I totally disagree with your reviewer. I have read this book and it was a great read, a story about human relationships, told in a really interesting way. It's funny too, and the Glasgow setting is really different. I think your reviewer didn't get it at all. Maybe because he's a bloke, and this is a novel about how people connect, or fail to connect emotionally. And as for being hard to categorise, only a 'senior buyer' could be upset about that!

I really enjoyed this book and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone. Great characters and a distinctive voice. I don't understand why the reviewer on this page didn't like it. It's full of 'narrative tension', and of course the narrator is reticent about telling us the story - that's part of his character, surely, given what he's been through in his life? Honestly, I wouldn't trust this reviewer - a so-called 'senior buyer' - to buy a book of stamps.

I read it in a few days hungry to get to the next part of the story because it's a terrific tale. The narrator is wily, cagey, playful, sad and funny - a Glaswegian to be sure, and suited to a character coming from such emotional upheaval. The delving into dysfunctional families and some of life's big subjects is insightful and artfully wrought.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I was surprised to read the review above. In fact, it strikes me that the reviewer rushed through the book because none of it was 'flash forward', it was first person flashing back, and done so well it maintains 'tension' in both present and past, never dwelling too much in one lest you lose track of the other.