The orchard on fire

The future of book publishing is definitely orange, judging by two of the Booker Prize contenders. Like Margaret Atwood’s latest opus, Shena Mackay’s tome offers a muted version of the fashionable shade. You can see why Button Design chose Cicely Brown’s flaming painting as an image bleeding off the hardback cover. The book’s protagonist is after all “red-headed Ruby, a publican’s daughter with a taste for flames”. But the overall concept and prim typeface don’t set you alight. Published by Heinemann, priced 12.99. a fine balance