Remainder

Langton summons an impressive array of voices in his charmingly comic rendition of McCarthy's kaleidoscopic novel of transformation, including gruff Scotsmen, simpering Americans, and the deceptively reasonable-sounding protagonist who guides us through a London at once recognizable and strangely altered. The book's protagonist comes into a multimillion-pound windfall after being injured in an accident and finds that the money transforms not only his life but his very self. James Langton's voice is faintly tremulous, emulating McCarthy's tone of affable confusion, but proves itself surprisingly nimble, hopscotching from character to character, and mood to mood, with pleasing flexibility. A Vintage paperback. (Feb.)