All Along the Echo: One of the best novels of 2022 The Telegraph, *****
English
By (author): Danny Denton
'A cyclone of a novel' Guardian
'An absolute marvel' Max Porter, bestselling author of Lanny
'Dancing and dodging, surprising and poignant' Lisa McInerney, bestselling author of The Rules of Revelation
Tony Cooney, a middle-aged radio talk-show host, takes a road trip across Ireland with his producer, Louise (Lou) Fitzpatrick, as part of a publicity stunt organized by a local car dealership. Their aim is to give away to one lucky winner the Mazda 2 that they're driving, the catch being that it must go to one of the many emigrants who have recently returned home to escape a wave of escalating terror attacks in London.
But as they navigate dual-carriageways and Holiday Inns, giving airtime and narrative to the great cacophony of voices calling into the show, the car competition transforms into a surreal quest - Tony to find his first love, Lou to find answers to impossible questions, all of us to discover whether our lives ever add up to more than the stories we tell ourselves and each other.