Reversed Forecast — Nicola Barker

"Reversed Forecast" is a vivid snapshot of pre-gentrification London and a tale of finding love in less-than-scenic places. Chance meetings between its cast of inimitably odd individuals -- Ruby, the betting-shop cashier; violently disturbed (and disturbing) Vincent; Samantha, the would-be cabaret singer; and Little Buttercup, the never-quite-made-it greyhound -- result in the unlikeliest of couples. There's always the risk that it could all be disastrous as characters try -- or don't try -- to make winning combinations. But as Ruby, the story's soft-centered heroine, observes: “Losing, that's the whole point of the gamble.”

Dazzling, gritty, and surprising, "Reversed Forecast" is the uniquely entertaining first novel by Nicola Barker, previously shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and winner of the Hawthornden Prize and IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.