Remember Her Name

This could well be the best American novel of the year.

And it is written by a bloke from Yorkshire.

A ten year old girl is abducted from a small island off the coast of Newfoundland. She winds up in a converted nuclear bunker beneath an isolated ranch in Arizona.

Her captor, Thurman Hayes, is a troubled young man who has been on the receiving end of a deeply unpleasant upbringing. He subjects Zoe to an horrific and prolonged ordeal. These are not nice things that are going on.

The book is in three chunks. It kicks off in Arizona, giving us a glimpse of Thurman's family life and what may have driven him to such a terrible crime.

It then jumps to Newfoundland, covering the periods before and after Zoe's disappearance, although it doesn't actually dwell on the abduction itself.

And finally, we return to the ranch where Thurman keeps Zoe under lock and key.

This is going to seem odd given the difficult and uncomfortable subject matter but Forgetting Zoe is a beautiful book. Disturbing, certainly, but very very beautiful. It swept me away with its haunting prose. The aftermath of the abduction is particularly moving stuff. And the way the author has captured the cadence and style of American writers is quite frightening. He is one hell of a talented writer. The bastard.

Ray Robinson has a remarkable skill for conveying hard content with grace and a light touch. His first book, Electricity, managed to get inside the mind of a young woman with epilepsy. His follow up, The Man Without, featured a transvestite who was partial to a bit of auto-erotic asphyxiation. Both are stunning novels that rightly received considerable critical acclaim.

Forgetting Zoe is his best yet. I would be very surprised if you don't find it gracing some big literary prize shortlists in the year ahead. It is banker for my top ten of the year and I suspect many of you will think the same thing once you have read it.

It is published in June. It is worth the wait, believe me.