Songs from The Other Side of Wall -

Songs from The Other Side of Wall

Just finished Songs From The Other Side of The Wall by Dan Holloway - it was great, I immediately gave it a five star review. Check it out;

This is a hard book to review, for a simple summary of the plot doesn't really do it justice; this is a book where mood and tone of voice are more important. (That's not to say there isn't a plot - there is, and it's a good one.) There's some obvious influences like Murakami and Coupland, but for me the key comparison was Salinger, in the way the author turns a teenager's enthusiasms, slang and naivety into something hard-edged yet lyrical. It's a testament to the skill of the author that the words always seem like they belong to the hugely likeable heroine, a teenage lesbian sculptor, even though from the author photo Dan Holloway is none of these things...

There are some flaws - brief off-notes where the dialogue is a shade to pretentious or whimsical to be true - but such is the compelling nature of the main character's voice you're easily carried over these small blips. I guess the main test of a book is whether after finishing it you would read more by the same author - and on this evidence that's a resounding yes from me.