Tessa McWatt brings the traditional campus novel bang up to date, setting it in a modern London university where tenure is a thing of the past, “restructuring” is the watchword and everybody is worried about their job security; from film theory lecturer Robin, expecting a baby with a woman he no longer loves and lusting after Katrin, the Polish waitress in his local coffee shop, to Francine, an American administrator in quality assurance with troubles of her own.
Completing McWatt’s cast of five are Olivia, one of Robin’s students looking for a dissertation subject, and Ed, originally from Guyana, now employed by the council to oversee the burying of those without kin to do it for them. Celebrating the diversity of contemporary Londoners, McWatt’s polyphonic novel owes an obvious debt to Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, but nevertheless she manages to make this exuberant but bittersweet tale something all of her own.
Higher Ed is published by Scribe (£14.99). Click here to order it for £11.99
