Ash Wednesday - Tapa dura

He's an actor, a director, he's young, good looking and he also writes books. Don't you just hate that? So Ethan Hawke's second novel, Ash Wednesday, is the kind of thing you approach hoping that it's going to be vapid, that he may have put a foot wrong. Fact is, he hasn't. This is the story of love on the edge, of volatile relationships and near terminal vanity, of recreational drugs, angst and a 69 Chevy Nova 370 four-barrel with mag wheels and a dual exhaust. Introspective, episodic and at times rambling, this is very definitely a book with a point of view, not a script-in-waiting - and a good one, too - and is being backed with all manner of promotional material, from national press to e-mail and Internet campaigns.

Two People, Three Lives, One Love Is there anything more terrifying than being in love? Jimmy Heartsock is so afraid of losing his love Christy, he is going A Wol from the army and chasing after her in order to propose marriage - in a frozen car park. Christy is terrified, not so much that she's going to have a baby, but because if she takes on Jimmy Heartsock, she may end up with two. How does anyone, ever, make it down the aisle? Can Jimmy stop looking vainly into mirrors, taking recreational drugs, or blaming his father for committing suicide - will he ver grow up? Can Christy stop feeling that their destiny together is to break each other's hearts, that there is a glass wall between her and the world and that her Texan politician father could avert any calamity - if only she deserved it? Are they a couple so afraid of falling, it would be easier to jump? Will they, won't they mess this thing up? As the unforgettable lovers drive across America, confronting family history, personal hangups and questions they've never even asked each other before - about faith, death and learning how to live - the reader is caught up in a sensationally moving, funny and nail-biting drama of love in our time.