Ten Days by Gillian Slovo

Book Review by Annie Rutherford | 28 Sep 2016
Book title: Ten Days
Author: Gillian Slovo

To read Gillian Slovo’s latest novel Ten Days after the summer of 2016 is a strange thing. The novel, just now released in paperback, was originally published in March 2016 – before any cabinet reshuffle with its bizarre tales of betrayal, and before a surge in discontent and racist attacks brought reports of violence ever more into our living rooms. Yet Ten Days could almost be a riff on where the past few months might have taken us.

The novel follows the lives of a number of characters over a week and a half, as a London heatwave rolls on. At its heart is Cathy, a white woman living in a run-down housing estate doomed for demolition. Cathy’s narrative – as a black man from the housing estate dies at the hands of the police and, subsequently, as riots are sparked and spread through London – is interspersed with the perspectives of those making the decisions: a new head of the Met, struggling to keep his job; and an ambitious Home Secretary, plotting to unseat his former friend and mentor.

Clearly inspired by the 2011 riots, Ten Days interrogates the rhetoric of policemen and politicians, and reveals how flippantly vital decisions can be made. At the same time, the novel paints a careful and caring picture of people whose lives are all too often reduced to headlines. [Annie Rutherford]

Out now, published by Canongate, RRP £7.99