COULD IT BE MAGIC?
By Paul Magrs
1998
First Published
4.00
Average Rating
328
Number of Pages
Part of Series
The ordinary inhabitants of a small-town council estate turn out to hold extraordinary secrets in Paul Magrs' strangely compelling novel, Could It Be Magic?. Set in the grey wastelands of the north-east, Magrs has looked beyond the ravages of boom and bust Britain—with its council ghettos and widespread unemployment—to reveal a community brimming with passions. At first glance, the leading characters are exceptional only in their Elsie, old before her time, weighed down by a crippled son and depressive husband, whose only solace lies in a bottle of gin; tattooed Mark, who spends his days bodybuilding and nights babysitting his ex-wife's new baby; Penny, who left school too soon and fills her house with students; Andy whose gay lover left him for a better life. But the arrival of Penny's Mam on New Year's Eve (with her own startling secret) sets off a chain of astonishing events. Fantasy mingles with the mundane until it's hard to know what to accept as commonplace and what to dismiss as trivial. A frisson of sexual energy sparks from council roof to satellite dish as Magrs' characters discover their innermost secrets and how to live life to the full. —Carey Green
Avg Rating
4.00
Number of Ratings
34
5 STARS
38%
4 STARS
35%
3 STARS
18%
2 STARS
6%
1 STARS
3%
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