Reader's Choice

In Time's Arrow (Cape, £13.99 in the UK), Martin Amis challenged himself to write a life-story back to front

In Time's Arrow (Cape, £13.99 in the UK), Martin Amis challenged himself to write a life-story back to front. The principal character and narrator shares a body with Ted Friendly, an elderly American doctor. He shares his host's emotions but not his thoughts and is constantly trying to understand what is going on.

Once I had made sense of the fact that Ted is getting younger, rather than older, in each chapter, I went along happily with the concept. Everything happens in reverse. Doctors pay their patients and clocks go backwards. A clever book which catches the imagination.