Books
WORDS: ULI LENART
TALES OF PERSUASION
PHILIP HENSHER/FOURTH ESTATE
A brilliantly astute book of 11 short stories on the theme of persuasion, or in some instances outright manipulation, from the Booker-Prize-shortlisted author Philip Hensher. In the opening story, a frustrated man tries to seduce his neighbour’s handsome young Argentinian lover. In ‘Time of War’, Fred, a Soho hedonist, travels to a quiet lakeside hotel in southern India and begins to envisage the impending machinations of war. In another story, a young boy is tied up by a group of children and assaulted with snowballs on a summer’s day and in ‘The Painter’s Sons’, two gay brothers strive — with varying success — to find love and happiness in spite of the influence of their artistic parents. The settings range from Clapham to Greece, and from Yorkshire to Italy but every narrative is unified by Hensher’s incredible eye for detail and effortless talent for multi-layered storytelling.