Book Title:Diving For Pearls ISBN-13:978-0857527486 Author:Jamie O’Connell Publisher:Doubleday Guideline Price:£14.99Jamie O’Connell’s ambitious, multi- voiced debut opens with the image of the lifeless body of young, wealthy Emirati woman, Hiyam Husayin, floating in Dubai’s marina. O’Connell paints an intricate portrait of the seven lives that become intertwined when Hiyam’s body is discovered. The depiction of Siobhan’s life of endless shopping in glitzy malls where the guest workers who built them are denied entry, makes for soul-destroying reading. Would there really be such a fuss about someone landing, but not actually drowning, in the Liffey on a night out? But these are small quibbles with an otherwise compelling tale that manages, without preaching, to say much about the fragility of our globalised, capitalism-soaked world.

Source: The Irish Times June 05, 2021 05:01 UTC