Tightrope

Author: Simon Mawer

Stock information

General Fields

  • : 25.00 NZD
  • : 9780349140742
  • : Little, Brown Book Group Limited
  • : Abacus
  • :
  • : 0.328
  • : February 2016
  • : 198mm X 125mm X 25mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : 27.99
  • : January 2016
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  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

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  • :
  • : Simon Mawer
  • : Marian Sutro Ser.
  • : Paperback
  • : 1
  • :
  • : English
  • : 823/.914
  • :
  • :
  • : 416
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Barcode 9780349140742
9780349140742

Description

From the author of the best-selling and Booker Prize-shortlisted The Glass Room and Trapeze


 


An historical thriller that brings back Marian Sutro, ex-Special Operations agent, and traces her romantic and political exploits in post-World War II London, where the Cold War is about to reshape old loyalties

As Allied forces close in on Berlin in spring 1945, a solitary figure emerges from the wreckage that is Germany. It is Marian Sutro, whose existence was last known to her British controllers in autumn 1943 in Paris. One of a handful of surviving agents of the Special Operations Executive, she has withstood arrest, interrogation, incarceration, and the horrors of Ravensbr ck concentration camp, but at what cost? Returned to an England she barely knows and a postwar world she doesn't understand, Marian searches for something on which to ground the rest of her life. Family and friends surround her, but she is haunted by her experiences and by the guilt of knowing that her contribution to the war effort helped lead to the monstrosities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the mysterious Major Fawley, the man who hijacked her wartime mission to Paris, emerges from the shadows to draw her into the ambiguities and uncertainties of the Cold War, she sees a way to make amends for the past and at the same time to find the identity that has never been hers.


 


A novel of divided loyalties and mixed motives, Tightrope is the complex and enigmatic story of a woman whose search for personal identity and fulfillment leads her to shocking choices.


 

Awards

Winner Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2016.

Reviews

A compelling Cold War story -- Sebastian Shakespeare Tatler Mawer is a skilful writer and this is a sophisticated, deviously constructed story of a woman who finds her true self in the distorting mirrors of the intelligence game -- Nick Rennison Sunday Times Mawer's evocation of poor, battered post-war London, still a drab city of thick and clammy fogs, is beautifully done. Likewise he handles his plot, moving back and forward in time, in masterly fashion ... Mawer blows the dust off the history and makes it matter as you read. He is one of the most accomplished novelists today -- Allan Massie Scotsman Simon Mawer is a true master of literary espionage ... Tightrope is gripping stuff Mail on Sunday Dazzling Daily Express SUtro is a singular creation - a fascinating and compelling character and the account of how she becomes caught up in Cold War espionage is enthralling Sunday Mirror Mawer sensitively evokes the crushing normality of postwar Britain ... intriguing, often lyrical The Times Tightrope is the perfect title for this absorbing, flawlessly constructed and memorable novel Choice [Marian Sutro is a] completely compelling character. The period atmosphere is done with perfect pitch, and the narrative is as taut as the title Tablet Mawer's period detail is perfect, and his prose impeccable -- Ian Sansom Guardian The closest thing to a female James Bond in English literature Guardian

Author description

Simon Mawer was born in 1948 in England, and spent his childhood there, in Cyprus and in Malta. He has lived with his wife in Italy for more than 20 years, and he teaches at the English School in Rome.