Hansel Meets His Gretel - and She's an It-Girl ; Moths by Karl Manders CHATTO [Pound]12.99

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What is it about fathers and sons? For centuries writers have tackled their troublesome dynamic and the subject has consistently made pessimistic reading. It's refreshing, then, to find a pair in Karl Manders' debut, Moths, who spend most of the story apart, forged by their separate desires and intrigues, and who still remain emotionally bound together. Absence makes their hearts grow fonder in a way that you won't find in the pages of Mario Puzo or Turgenev. This is just one surprising aspect of this beguiling fable-like novel.

At the beginning of the book Cornelius van Baerle doesn't "much care for talk about moral obligation". However, in the precarious arena of …