Howard Jacobson

"A profound, darkly comedic parable set in a future where collective memory has vanished following a historic catastrophe, and one young couple's love affair could have shattering consequences for the human race. In a world where the past is a dangerous country, not to be talked about or visited, J is a love story of incomparable strangeness, both tender and terrifying. After the devastation of WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT HAPPENED, all that should remain...

At the age of ninety-something, Beryl Dusinbery is forgetting everything - including her own children. Her tongue, meanwhile, remains as sharp as ever. She spends her days stitching macabre messages into her needlework and tormenting her two long-suffering carers with tangled stories of her love affairs. Shimi Carmelli can do up his own buttons, get around without the aid of a walking frame, and speak without spitting. Among the widows of North London,...

Oliver Walzer is a natural - at ping-pong. Even with his improvised paddle, he can chop, flick, and half-volley like a champion. At sex he is not so adept, shy and frightened of women, but with guidance from Sheeny Waxman, fellow member of the Akiva Social Club Table Tennis Team, Oliver's game improves.

Picking up where The China Study left off, this fascinating journey through cutting-edge thinking on nutrition answers why a whole-food, plant-based diet provides optimal nutrition and demonstrates how far the scientific reductionism of the nutrition orthodoxy has gotten off track. --From the publisher.