Books: The Restraint Of Beasts

The novelty factor runs high with this first novel, nominated for a Booker Prize and written by a fellow who drives a big red London bus, and who, British newspapers feverishly reported, received a $1.6 million advance, which later turned out to be $16,000 (he still drives that bus). But this hilariously macabre tale of Tam and Richie, two Scottish fence builders who–once they can be dragged from their slovenly trailer, their cigarette breaks and their pub crawling–keep accidentally killing people on the job, marks a terrific debut. As the story veers into increasingly surreal territory–just who, or what, is that new fence Tam and Richie are building meant to keep in?–Mills makes the life of the manual laborer deadly but never dull.

–By Elizabeth Gleick