Larry Watson – Algonquin Books  £21.99   $27.95 The Lives of Edie Pritchard is Larry Watson’s eleventh novel, and he is at the height of his powers. It is a big novel set in Larry’s back yard of the states where the Midwest becomes the West. We follow the heroine Edie through three points in her life from a young married woman through to her early old age and grandmotherhood, as she learns that she cannot escape from being the person that others need her to be. “When you’re back home you never have a chance to be someone other than who you were then. Even if you never were that person.” Even Tim can go a little bit fanboy when he gets to talk to one of his favourite novelists. Larry in Wisconsin and Tim in London talked via skype about brothers, guns, women, violence, and identity. Spoiler alert: Tim liked it.