The Rocks.

Here's another good summer read - The Rocks by Peter Nichols.

Set on the island of Mallorca the book opens in 2005 with a chance meeting and violent argument between 80 year old Gerald and his ex wife Lulu. 

Subsequent chapters work backwards in time, telling the story of their extended families to finally reveal the incident that caused them to split up.

The Rocks is the name of a small guest house owned by Lulu and frequented by well to do, louche British expats and although the characters here are all a little over the top they are well developed and credible. There are some rather ridiculous names and TBH I found most of the older characters to be pretty unlikeable -  there's a lot of them too which I found a little confusing at first. However the island and the lifestyle are portrayed very well and I enjoyed reading about boats and yachts that were written about in a way that was factually correct.

There's some great writing and storytelling in this book. 

I did find that the way of telling the tale backwards was a little annoying in a couple of instances as you already knew the outcome of a couple of the chapters because of what went on before. But overall I found it to be a complex yet intriguing story well told with very evocative writing.

Recommended.