Mark Watson (1) (1980–)

Once vidas tiene como protagonista a al DJ radiofónico Xavier Ireland, quien por las noches regala sabias palabras a londinenses insomnes y que por el día es un ser solitario cuyo único amigo es el locutor que le acompaña en su programa, bien intencionado pero sin sentido del humor y tartamudo.
Un día, un acto inconsecuente de Xavier desencadenará una serie de acontecimientos que transformarán la vida de once personas que nada tienen que ver con él. Y hasta es posible que en el camino, Xavier acabe encontrando lo que no sabía que andaba buscando…… (meer)

This was enjoyable enough as a quick read. I never found that the pace of the story changed though, and there were quite a few chapters / passages where nothing really happened. I thought Chas's story was a good one and I wish the story had focussed more on him, because I found Graham a little bit forgettable, and as though the story would have been just the same without him in it. I also wasn't sure if the main message of the story was about the things that go on in hotels, or about the progress of technology, which was a theme of the book that gradually took over, and I would have preferred it if it had stayed about the hotel and the human elements of the story. On the whole it wasn't a bad book, but I feel that there was something missing.… (meer)

This is a good story of Dominic Kitchen who is a Wedding photographer based in London.

This novel is written through the years of Dominic growing up to be an adult.
He is the youngest of 3 Children from North London.
His Dad is an Arsenal correspondent who reports on all the home games.
His Mother is a housewife.
Dominic doesn't get on with his brother Max but idolises his big sister Victoria.

Dominic is besotted by Victoria they call each other old boy and old girl.
Victoria marries a famous Cricketer, Max works for the Cricketers Dad and they all become super rich.
Dominic plods on with his Wedding photography work he is partners with Daley an older Irishman.
Their Dad slowly slides into dementia and eventually dies.
Dominic marries Lauren and they have a baby girl called Elizabeth.
Dominic and Victoria's relationship progresses to incest even though they both know its wrong and by this point he is married to Lauren.
They don't speak for years, to ashamed to admit what they have done. Slowly but surely Dominic becomes an alcoholic.

They eventually patch things up, Victoria is dying of cancer and she tells Dominic that they are actually half brother and sister as their mother had an affair. Dominic finds it hard to deal with her eventual loss.

Elizabeth is all grown up now and is due to marry her Uncle Max's assistant Roly, Dominic calls him Smooth face. She confesses to her Dad on the Wedding morning that she cant go through with it.
Dominic whisks her away from the House/Church.

The book finishes with an explanation telling Elizabeth about his life.

Easy to read, sad but very entertaining book.… (meer)

Well, that was different (for me at least): I think I expected that a novel by someone I know of as a comedian would be jokey – but it really isn’t. A four-decade saga of love and loss, secrets and lies. The butterfly effect (or as Douglas Adams would put it, the fundamental interconnectedness of all things) wherein a spur-of-the-moment moment decision or one made for selfish reasons can have huge long-term consequences for the lives of others. It all centres on the charismatic showman hotelier Howard York, as narrated in alternate chapters by his concierge/confidant, the steadfastly old-fashioned Graham Adam, and by the boy Chas, orphaned and blinded as a toddler by a fire in the hotel and subsequently adopted and raised by York. Their lives in and around the central-London Hotel are buffeted in various directions by the rise of the computer and the Internet, the New York and London terrorist attacks, and the London Olympic bid, and the ways all these events affect the actions and reactions of their different personalities, and the lives of the people they care for.… (meer)