Wide Open

Nicola Barker's Wide Open, which won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2000, is the first of her Thames Gateway novels. It is set on the Isle of Sheppey, a strange stretch of land jutting into the Thames estuary. Its offerings are a clothes-optional beach, a nature reserve and a farm raising wild boar, and little else. The scenery is grim, but the people are compelling.

At the centre of the story are Luke, who produces join-the-dots pornography, and Lily, a sharp-tongued and furious woman. They are joined by Jim, eight-year-old Nathan, and Ronnie, a mysterious character with dark eyes.

Each of them is swept along by powerful undercurrents, pulled by a past full of concealed truths. Redemption is possible only for those who can see past the lies and prejudices around them. The novel is about confronting the past and the fantasies people invent to shield their fragile inner selves.