Allan’s almost-debut The Race is an odd beast of a novel – four parts that link together across ideas of reality and illusion, structured almost like a surrealist French film but in its bones a deeply British novel, of the working-class type whose loss has recently been lamented in the press: there are tones of James Kelman and Ken Loach running through it. The novel drifts in and out of a fictional world, and the style changes; this is a book you’ll want to read, and one you’ll want to read again. It’s short, dense, layered, powerful, and shouldn’t be missed.
