It was coincidence that I readGold, a novel whose main characters are Olympic-level cyclists, while the London Games have been on (I hadn't known what the book was about when I borrowed it from the Ath, which in any case was several weeks ago) - and, in fact, it's almost coincidental that it's about cycling, even though it really brings the stresses and rigours of the discipline to life (I never thought I'd be interested in a sport that just involves people going round and round a velodrome), because Cleave takes that premise and pushes hard on it to draw out the costs and trade-offs demanded by Life and the search for success in all its forms, zeroing in on the spaces and tensions that exist in so many close relationships; I'm not sure how psychologically acute it is in its rendition of the driven Zoe in particular, but there's a feel of truthfulness in how it renders her friendship/rivalry with Kate and the involvement of Kate's husband Jack - not to mention Kate and Jack's leukemia-struck daughter Sophie.
