14 SEPTEMBER 2002, page 49

A Bleak Kind Of Optimism

Fatema Ahmed THE WHORE'S CHILD by Richard Russo Chatto, £10.99, pp. 225, ISBN 0701173300 A fter several acclaimed novels, including last year's Pulitzer prize-winning Empire......

Alien Reading Matter

Byron Rogers THE COMPANY by Robert Littell Pan Macmillan, £16.99, pp. 894, ISBN 0333746996 I f you want to know what living in a parallel universe is like, buy this novel about......