No.13 "The Rehearsal" by Eleanor Catton (Granta, 2010)OK so back to contemporary reads for my latest read. This is a fabulous debut novel from Eleanor Catton, proving her worthy of her place on the Shortlist for the Guardian First Book Award.
"The Rehearsal" tells two overlapping stories; one of an affair between a student and a teacher at a high school, and the second of a group of drama students who turn the scandal into a performance.
At the high school the girls struggle to deal with the betrayal of their fellow student Victoria, who has kept her juicy secret away from even her closest friends, but find relief in an unlikely confidant; their bitterly honest saxophone teacher.
As the commotion of the scandal cools, the drama students prepare to put their own spin on Victoria's secret, unaware of how it will personally affect one of their own players...
Catton's style is edgy yet wonderfully controlled. She flips back and forth between the two stories, which shift in time schemes and chronology, and creates a really contemporary and off-beat texture to the novel, which I loved. This is definitely one of the best books I've read so far this year.
Started: April 24th Finished: April 30th
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