Yesterday I read Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson. I guess it follows in the footsteps of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon, in that it gives a voice (in the form of a narrator's inner-voice) to a character who cannot vocalise their thoughts and observations. The great strength of the novel is that allowing the reader access to Grace's inner voice is the only artifice or conceit employed by Henderson. This makes accepting the reality of Grace's voice relatively easy (and made easier still by the very distinctive authorial voice she conjures). Had we also to cope with, for example the 'unreliable narrator' it could easily have got too much.
The structure is almost entirely chronological, and structured like a memoir. There is plenty of narrative tension, without resort to any trickery beyond good, clever writing. In fact, the lack of sensationalism in the plotting allows the winning and unusual aspect of the novel - that unique, normally unheard authorial voice - to create and inhabit its own space, and ultimately leave a lasting impression.
This is an incredibly clever novel in that it does not leave you 'wow'-ing at bold narrative strokes, but instead creates a character and a voice which seem to add something to the experience of having encountered people like Grace, both problemmatising and enhancing their personhood. This is a wonderful example of the way in which a novel can alter, just slightly, the way in which you parse the world.
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