Published: October 1999, Alfred A. Knopf Genre: Fiction Themes: American lifestyle, broken relationships, mental health, teenagers, kindness My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤ While the library is closed, I'm re-reading some of the books from my shelves, and the advantage of this is that they are guaranteed to be good. I used to buy all my books from charity shops and generally I re-cycled them back to the shop, but if I really enjoyed something, I kept it. Plainsong is set in Colorado, America, in the 1980s, and the writing is so vivid and powerful that the story dragged me away from reality for hours at a time. Roddy Doyle's quote on the cover states that he read it in one sitting. 'I had no choice; it wouldn't let me go.' That's exactly how it is. There are no heroes and heroines in this book as a whole spectrum of good and bad behaviours are laid out in a raw and honest way. There is Guthrie the school teacher, who also works with livestock, and he is clearly...