TOMMY THE BRUCE

Voici Tommy Bruce - il est déjà bien mal en point, coincé dans un hôtel délabré hérité de parents décédés, trop loin de la principale route touristique pour être viable. Il est trop jeune pour être d'âge moyen, mais trop vieux pour être ce que l'on pourrait appeler jeune. Accablé de dettes, et d'une solitude paralysante, Tommy s'abîme lentement mais résolument dans l'alcool.

Meet Tommy Bruce, an anti-hero as unlike his historical namesake as could be imagined – very nearly spineless and not at all the man to save himself, until you push him too far... Tommy Bruce is washed-up in a ramshackle hotel inherited from dead parents in the armpit of Perthshire. Saddled with debt, grotty premises that are falling down around him, and a crippling loneliness, Tommy is slowly but determinedly drinking himself.

Until one day, out of the blue, Fiona McLean blows into Tommy's life and the hotel. With the light she brings, Tommy's fortunes might just be turning around. But in her wake has also slipped in darkness – names and faces from the past who mean Tommy no goodwill at all, criminal forces that threaten to ruin him.

Tommy The Bruce - James Yorkston - 9780857305947 - 15.9€