After her debut novel “Elmet” was unexpectedly but deservedly longlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize – the author was asked by the Booker Prize website what she was working on next and answered

“Another novel. It contains similar themes to Elmet – property, ownership, gentrification - but the setting and characters are very different. It also has many voices, so there has been a stylistic shift too”

In a TLS 20-question interview after her shortlisting, when asked what subject she found it most challenging to write about and answered

"Sex, both explicitly and implicitly. Sex doesn’t feature in Elmet but it also appears on every page. It’s something I struggle to write about though, both through prudishness and because it presents such a complex confluence of physicality, emotion and politics. You cannot write about the politics of sex without capturing the physical and emotional elements. Equally, you cannot describe the physical activity (or activities) without drawing on the social context or the power-dynamics that are present in any sexual encounter. At least, I’m not sure you can write about sex well without considering all those aspects."

This, her sophomore novel, is the novel that is referred to in her Booker interview – and also one that takes head on the challenge of the TLS interview (not I would say always successfully – one sexual scene would be far better excised from the book I think).

The book is set in 21st Century Soho – and features a Dickensian number of people connected to a building and pub (the Aphra Behn) there – as a cross-section, and non-too-subtle examination of trends in London life. I was reminded a little of John Lanchester’s “Capital” in that respect.

The cast includes:

- Precious (daughter of a Nigerian pastor, now a sex worker) and her companion and “Maid” Tabitha who live on the top floor and roof garden of the building – and various other sex workers who rent rooms in the same building

- Agatha – the ruthless last born daughter of a local gangster via her Russian mother Anastasia – who has inherited (to the disgust of his middle daughters) and now manages his extensive property portfolio – including the building which she wants to redevelop into luxury flats and restaurants (leading to a protest by the sex workers that is a reminder of the rent strikes in “Elmet”) . Her minder is her Father’s ex-driver and right hand man Roster, and her companion a borzoi dog Fodor

- Bastian – the Cambridge educated son of Agatha’s lawyer (his girlfriend Rebecca, ex-flame Laura)

- Robert – a one time enforcer for Agatha’s father via (hard not to be reminded of Mr Price and Daddy) now a customer of the sex workers and drinker at the Aphra Bern

- Lorenzo an aspiring actor who ends up playing a Brothel owner in a Game of Thrones rip-off – and who is a friend of Robert as well as of Glenda – Laura’s best friend now squatting above the pub

- A group of down and outs who occupy a basement and who include The Archbishop as well as a man nicknamed Paul Daniels (as her performs magic tricks for small tips) and his sidekick (inevitably Debbie McGee).

As an aside their introduction in the second chapter made me wonder if the novel should be set in (Mrs) Merton rather than Soho ……

- A suburbs-based policeworker concerned with a rise in Missing People and possible sex trafficking (who fixes on the case of Debbie McGee) and her boss who has designs on a run for the Mayor and on any funding that Agatha can provide for his ambitions

- Not to forget a snail ….

As an aside Aphra Behn was (in real life) a Restoration playwright – who (per Wikipedia) was groundbreaking for being one of the first English women to earn her living by writing – and both the challenges for women to earn a living and the idea of groundbreaking are rather key to the novel.

Because as well as a book about buildings and about property rights and the history and evolution of an area – this is also a book about what goes on below ground – as both Crossrail and the ultra-rich tendency towards basement cinema/swimming pools feature in the book. And there are frequent references to earth/dirt – for example we are told (of Fedor as he sniffs the soil) that “Through its nose, a dog deals with history”, the one section in the suburbs contrasts the good dirt (soil, compost, organic matter) there with the grime and residue that is the dirt of Soho.

My review from Elmet containts a quote “The soil was alive with ruptured stories that cascaded and rotted then found form once more and pushed up through the undergrowth and back into our lives.” – and this actually serves to capture one of the key parts of the novel – and in particular one of its more fantastical element as (just like “Elmet” this is a book with an almost fairy tale and rather implausible element to it – as well as one with a rather black and white, hero/villain view of capitalism.

And similarly to “Elmet” the book ends with a property based show down which turns rather apocalyptical.

Nevertheless (and perhaps in contrast to “Elmet”) it is fun to read – if anything too expansive (some story lines and characters seem largely incidental) compared to the almost claustrophobic “Elmet” .

So given one of the characters – my overall conclusion for literary fiction fans rather writes itself

"You’ll like this .... Not a lot, but you’ll like it."