Just finished this and enjoyed it immensely. Mixes up a lot of interesting ideas -- structuralism, post-modernism, multidimensional/multiple universe hypotheses etc; and the outer edges of the pages are in black! So I got really weird looks from people as I trotted round La Coruña. Mind you, I get those anyway.

One niggle: the epilogue, for anyone who reads science fiction, is a complete howler.

I haven't read her earlier work, but PopCo seems to be mentioned in the same glowing terms--although some point out similarities to "Cyptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson.

Having looked at some interviews. she doesn't like her very early novels because she was under a lot of pressure from her original publisher to write to order--with Canongate, who published "The End of Mr Y" she said she feels a lot more freedom.

I do think she's a gifted writer, and I'm going to pick up PopCo too.