Once vidas tiene como protagonista a al DJ radiofónico Xavier Ireland, quien por las noches regala sabias palabras a londinenses insomnes y que por el día es un ser solitario cuyo único amigo es el locutor que le acompaña en su programa, bien intencionado pero sin sentido del humor y tartamudo.
Un día, un acto inconsecuente de Xavier desencadenará una serie de acontecimientos que transformarán la vida de once personas que nada tienen que ver con él. Y hasta es posible que en el camino, Xavier acabe encontrando lo que no sabía que andaba buscando…

Wasn't sure what to expect from this book, you can never be sure about what tone a 'known' comedian is going to take. As it was, it was an interesting little book, Mark Watson has a nice turn of phrase and his sense of humour shows through in the way he writes.

So this is a book about coincidences and degrees of separation. It follows the intersecting lives of eleven people over eleven chapters and the main character is Xavier Ireland (XI.... ok the eleven thing was a bit heavy handed).

Xavier is a late night DJ covering the graveyard spot of the wee small hours when the depressed and/or sleepless are the only audience. He works with a sidekick (Murray) and acts as some sort of agony uncle. The thing is, he's running from something in his past - he's really an Aussie called Chris.

As the book progresses we learn a little more about him and eventually find out why he's running. The other characters all come into play following one incident concerning Xavier - what he does/doesn't do has a domino effect through their lives.

OK, some of it was a bit heavy handed, the eleven thing, the way the author feels the need to re-cap from time to time: because Xavier did this, then this, that and the other followed on etc., but on the whole, it was captivating enough to read through to the end and the author does have some nice phrases in there:

"The air is cold to the touch like cutlery in a forgotten drawer"

"Then there are the sounds made by the building itself: its creaks, sighs and rattles as the central heating shuts down and comes to life again, as its fibres contract and expand minutely in the cooling and warming air, as if it were an old, mentally absent invidvidual muttering to itself as the night went by."

"She has a Geordie accent which rips the consonants off the ends of words, and sometimes kidnaps them from the middle."

"Outside the five minute format, problems are far less tractable, turn out to have clauses and caveats, change shape like ink in water."

Not bad for a first novel. The kindle edition has an extract of his next one, but I've not got round to reading that yet - maybe that's a clue as to how I feel about it? ( )

"A lighthearted and well-written look at the struggle of deciding how involved to get in other people's lives. An Australian runs away to England after a tragic event & becomes a host of a radio talk show. He falls in love with his cleaning woman -- a wonderfully portrayed characster. She encourages him to not just be a bystander in life & help the people around him. He then has to experience the consequences of getting involved. ( )

Great basic idea of complexity of people and situations being interconnected (as they always are, only if you know where to look) combined with a narrator that knows what will happen even in far future, but only when the plot allows him to tell us withour any spoilers...it was a great read, very funny at times, sad at others and would surely make a great xmas movie à la mode of Love, actually. ( )

I’m always a bit prejudiced when it comes to authors who are already famous for doing other things – thinking maybe their writing doesn’t have to be as good as an unknown person’s would have to be to secure a publishing deal. These fears proved to be out of place here, though, as the writing was superb. And despite being written by a comedian, humour is not its main concern. It has drama, romance, real life, and a fair bit of tragedy. There are funny bits – the image of the person’s gut “imposing itself through an inadequate tuxedo like someone mooning through curtains” was a particular highlight – but essentially this is just an excellent story.

The book is all about connections between people, and the reverberations from an event which affect other people, moving outwards like the ripples on a pond. There are many interlinked stories and miniature dramas. All are told in a wonderfully readable style.

At the heart of the book is a chain of events, set off by the main character, more by what he doesn’t do than by what he does. To be honest I would challenge anyone to act differently, so I thought some of the subtle moralising a bit unfair, but I loved the business of the story, and the vast array of believable characters. Turns out that this author has written more books - what excellent news. ( )