JAMIE BRITTON recommends that we all buy at least two copies of a remarkable book of poems
A Normal Life
by Vassilis Palaiokostas
Freedom Press £15
“HOW can you slow down when you’re driving a Lada Niva on a wet highway, and there’s a deadly roadblock in front of you?” writes Greek bank robber and fugitive Vassilis Palaiokostas, describing how he raced towards the cops at full throttle in the rain.
“Obviously, the Bolsheviks had never imagined car chases in Parga, Epirus [north-west Greece] when they revolted. The Lada, communist feat that it was, was not made for such dangerous missions.”
After zooming past the roadblock at 75mph, soaking the cops in the processes, Palaiokostas saw four police officers take off after him in an Alfa Romeo.
Peter Murrell’s weakness for the allure of prestige goods is symptomatic of modern consumer culture, says MATT KERR
PETER MASON is gripped by a novel that confronts corporate callousness with those prepared to act to bring about change
MICHAL BONCZA, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review The Other Way Around, Modi: Three Days On The Wing Of Madness, Watch The Skies, and Superman
RON JACOBS welcomes a survey of US punk in the era of Reagan, and sees the necessity for some of the same today


