This week I had to turn to the one book on my shelves that I hadn't read because I haven't been well enough to get to the library to stock up. I've had some sort of virus that may or may not have been Covid, but I'm pretty much over it now and I can get back to library books next week. This one came from the bowls club second hand bookshelf and it cost me all of 25p. The publication date inside is 2016, which is pretty recent for anything on the club shelves as most of the other books have had several anniversaries since arriving and should really go in the recycling bin. The Gustav Sonata has a certain oddness or otherness about it that I can't quite define, but I know I am not like the people in the book. I don't know if Rose Tremain always writes in such a clinical style, or whether she adopted that way of writing to suit the characters, but it's precise and unfussy in a way that seems right for Swiss people. At the start of the book Gustav is a litt...