"Symposium", by Muriel Spark

Novel, 1990

Wonderful satire offering flashbacks of a group of largely unlikable acquaintances trying to work through burglaries, prejudices, wills and weddings. This slim book starts at a cracking pace, landing the reader right into the story, but manages to build with a horror and focus sharpening towards a clever conclusion. This is a book containing a wonderfully eccentric collection of nuns, mad uncles and thieves and really grips the reader and builds a thick, stimulating atmosphere. Not a particularly cuddly read, but an enthralling one all the same.