Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford is the author’s second novel following his 2016 debut Golden Hill. Set in the fictional south London borough of Bexford, it imagines the lives of five people at 15-year intervals over the second half of the 20th century if they hadn’t been killed by a V2 rocket at a Woolworths shop in 1944 when they were children (based on a real attack in New Cross). There is a lot packed in with the highs and lows of the lives of all five characters across an important period of social history in Britain. However, as a work of speculative fiction, it’s a bit unsatisfying because Spufford doesn’t introduce any other alternative “what if?” paths for the characters other than their fate in the first chapter. I can see the point Spufford tries to make about all the things the characters go on to do in their lives, but the concept doesn’t strike me as entirely necessary. Without the knowledge that they could have been snuffed out in an alternative life, it is simply a novel about five people all from the same area of London. Many thanks to Faber and Faber for sending me a review copy via NetGalley.