![]() ![]() His first narrator, Nathan, is a teenager who is obviously on the autistic spectrum and is charming and delightfully funny, although Mitchell allows the reader to discern the character’s individuality through anecdotes, such as tales of his teacher/ enabler getting him to practise reading people’s expressions, or his examples of semantic/ pragmatic errors, such as the brilliant story: ‘Our scoutmaster told me to get lost, so I did, and it took the Snowdonia mountain rescue service two days to find my shelter.’ ![]() Slade House is a mysterious place, a huge mansion down a dark alley, accessed by an iron gate, and its residents are fascinating twins Norah and Jonah who lure their prey into the house with scary results.ĭavid Mitchell is the master of the ability to show the reader every detail of a character without telling. The novel is short: it is composed of five stories or novellas, set in different time periods, nine years apart. What a clever book! Again, no spoilers from me for anyone who hasn’t read it yet, but there is a scarily weird place, Slade House, where things happen and have happened in the past, which the reader visits with readily suspended disbelief and held breath.We are propelled from one terrorised protagonist to the next with car-crash speed, but the journey is breath takingly enjoyable. It took me a day and I didn’t put it down. I have just read David Mitchell’s ‘Slade House’. ![]()
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