Paradise City

October 26, 2015
Journalist and author Day (Home Fires) connects the lives of four Londoners in this tale of grief, hardship, and hope. Sir Howard Pink is a multimillionaire who rose from humble origins but has since lost his way after the disappearance of his 19-year-old daughter, Ada. Beatrice Kizza is one of his maids, a refugee from Uganda. Esme Reade is a young reporter at a weekly paper who has not yet lost her empathy for her subjects and is assigned to interview Howard. And Carol Hetherington is a widow, slowly learning to live her life without her husband Derek, who makes a discovery that inextricably binds her to Howard. The ways in which Day brings this ensemble together is both surprising and rewarding. Through standout prose, including some brilliant imagery, she uses her characters and situations to describe a London that reveals “all its grubby glamor, all its twisted secrets and oozing promise of possibility.”

September 15, 2015
A handful of strangers in London find themselves connected, and changed, by dark events-sudden death, sexual assault-and the humbling of a self-made man. Four characters narrate the new novel from British journalist-turned-author Day (Home Fires, 2013): rag-trade tycoon Sir Howard Pink; ambitious journalist Esme Reade; haunted Ugandan immigrant Beatrice Kizza; and a widow, Carol Hetherington, whose role in the story moves from peripheral to central. Pink (originally named Fink, the son of Jewish immigrants), with his passing resemblance to a real-life British businessman, starts the ball rolling via an action that brings to mind another figure from news headlines when he forces himself sexually on a black chambermaid in an upscale English hotel. The chambermaid is Beatrice, and there will be repercussions. Pink is no stranger to the media. His rags-to-riches background and high-profile, luxurious lifestyle make good copy. But he's also known for the family tragedy that befell him 11 years earlier: the disappearance of his lovely but troubled 19-year-old daughter, Ada. Day's journalistic experience clearly infuses her novel, not just in her borrowing of front-page events and characters or in the plausible background to Esme's work environment, but also in the briskly efficient narration. Her characters have fully documented psychologies, rounded out with precise detail, and her plot, although it invokes big issues-race, class, sexism-delivers shrewd, well-paced storytelling. Most memorable is the trajectory of Sir Howard, the bullying outsider whose descent into self-disgust and the abject depths of sorrow is achieved with surprising impact. In his orbit, Esme's career blossoms and Beatrice's life swerves away from isolation and nightmare, while the once-fearless entrepreneur himself emerges from suffering and self-scrutiny a better man. Despite a sugary, overly tidy ending, this is unusual, well-crafted storytelling enhanced by some telling emotional notes.

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January 1, 2016

In her third novel (after the Betty Trask Award-winning Scissors Paper Stone and Home Fires), British journalist Day pulls together skillfully the lives of four unrelated characters in contemporary London. Sir Howard Pink is a wealthy, self-made businessman who appears to be initially entirely obnoxious; we meet him as he is forcing his attentions on a maid in an upscale hotel. The maid, Beatrice, is a refugee from Uganda, and she is barely scraping by in this expensive city. The other main characters are Carol, a lonely older widow in the suburbs, and Esme, a young and frazzled reporter. As a journalist herself, Day is especially sardonic about the cutthroat world of the British tabloids. The fast-paced plot hooks the reader once Carol finds something disturbing in a neighbor's garden. VERDICT This well-crafted, imaginative story of contemporary London life will appeal to readers who loved John Lanchester's Capital and Penelope Lively's How It All Began. It blends witty comedy, touching poignancy, and a believable cast of characters in a novel that's hard to put down.--Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2015
As so many novels do these days, this one follows several characters whose stories converge over the course of the book. Howard Pink is a flamboyant businessman whose wealth has garnered him a trophy wife and entree into London's high society. But money hasn't bought him personal respect, nor has it dampened the pain of his only daughter's disappearance years earlier. Esme, a young reporter, struggles with her own loss and sublimated desire for a father figure. Constantly pushed to exploit the misfortune of others, she finds unexpected comradeship when she's granted a rare interview with Pink. Beatrice, who works as a maid in an upscale hotel that Pink frequents, is looking for a way to improve her circumstances and leave behind the memories of her persecution as a gay woman in Uganda. Finally, Carol is a lonely widow with an odd neighbor whose intense stares and off manner make her uncomfortable. In each case, an unforeseen encounter unleashes tightly reined-in emotions and offers the characters new opportunities for connection and growth. Their journeys make for a highly readable and humane novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)