211 pp. The second novel by Magnus Mills, a former London bus driver for nearly a dozen years. Mills has been hailed as a "comic wonder" by Thomas Pynchon. This novel was shortlisted for the Booker and Whitebread Prizes. Camping out in England's Lake District waiting for summer to end, an itinerant odd-jobber agrees to do a small painting job for the owner of the campsite, which leads to further tasks that enmesh him against his will in the complex mysteries of the placid local community.
