There is an unease in all of the characters, a feeling that a terrible mistake has been made, that tolerance is disintegrating despite, or perhaps because of, the overconnectedness of modern life. The last third of the book kept me up late into the night, and while I do not think of this as a political book, I do think your response to Grant's imagining of the near future might be shaped by your politics - and your view of history. Brexit Britain is explored through the brilliant connectivity of seemingly unrelated characters - each facing their own difficulties, aspirations and regrets - whose stories are synchronised by the discovery of an unidentified body.

the real achievement of A Stranger City is the way in which its narrative is as fractured and uncertain as the London it portrays. A documentary film crew records the burial of an unknown woman pulled out of the Thames seven months earlier, a police detective who worked on her case arrives just too late for her interment, and we enter a labyrinth of stories set in contemporary London, where identity and uncertainty go hand in hand. Each character within the text is beautifully drawn, and each comes from a different community, and sometimes no community, but they intersect, relate and move on. The characters are brought together initially by the mystery surrounding an unidentified woman drowned in the Thames but, as is the way of city living, coincidences keep them bumping into each other.The woven narratives evoke our urban patchwork - its autonomy and surprising intimacies, and I loved the way Grant vividly brought to life a multi-faceted London through deep observation of people and places that rang true. I really enjoyed A Stranger City, a book that begins with a body in the Thames and with a bold nod at Dickens's Our Mutual Friend. Davies, because it was too painful to see my own anxieties and fears about the present moment given heft and weight through narrative. It becomes absurd and unreal at times; the twins, the elephant, the prison ships inserted so the author can make yet another political point. I was rapt in this more, to my mind, cogent work as secrets of the past are unravelled to allow us to see how the fortunes of a golden, gifted group of people play out.

I did wonder why, but seen that the author is/worked as a journalist, I believe it has to do with the fact to nowadays, especially in London, Romanians are the second or third group of emigrants; so it does makes sens to be featured. I found this a very engaging read that I would expect to be very popular with book groups given its scope for discussion. Though the cynical might say that this ‘welcome’ has primarily happened when it suited us to do so for reasons of our own economic prosperity, rather than as a movement driven by compassion.

Much as I admire, enjoy, and always look forward to Linda Grant’s fiction, A Stranger City will require a rereading before I can determine just how I feel about it. It’s the type of book that will be nominated for some obscure literary prize hailed as an insight to modern London. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. There is a richness in this novel, found in a migrant experience that is deeply embedded rather than distinct from its environment.