By the third of the 12 chapters, though, it is apparent that there is much here that might impress Pulitzer and Man Booker judges as well as the panellists of an online bookseller. The repeated word “gone” tolls through the prose like a funeral bell and you begin to congratulate the publisher for its impressive self-control in not simply retitling the book Girl, Gone in order to maximise its appeal. Everything I Never Told You starts, as now seems to be statutory for almost all crime stories on page and screen, with a sudden disappearance: in this case, teenager Lydia Lee, who is soon found dead in a lake, drowned by either suicide or murder. In their list of the 100 best books of the year, announced last week, the editors expressed hope that awarding the top slot to Celeste Ng’s debut novel will help it become “the blockbuster it deserves to be”, hints that saleability and marketing may be at least as important as literary quality.Īnd, at first, such cynicism seems justified. A lthough no literary prize can claim scientific objectivity for its judgments, one might be suspicious of a trophy given by Amazon.
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