The Long Rain by Peter Gadol contd Reviewed by Steve Rudd

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The Long Rain really is a fantastic story, saturated with elements of both thrilling and drama-driven varieties. What's more, it's much shorter than The Bonfire of the Vanities too. Still, that's not to suggest that The Long Rain should in any way, shape or form be deemed a worthy substitute for The Bonfire of the Vanities. If anything, both novels should be read, for both are truly brilliant novels that ultimately make you realise that it's fundamentally better to tell the truth sooner rather than later, however much the initial outcome might be feared... Without any science to back me up, I had come to believe this: somehow there was a connection between how you lived, how you behaved, and what happened to you, the turns your life took. I mean that if you were a moral person, a good person, generous and just, and if you helped the people around you in your universe, you would reap certain fortunes. Likewise, if you let a man go to jail for a crime that you yourself had committed, then your entire life would fall apart. So just be warned. (First published in 1998 by Wiedenfeld & Nicolson)

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