In the Kingdom of Air

Meet Giles Doughty - BBC weatherman ("There is no friend like the weather, no one so sure and so true..."), tireless and energetic middle-aged fornicator (with Monica, with Fleur of children's television fame, with the strangely mute Woman from Spain) and sexual gamesman, and a man in emotional flight from his past. His frantic sex life can't quite cover up the hole in his soul, the source of which is to be found in the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend (of sorts) Stella Muchmore during their near-idyllic British adolescence. Years later Giles's sister spots Stella in a railway bar in London, setting in motion events that will unfold a shocking secret - and perhaps redeem his very life. By turns corrosively funny, bracingly energetic, and deeply mysterious, In the Kingdom of Air brings to mind the work of writers as disparate as Martin Amis, John Irving, and John Fowles. It is equally effective in evoking such phenomena as the fury of the great British storm of 1987, the exotic beauty of flying boats and the countryside in which they are manufactured, or the pain of a brutally administered sexual revenge. Exhibiting all the lyricism, verve, and invention of a major new talent, Tim Binding's audacious debut novel truly soars.