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“... This is not a moving account of how bravely and cleverly Ivan Vaughan copes with a debilitating disease: its scope is far wider, and its tone more varied, and more demanding of the reader, than that would suggest. Part of it is an adventure story about someone in extraordinary physical circumstances, for whom execution of the most mundane acts (such as putting on spectacles, opening a letter) attains a level of cliff-hanging suspense ...”

“... beginning to mix his fictions. Laura, or My Laura as it is called at times, perhaps written by one Ivan Vaughan, a name not without a resemblance to that of Van Veen in Ada, is a bestseller, and hangs on in the charts for three months or so. Does the reader see Flora in Laura? The picture is ‘statically’ faithful, we are told, but its final story is ...”

“... Sally Rooney’s fourth novel, a conversation takes place over the expiry date on a condom. Ivan Koubek, who is 22 and grieving the recent loss of his father, has had one in the zipped pocket of his suitcase for a while. Margaret Kearns, who is 36 and recently separated, suggests he fetch it and check the date on the foil (the packaging reads ...”