{"id":6161,"date":"2015-09-07T11:48:12","date_gmt":"2015-09-07T11:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=6161"},"modified":"2015-09-14T11:24:10","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T11:24:10","slug":"the-divers-clothes-lie-empty-by-vendela-vida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=6161","title":{"rendered":"The Diver\u2019s Clothes Lie Empty By Vendela Vida"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Published by Atlantic Books 17 September 2015 <\/strong><\/p>\n

224pp, hardback, \u00a314.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Alison Burns<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to buy this book<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Award-winning Vendela Vida\u2019s latest novel, a comical-fantastical tale of lost identity and impersonation, is set in present-day Casablanca.<\/p>\n

The unnamed central character, referred to as \u2018You\u2019, has left her husband and travelled here from Miami.\u00a0 Upon arrival, even as she is checking in at her hotel, she loses her backpack containing her passport, credit cards, money, camera and computer.\u00a0 Farcically unhelpful police procedure leads her into accepting another woman\u2019s backpack and ID.\u00a0 From here on, she gets in ever deeper, assuming new identities whenever she is about to be cornered.<\/p>\n

She is 33, hypersensitive about her scarred complexion, and a deep-sea diver by choice (people can\u2019t see your face).\u00a0 When she is invited by an on-location film director to replace the leading lady\u2019s sacked stand-in, she can\u2019t believe her luck: this is work paid in cash, with nothing to do except wear a wig and look (at a distance) like a film star.<\/p>\n

When the film star asks her to stand in for her in real life, to take her place and go out for dinner with an infatuated Russian businessman, life begins to get complicated.\u00a0 On the morning after the night before, her brain \u2018feels like it has just been broken into seven continents\u2019.\u00a0 Paparazzi have photographed her falling-down-drunk.\u00a0 She has to get out.\u00a0 Almost incredibly, she wriggles out of all her current identities and makes a dash for it.<\/p>\n

We are told what it is she has run away from at home.\u00a0 Anyone might have run from it.\u00a0 As one of the film-star\u2019s bodyguards tells her, \u2018Extreme circumstances require radical change.\u00a0 If you want to survive at least.\u2019<\/p>\n

Immediately riveting, and outrageously funny, The Diver\u2019s Clothes Lie Empty <\/em>takes a nightmare scenario and gives it everything she\u2019s got.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Alison Burns<\/p>\n

The unnamed central character, referred to as \u2018You\u2019, has left her husband and travelled here from Miami. Upon arrival, even as she is checking in at her hotel, she loses her backpack containing her passport, credit cards, money, camera and computer. Farcically unhelpful police procedure leads her into accepting another woman\u2019s backpack and ID. From here on, she gets in ever deeper, assuming new identities whenever she is about to be cornered […] in Reviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-fiction-and-non-fiction","category-notable-books","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6161"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6227,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6161\/revisions\/6227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}