Books: The Restraint Of Beasts

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The novelty factor runs high with this first novel, nominated for a Booker Prize and written by a fellow who drives a big red London bus, and who, British newspapers feverishly reported, received a $1.6 million advance, which later turned out to be $16,000 (he still drives that bus). But this hilariously macabre tale of Tam and Richie, two Scottish fence builders who--once they can be dragged from their slovenly trailer, their cigarette breaks and their pub crawling--keep accidentally killing people on the job, marks a terrific debut. As the story veers into increasingly surreal territory--just who, or what, is that new fence Tam and Richie are building meant to keep in?--Mills makes the life of the manual laborer deadly but never dull.

--By Elizabeth Gleick