Anna Funder, All that I am

This is a stunning novel. It's a long-time since I've enjoyed a new novel quite as much. The story is fantastic (I had no idea), and the tone is just right. It is fast-paced and gripping but also deeply revealing about human motives. I rarely think that novelists 'get' politics - they either romanticise it or demonise it. But Funder has a deep appreciation. The sense of time and place - the atmospherics - are wonderful. Her descriptions are precise and evocative, and never become cloying or atificial. As the blurb says the novel is 'intelligent'. As a writer, Funder is masterful her control is remarkable. You've got to read it.