Milkman

by Anna Burns
Another surprise from this year's Booker longlist.
It is a book set in 1970's Belfast although the book never mentions the city, or the country or the conflict by name. It also never mentions the characters names other than by relationship to the nameless narrator.
All of this made me reluctant to pick this book up but I ended up listening to an audiobook and this was definitely the right choice. The narration of Brid Brennan is fantastic, catching the language of the book in a compelling and gripping way. This is important because the central character is forever going down side roads as she tells the story of how Milkman came into her life and how he was shot.
Along the way it is very funny in places, very sad in others and, for those who remember those years, a reminder of how unusual and scary a time it was. 7/10