BOOK REVIEW: LIGHT OVER LISKEARD by LOUIS DE BERNIÉRES

BOOK REVIEW: LIGHT OVER LISKEARD by LOUIS DE BERNIÉRES
Penguin Random House Australia, October 2023
Paperback, rrp AU$34.99
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
65%

Light Over Liskeard follows the enigmatic Q, a quantum cryptographer, as he relocates from the frenetic city to a remote Cornwall farmhouse in disrepair in preparation for a technological crash of epic proportions.

With help from local ranger Theo and his daughter Eva he begins to rebuild the property and explore the surrounding landscape – and his own priorities. He reconnects with his children, tries to get along with his estranged wife, embarks on a relationship with Eva and the farmhouse’s resident ghost, de Berniéres leaning heavily into his theme that personal connections and nature are healthier and more enriching than burying oneself in tech and texting and sexbots.

de Berniéres is correct, of course, but he’s a little heavy handed here, and Q’s tech genius isn’t the most relatable character, so we struggle to engage and relate at times.

On the plus side, Light Over Liskeard is a wordsmith’s novel. A story which ebbs and flows – surging first one way, then receding gently until surging the next way. Our understanding of the whole comes together slowly, gently, caringly and carefully, and de Berniéres’ use of magical realism is as attuned as ever, but the story is too slow, too lacking in frisson, to really impact.

 

Category: Book Reviews