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Marc Basset, who's made a name as the critic with the acid-tipped pen, finds himself driven to do something he's never done: apologize. And it feels so darn good, he decides to keep on doing it.
Soon, Basset is working for the United Nations, as their chief apologist, travelling the world apologizing to people he doesn't know for wrongs committed against them that he barely understands.
Rayner, a restaurant critic in London, somehow manages to make this absurd story credible, and the novel's a charming, offbeat comedy with a serious message: how many times can you say you're sorry, before you stop meaning it?
Speaking of absurd stories, here's In Your Dreams (Orbit, 474 pages, $16) by another Brit, Tom Holt, the master of the comic fantasy. Paul Carpenter gets an unexpected promotion at J.W. Wells & Co.,...