Linger Awhile (Novel, 2006)
From the Bloomsbury blurb:
When Irving Goodman falls in love with Justine Trimble he is close to the end of his life and she's been dead for forty-seven years. Irving doesn't know how he's going to attain his heart's desire but he knows a man who does.
Justine was a star of 1950s black-and-white westerns, an expert horsewoman much admired for her seat, and when Istvan Fallok, a wizard of high technology, sees her in Irving's video of Last Stage to El Paso, he hi-techs Justine out of the videotape and into present-day Soho - in black-and-white. It's amazing what you can do with magnetised particles in a suspension of disbelief.
As any reader of Bram Stoker will know, blood is the (full-colour) life. Istvan is Justine's first donor but in order not to be walking around in black-and-white, she has to be topped up now and then by Irving and his friends and the odd passer-by. Not surprisingly, the curiosity of the police is soon aroused.
Things become a little complicated when Grace Kowalski brings a Justine Two into the picture. Where will this all end? Linger Awhile and find out.
Review quotes:
"Hoban is the best sort of genius. Far too interesting to be shortlisted for major prizes, far too dynamic to be condemned as a national treasure, he seems to write books for the sole purpose of making sense of life, while never being too bothered that it rarely does... if there's an author to be trusted to lead you in unexpected directions, Hoban is your man" - Patrick Ness, The Guardian
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