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Praise for Trading Futures
‘With his gallows humour and observational wit, Jim Powell gives us a vivid portrait of a man in meltdown.’ Daily Mail
‘What starts as a light and droll Reggie Perrin-style novel about the fall of a middle-aged everyman, a “perfect makeweight in an identity parade”, becomes surprisingly dark and intense.’ The Times
‘Powell is very good on the sense of lost youth, nostalgia and what might have been . . . This is a novel that is at once honest and cautionary.’ Financial Times
‘A brief, funny, grim portrait of a man at the wrong end of life. Really good.’ Mark Watson
About the author
Jim Powell was born in London in 1949. He is the author of The Breaking of Eggs and Trading Futures, and was named by BBC2's The Culture Show as being amongst the '12 of the Best New Novelists' in 2011. He divides his time between Cambridgeshire, England, and the Tarn, France.
Summary
'An engrossing read' Sunday Times
There’s a bar at the crossroads on the way out of town. Or the way in, depending on whether you’re coming or going. Marcie and her husband have run it for years. After thirty years of marriage, there aren’t many secrets left between them. Couples often say that, don’t they? But it’s not always true.
Arlene appeared in the bar one day, not long before Franky Albertino came back to town, hoping that she’d find a man called Jack. Franky was hoping that people might have forgotten the mess he’d left behind him the first time around. Franky’s problem had always been women. Women and money. What Arlene’s problem is isn’t clear. It’s obvious she has a history, but who doesn’t?
As Arlene gets closer to finding Jack – her father? her lover? – the bar becomes the scene of a great unravelling; secrets buried a lifetime ago are dragged into the light. In Things We Nearly Knew, Jim Powell invites us to consider how much we know about the people we love and asks, finally: would you want to know the truth?
Foreword
The haunting new novel by the acclaimed author of The Breaking of Eggs and Trading Futures.
