At its best, this book is an old-fashioned call to retrace our path, return to a more connected existence.London, the week before Christmas, 2007. Finn realises he wants to 'un-smoke it, go back to what as a child he'd called 'true life''. The first is when Veales' son, Finn, freaks out on skunk, a spliff riff that nails our empty obsession with altered states, whether drug-induced or found through the virtual realms offered by technology. However, there are two moments in this otherwise workmanlike novel that truly hit home.

Likewise, the exploration of the Koran's place in western life seems forced. He's funny, in a vitriolic way, but no more than a literary finger flip. For instance, the tale of Tranter, a bitchy book reviewer, is little more than a case of score-settling against literary hacks. Too often characters seem like cogs for the story's motor or for some self-indulgence. Too long on one character and your interest wanes in the others too little and you merely sketch the individual. Producing such a fractured narrative arrangement is a plate-spinning exercise. This 'six degrees of separation' structure allows for commentary on the many scummy distractions of the Noughties. A Week in December spins a web of narratives, using a broad cast of characters, over seven wintry London days in 2007. So it's no surprise to find him taking on the tried and tested state-of-the-nation novel here. Devil May Care was an expert piece of Fleming ventriloquism. It is for this ability to polish a literary mainstay that Faulks got the Bond gig last year. Likewise, there were plenty of tales of the French resistance before Charlotte Grey took up arms, and unreliable confessions ahead of Engleby's shifty tale. Birdsong, his master-piece, came in the wake of numerous Great War classics. Yet, for the most part, they take a traditional form, then refine it to the market's desire. His novels have pace, drama, suspense and often a clear vision of time and place.

For all his success, or perhaps as a result of it, Sebastian Faulks possesses a resolutely cynical approach to writing.

A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks