The main character in John Lanchester’s new novel is a once down-at-the-heel London Street. In Capital (McClelland & Stewart/W.W. Norton), we spend a lot of time on Pepys Road, an ordinary street that’s about to undergo a big change. The book takes place at the height of the financial crisis, as the excesses of the first decade of the new millennium give way to the crash of 2008.
“I was