LUCKENBOOTH Inside No 10

Luckenbooth largely eschews a conventional plot and structure, instead focusing on snapshots of the lives of nine people who live in the tenement over almost 100 years.

- Will Salmon

Author Jenni Fagan

Publisher William Heinemann

Sometimes a building just feels wrong, like it’s been tainted by the bad things that have happened within its walls.

That’s certainly true of 10 Luckenbooth Close, the Edinburgh tenement at the heart of Jenni Fagan’s third novel. Jessie, the Devil’s daughter, moves in during 1910. Despite her unholy heritage she is not evil. Still, something terrible happens to her, and echoes of the crime will be felt for decades to come.

Luckenbooth largely eschews a conventional plot and structure, instead focusing on snapshots of the lives of nine people who live in the tenement over almost 100 years. It’s an extraordinary cast of characters: as well as Jessie there’s a psychic medium, a murderous madam, and countercultural icon William Burroughs.

Burroughs is, in some ways, at the heart of the book. Like the cut-up technique that he pioneered, the stories here are chopped and spliced, with the book dancing back and forth between the decades and genres.