In Dietland fat is, as ever, a feminist issue. Plum Kettle has been battling with her weight for years, suffering the joyless regimes of the big weight-loss companies to no avail. Plum’s real name is Alicia, and she identifies Alicia as the beautiful, slim woman trapped inside plump Plum. Perhaps the gastric-band surgery Plum’s saving for will finally release Alicia?

While Plum’s life is routine and grey, limited by the world’s scorn for the overweight, elsewhere in the US a terrorist cell known as “Jennifer” starts to take murderous revenge on men who have abused women. By means of violent threats Jennifer also starts to enforce drastic changes to the way women are portrayed in the media. Plum’s job answering agony letters for a teenage magazine underscores the book’s lineage back to The Bell Jar, while the chapter headings point up links to the looking-glass world of Alice in Wonderland. The writing style is muted but the momentum of Plum’s “rescue” and Jennifer’s reign of terror sweeps the narrative along and the reader with it. A book with a message, loud and clear.

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