The perfect man - Naeem Murr

'Murr's Booker longlisted novel is an eloquently constructed fiction... his verbal chiaroscuro of darkness and light, inky imagery and sun-dappled lyricism, creates a vision of lost innocence' Sunday Times At the age of five, Rajiv Travers, the child of an Indian mother and English father, finds himself shipped off to America to the house of his uncle's mistress, Ruth. The small town Ruth lives in turns out to be as exotic and strange to Rajiv as he is to its inhabitants. His close friendship with four local children helps him settle into his new life, but also leads to his discovery of a terrible secret that shadows the whole community. Ultimately, the children's changing desires and shifting loyalties, and the personal failings - and secrets - of the adults around them lead to tragic consequences..

'Doing for 1950s small-town America what The Last Picture Show did in film, Naeem Murr...has created a fully-fledged, self-contained world, with a vast array of characters, each quixotic and authentically flawed' Lionel Shriver, Financial Times

'Murr's prose bursts into flower, taking us straight to the passionate heart of his characters'

Independent on Sunday

'His vivid language adds a magical sheen'

Times Literary Supplement