Lost Empress is a long, sprawling novel that defies any conventional sense of structure. It's a novel of ideas, some of which intersect and some of which overlap, but for the most part it reads like several separate narrative strands and holding the many characters in your head can be a challenge.

The most memorable strands are Nina and Nuno.

Nina is the daughter of the recently deceased owner of the Dallas Cowboys. She is surprised not to inherit the Cowboys but instead to inherit the Paterson Pork, an Indoor Football League team from New Jersey. Life has dealt her lemons and she sets out to make lemonade. With her comically inept sidekick Dia, she sets out to transform the fortunes of the IFL and thumb her nose at her brother, the new owner of the Cowboys.

Nuno is a remand prisoner in Rikers Island, notorious for committing some high profile crime that is not revealed until near the end of this very long work. Nuno gives us a sideways look at the American legal and penal systems while plotting something quite devious. Nuno is - or thinks he is - smarter than the typical prisoner and takes pride in turning every situation to his own advantage. His future looks bleak - LWOP - but he still seems to have some spark of hope,

Then there are a heap of side stories and B-list characters - prison guards, desperate alcoholic former football players, friends and neighbours, the great Paterson unwashed.

Overall I would say this is a comic novel - a satire on justice and American Football, sport and commerce. There is a heap of philosophy and sermonising. There are found documents - a reproduction of the Rikers Island prison rules, court transcripts, transcripts of 911 calls. Some dialogue is presented in script format. There are graphics (some of which don't translate well to e-readers). The pacing is crazy, with sections of wildly different lengths running from 88 down to zero with a prologue, a logue and an epilogue. It is a whole box of tricks. But by the end, the story does come together and there is an exciting denouement and it feels more like a conventional novel.

It is quite a trick - but not completely dissimilar to Sergio de la Pava's previous novel, A Naked Singularity - also highly recommended.

Just one thing, though. I sometimes feel that all American novels feature either the President or a prison. This one does both.

I loved "A Naked Singularity" but found this just too much to take and quite exhausting - but still exhilarating in parts - to read.

It ranges far and wide from character to character and topic to topic and the writer is immensely gifted but it is too long, complex and overblown and screams for an editor talented and strong enough to make decisive cuts.

At 300 pages it would have been brilliant, as it is I was left frustrated at an immense burgeoning talent that needs managing.

Ambitious, sprawling, bonkers, as Pava throws everything into this book from art heists to American Football and, oh yes, the meaning of time and life! Certainly inventive, this riffs on pretty much everything, and includes a veritable chorus of voices, sometimes in play-like dialogue format.

To be honest, this probably goes on too long for me, but the intellectual energy is palpable. A book you'll either love or hate.