Never has contemporary fiction been more widely discussed & passionately analysed; recent years have seen a huge growth in the number of reading groups & in the interest of a non-academic readership in the discussion of how novels work Drawing on his weekly Guardian column ' Elements of Fiction' John Mullan examines novels mostly of the last ten years many of which have become firm favourites with reading groups He reveals the rich resources of novelistic technique setting recent fiction alongside classics of the past Nick Hornby's adoption of a female narrator is compared to Daniel Defoe's; Ian Mc Ewan's use of weather is set against Austen's & Hardy's; Carole Shield's chapter divisions are likened to Fanny Burney's Each section shows how some basic element of fiction is used Some topics (like plot dialogue or location) will appear familiar to most novel readers; others (metanarrative prolepsis amplification) will open readers' eyes to new ways of understanding & appreciating the