A Review By Frances Smith

Set in London, the week before Christmas in 2007, this story tracks seven characters through seven wintry days towards a seemingly inevitable crisis.  The link in the chain is the circle line as it weaves its way through London, sometimes above ground with glimpses of suburban life, and sometimes diving below the surface into a mysterious world seen differently from the train drivers point of view, with its silver rails pointing towards the next station.  The passengers merely see the dark tunnel walls with their almost invisible pipe work and occasional flashes of light.

 Sebastain Faulks writes beautifully and each of his seven characters is clearly drawn.  We come to care about even the less pleasant ones sucha s John Veals who was described by the Times critic as “brilliantly insidious” and by the Independent as “deadly as a coiled rattlesnake”.

 The nearest to a heroine is Jenni Fortune, the underground train driver, but we also come to care about Finbar, the teenage son of wealthy parents who wants for nothing except the vital ingredients of care and love.  We follw a disaffected Muslim youth towards spiritual freedom and Spike, an international football star struggling with the vagaries of the English language.

The paths of the various characters cross and recross and sometimes meet as Faulks skilfully entwines the threads of the novel towards the seventh day and the story’s end.  Definitely recommended.