The latest addition to my website is Steven Hall‘s The Raw Shark Texts. I found it a rather contrived novel that did not really work for me. It tells the story of a young Englishman, Eric Sanderson, who has had something of a breakdown – eleven times – since the accidental death in Greece of his girlfriend. The latest incarnation of Eric Sanderson has the task of trying to ward off conceptual sharks which, while conceptual, can also bite and kill, while trying to track down a mysterious guru, with the aid of the Un-Space Exploration Committee. Of course, a girl joins him to help him, in good sub-Murakami style and together they save the world from Mycroft Ward, who is trying to take over everybody’s consciousness. I may have enjoyed this when I was young and carefree but, frankly, it now seems a little silly and proof and that no-one can wrote Murakami like Murakami. Steven Hall was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists.