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After his wonderful Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, anything Paul Torday writes is sure to catch my attention. I was a little bit disappointed by The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce, and haven’t managed to lay my hands on The Girl on the Landing, but have been delighted by The Hopeless Life of Charlie Summers. Like Salmon Fishing, it has a cleverly woven plot that is neatly concluded in a very sad penultimate twist.

Charlie Summers is a loser, a small-scale con man, whose life becomes strangely connected with that of the novel’s narrator, Hector Chetwode-Talbot. Eck, as he is known to his friends, is dining with Henry, his one-time schoolfriend in the South of France when Charlie introduces himself and wanders into his life.

Eck later becomes involved in hedge funds and persuades Henry to risk his fine estate in a two million pound investment in the fund Eck is working for. The novel is set at the time of the financial collapse that affected us all …

A love story is intertwined with the main narrative and it is when the two threads, or the three if we count the sad meanderings of Charlie Summers, come to a head that the novel is really moving – a thought-provoker. A great read! You might even find yourself singing along with Charlie.

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