The Claimant by Janette Turner Hospital
In her terrific new novel, with what feels to be great delight, Janet Turner Hospital plays with personal histories and notions of identity to create a work based around the trial of the Vanderbilt family, seeking to establish the heir to their fortune. Turner Hospital is the type of author who takes an idea and explores all the ‘bits and bobs’ in great detail; in this way, the novel builds suspense slowly, hooking you in as the heir’s true identity is sought throughout the lengthy, twisting case. Set in New York, in the mid-90s, The Claimant explores one of the richest and most prestigious family names in the United States.
The narrator of The Claimant is an astute observer, and reading this novel is akin to reading a spy dossier, replete with an eccentric John le Carré-type character in the lead. Turner Hospital’s work always deals with the great mystery of humanity: what is real and important to one person is not to another. It makes this novel an extraordinarily good, thoroughly rollicking adventure.
