John de Falbe
Robert Edric's terrifying The Book of the Heathen (Anchor, £9.99), set in West Africa in 1897, has impressed me most this year. Not for the faint-hearted, perhaps, but — wow! After that, two of his previous novels: In Desolate Heaven, set among the bereaved and wounded in a Swiss spa town in 1919; and Broken Lands (which is out of print), an astounding novel about the Franklin Arctic expedition. Why isn't Edric better known? Because his books are bleak? His writing is disciplined and he has extraordinary imaginative stamina. These three, at least, are masterpieces.
Apart from Edric, I would defy any liter- ate bod not to enjoy Salley Vickers' Miss Garnet's Angel, a subtle, witty tale about a retired schoolteacher in Venice (Harper- Collins, £12.99). And then there is Zadie Smith's White Teeth, which is as remarkable as her friends say. Most overrated book? Love etc by Julian Barnes (Cape, £15.99). It has been dispirit- ing to see this dismal squib sell, and even get good reviews, when there have been so many fine novels this year.
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