Five: A Novel reviewed by Anna Karras
- Anna Karras
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
Have you ever played this game: you’re sitting on the beach, or on a bench at the airport and you make up stories about the people walking by? You’ll probably never see this man or that woman again, and yet you are compelled to give them a family, an occupation, a backstory. This novel is set up like that.
The setting is a suburban London train station. It’s 7:00 a.m. and the train bound for Victoria is due to arrive in a few minutes. There are five people on the platform. When the train arrives, one of them will be dead.
As readers, we don’t know how or for what reason the death will happen, but that it will occur is a fact. The omniscient narrator gives us a bird’s eye view of the platform: there are two men, two women, and a small boy. As they wait for the train and interact with each other the narrator gives us a play-by-play as to their physical location, their activities, and their thoughts.
Interspersed between the short, anxious chapters describing the scene on the platform, the narrator visits each of the five in turn, filling in their backgrounds, giving them shape and dimension. One-by-one, we learn about Emma, Gideon, Matilda, Sonny, and Liam. As we learn about the lives that have all intersected at this moment on the platform, the narrator knows we are forming opinions and making judgments.
This novel is a taut ride into the station with our foreknowledge that one of the characters will not survive, and indeed, will probably not have an easy death. Bannister’s sharp and unsettling prose creates a compelling story that will keep readers turning the pages not just to find out who dies, but to find out if our favorite character will leave the train station on two legs. Because by the end, everyone will have a favorite. Even you.
∞ Author Profile
Ilona Bannister is a New York native, the child of Ukranian immigrants. She is dual qualified as a US attorney and a UK solicitor, and lives in London with her husband at two children. She is the author of three novels. You can find out more about her at ilonabannisterwrites.com
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