William Leith10 April 2012
Pure
by Andrew Miller
(Sceptre, £8.99)
Paris, 1785. The revolution looms. Andrew Miller takes us to a place that we know is about to explode. It's a place full of pomposity, arrogance and filth.
Miller is great; you can feel the energy. In fact, you can almost smell the pungency of the place. Think of Patrick Suskind's Perfume. Into this great wen comes our hero, Jean-Baptiste Barratte, an engineer from Normandy.
Summoned to the palace at Versailles, which is very weird, Barratte is asked to perform a horrible task - to get rid of a big cemetery in the middle of town, bodies and all. He accepts. He excavates, taking us deep into the city's putrid history. Compelling.
