Author(s): Banville, John

Fiction

A lyrical and haunting new work of fiction by one of Ireland's greatest writers. Alexander Cleave has never been able to rid himself of the feeling that he is in "a perpetual state of being watched" - even when alone. So he became an actor, and successfully performed his way through life until suddenly, at the peak of his career, he staggered off stage, never to return. Self-banished to his childhood home and cut off from his wife, Cleave begins to unravel the past and disinter his own identity. But his attempt to sift the accumulated clutter of half a century of existence is undermined by the house itself, brimming with lives, both ghostly and undeniably human. Memory constantly displaces Cleave's attention to the small, delicate details of the present. So too does his anxiety about the future, and the thought of his beloved but troubled daughter, Cass, tugging away at him like an undertow. This humane and beautifully written story tells the tragic tale of a man, intelligent, preposterous and vulnerable, who in attempting to bring the performance to a close, finds himself travelling inevitably towards a devastating denouement. John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. His first book, Long Lankin, was published in 1970. His other books are Nightspawn, Birchwood, Doctor Copernicus, Kepler, The Newton Letter, Mefisto, The Book of Evidence (which was shortlisted for the 1989 Booker Prize), Ghosts, Athena and The Untouchable. He lives in Dublin and is at work on his next novel, Shroud. Paperback