The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

Eric Sanderson wakes up alone and confused without a memory in his mind, and with a 25ft conceptual shark hunting for his soul. Steven Hall's distinguished debut, The Raw Shark Texts, has had a fizzing impact, as it's a fast paced, intelligent and deeply touching novel. And a very sought after one - Hall has signed over 20 international rights deals and is now negotiating the film deals. Apparently Nicole Kidman has asked if he could give the lead character a sex change so she can play the part. The story is about a desperate man struggling to come to terms with his girlfriend's death. It's light-hearted and surreal as Eric struggles to survive in an invisible world of calligraphy streams and conceptual fish, all the while evading a mysterious organisation hell-bent on global domination. That's all a bit much, but the slightly crazed, lilting way that Hall trips through these situations strips them of their importance. The story increasingly drops away, revealing the suffering soul at the heart of it all. It's worth remembering that the plot that matters is the confusion of a mentally ill man, and it's the serious themes of identity and loss which anchor the book when it seems to be losing its grip. For those with a taste for surrealism, The Raw Shark Texts is up there with the weirdest of them. Blending truth and fantasy and raising questions of identity and reality, the silliness and beauty of the depths plumbed lend the book a stirring poignancy. As a debut it's top class, but it lacks the clarity of the best literary fiction. [Fraser Cardow]