MAKING LOVE - A CONSPIRACY OF THE HEART

by Marius Brill

Doubleday, £12.99 497 pp ISBN 0385 605234 £10.49 (p&p £1.95) 0870 160 80 80

Where to start in describing Marius Brill's debut novel. which pitches itself as a "piece of postmodern madness"? First it seems necessary to say that it is narrated by a book, one that thinks, feels, and can't help falling in love with its readers.

That would be tricky enough, but this is also a very controversial book. The government was so concerned about the inflammatory nature of its contents that all copies were destroyed and the author was "disappeared". Except this one, that ended up in Shepherds Bush Library, where it was taken out by Miranda, a young woman of uncertain aspect and less certain prospects. All Miranda wants is to find romance. But the intelligence services want to track her down and find out what she has learnt from her reading.

Cut into this narrative are chapters from the book in question, as it posits its revolutionary theory about love. Making Love - A Conspiracy of the Heart is fantastic: hilarious, self-referential and occasionally self-indulgent verbal pyrotechnics, supported by a fecund imagination of the first order.

ANTHEA LAWSON