The TIme Will Come #12

Every Thursday, Books for Company hosts a meme in which we will post a book we really want to read, or have been meaning to take off our shelves and read for a while.

Want to join in?

• Pick a book you have been meaning to read.
• Do a post telling us about this book.
• Link up the post in the Linky
• Visit the other blogs!

A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks
Goodreads synopsis:
A powerful contemporary novel set in London from a master of literary fiction.

London, the week before Christmas, 2007. Over seven days we follow the lives of seven major characters: a hedge fund manager trying to bring off the biggest trade of his career; a professional footballer recently arrived from Poland; a young lawyer with little work and too much time to speculate; a student who has been led astray by Islamist theory; a hack book-reviewer; a schoolboy hooked on skunk and reality TV; and a Tube train driver whose Circle Line train joins these and countless other lives together in a daily loop.

With daring skill, the novel pieces together the complex patterns and crossings of modern urban life. Greed, the dehumanising effects of the electronic age and the fragmentation of society are some of the themes dealt with in this savagely humorous book. The writing on the wall appears in letters ten feet high, but the characters refuse to see it — and party on as though tomorrow is a dream.

Sebastian Faulks probes not only the self-deceptions of this intensely realised group of people, but their hopes and loves as well. As the novel moves to its gripping climax, they are forced, one by one, to confront the true nature of the world they inhabit.

I bought this one when it had just come out in paperback, so it's been a while since I bought it. The only other book I've read by Sebastian Faulks is Birdsong, which I read for my A-Levels about 3 years ago, but I haven't really been tempted by another of his until this one. I really like the sound of the themes and issues it explores, and I really like the idea that all of these people are connected without knowing it.
I may just pop this one onto the challenge list for next year - who knows?

Have you read this? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments - I always love hearing your opinions!