Jubilate, By Michael Arditti

"Leaving the miraculous out of life is like leaving out the lavatory or dreams or breakfast," wrote Graham Greene. Judging from his fiction, Michael Arditti might share a similar credo.

Set in Lourdes, his seventh novel relates the course of a passionate affair between Gillian, a middle-aged woman accompanying her brain-damaged husband, Richard, on a pilgrimage, and Vincent, a film-maker fighting demons of his own. A nimble and ingenious storyteller, Arditti combines sober reflections on the nature of faith with moments of high comedy - including Vincent's attempts to locate a condom in Lourdes.