Ten of the best updates

For the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best updates--novels that retell a story previously told in a classic work of literature.

One book on the list:

Last Orders by Graham Swift

Four south London friends set out to obey the last wishes of their friend Jack and throw his ashes from the end of Margate pier. They tell their stories in dramatic monologues as they motor into Kent, recalling the structure and the events of William Faulkner's Modernist classic As I Lay Dying, set in Mississippi in the 1920s.

Read about another book on Mullan's list.

Last Orders won the 1996 Booker Prize: one judge thought a different book was more deserving.

For another take on updated novels, see: Twice-told tales.

--Marshal Zeringue