Joshua Spassky 
by Gwendoline Riley 

Gwendoline Riley's weary tone, coupled with descriptions that make you feel hungry and desolate at the same time are what I love about her stories.

Her debut 'Cold Water' made me excited about new writing, and her second 'Sick Notes' was also good. This, her third novel moves from grey and murky Manchester to the America, where Natalie goes to meet Joshua Spassky, a man she's had a fling (made of up of pondering soul-searching  and drinking) with for five years.

It was as moody as I expected, with grumpy characters who  dissatisfied with their lives, but seem impotent when it comes to making sense of them. It's a feeling that my generation seem to have invented - well, maybe not invented, but maybe made more public that previous angsty 20 somethings.

Maybe it's because nowadays we wait for marriage and kids (or maybe don't choose them at all), and have many more years of navel gazing even after we're out of teens, but Joshua and Natalie reminded me of people I've met and moaned with, and worried about.

Ultimately, although this is a good book, it isn't a great book, and I''m not sure I'd have sought it out if it hadn't have been for Riley's previous. There seemed to be some kind of statement or magic missing, but the hopeful pay-off in the last chapter made it worthwile.