Denis Klamm, feckless scion of two former Leaders, returns to the Island for his father's funeral, only to find it sinking. Or the sea rising - it depends what you believe. Either way, they're all going to drown - unless the young, idealistic and newly-elected Leader, Jessica King, really is the saviour long foretold by Our Island Story.
Identity, in Guy Ware's confident debut collection, is a mercurial thing. Lawyers paint conflicting pictures of an alleged terrorist; a city trader decides, without warning, to walk out of her life; flirting lovers take role-play to a new, existential, level. Whether living under a totalitarian regime or simply getting through the day in a grindingly predictable metropolis, Ware's characters struggle with the urge to redefine themselves, to start again, to reboot.
In 1940, Holly Stanton's grandfather was a spy, on the run in occupied Norway. He was rescued by a brave Norwegian fisherman, whose wife and children were executed in retaliation. Holly has always known this. But does that mean she should tell the story? And what if it isn't true?
The Fat of Fed Beasts is an ambitious literary mix of existential uncertainty, murder, bureaucracy, unreliable father figures and disaffected policemen. It asks why we do what we do, whether it matters, and what, if anything, our lives are worth. And it's funny.
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