel Cusk and Teju Cole, two of many authors to ditch plot and character in favour of roving reflection.
The latest book to tread that mazy path is this seductively conversational debut from a British writer based in New York.
It starts with the narrator disclosing his feelings about a cherished former teacher, whose murky past emerged only after an encounter with another ex-pupil.
We then range across Europe, America and Africa in a dizzying chain of densely nested episodes circling themes of trauma and remembrance.
While the writing is always absorbing, you might feel you're being led a dance – but the novel's style is its own reward.
MUCKLE FLUGGA by Michael Pedersen (Faber £16.99, 320pp)
Poet and memoirist Michael Pedersen turns to fiction for the first time in this offbeat and tonally unpredictable coming-of-age debut, set on the Scottish island that gives the book its title.
The action turns on a life-changing encounter between two men: Firth, a troubled writer visiting from Edinburgh, and Ouse, a daydreaming teenager in imaginary dialogue with the Treasure Island author Robert Louis Stevenson.
Each character widens the other's horizons as they get to know one another while roaming the deserted seascape.
Soon Ouse is in conflict with his drunkard dad, a widowed lighthouse keeper who wants his son to inherit his job and uphold tradition against technological change.
Pedersen's style is exuberant with curveball coinages, but despite the whimsical feel, he handles his age-old subject – how to find your way as an adult – with heart and sincerity.
THE BOOK OF RECORDS by Madeleine Thien (Granta £20, 368pp)
Canadian writer Thien made the Booker Prize shortlist with her previous novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which tackled chewy themes of history and politics by tracing the interwoven bloodlines of a Chinese refugee and the Vancouver household that takes her in.
Her new novel is even more labyrinthine in structure. We're in a mysterious refugee centre known as the Sea, where Lina, the daughter of a Chinese dissident, encounters other migrants whose tales echo those of real-life figures, including the 17th century philosopher Spinoza.
While Thien deploys some whizzy narrative machinery to explain the overlap, a substantial part of the novel is essentially fictionalised biography, framed by sinister disclosures about Lina's father.
A tricksy splice of historical fiction and sci-fi – easier to admire than enjoy.