THE FUSE

That lovely cover caught my eye on NetGalley before I realised that Patrick Charnley is the son of the much-missed Helen Dunmore, one of my favourite authors. This, My Second Life is Charnley’s debut which starts with a sobering author’s note telling his readers that while this is a novel, the narrator’s cardiac arrest and consequent brain injury echo his own experience. In his early twenties, Jago has returned to Cornwall to live with his uncle and finds himself troubled by the behaviour of Jacob’s neighbour, clearly up to no good.