Secrets and reality both unravel in John Banville’s portrait of a dark and disturbed relationship, which is doomed to disaster from the very start.

Axel Vander, distinguished intellectual and elderly academic, is not the man he seems. When a letter arrives out of the blue, threatening to unveil his secrets - and carefully concealed identity - Vander travels to Turin to meet its author. There, muddled by age and alcohol, unable always to distinguish fact from fiction, Vander comes face to face with the woman who has the knowledge to unmask him.

Longlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2002
Published by
Picador
Publication date
John Banville

John Banville

About the Author

John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland. His novel The Sea won the 2005 Booker Prize.
More about John Banville

Other nominated books by John Banville

The Sea
Prize winner
The Book of Evidence