ELECTRIC BRAE
By
An odd climatic phenomenon that confuses the sensations of arising and descending proves the perfect metaphor for this eloquent portrayal of a doomed love affair, the first novel from a highly acclaimed Scottish poet. Deftly alternating omniscient and first-person narration, Greig vividly traces the stormy relationship between rough-hewn Jimmy Renilson, an offshore oil-rig engineer and passionate rock climber, and (much younger) Kiln Ruslawska, a gifted painter whose mercurial character has been shaped by a heritage of violence. Their unstable intimacies, together and apart, build inexorably toward Jimmy's bittersweet realization that ""we'd be connected till one of us huffed the other."" An excellent debut.