Iris Murdoch explores the fragility of relationships. Thirty years is plenty of time for friends to change their opinions. Not least of each other
The Nice and the Good
Written by Iris Murdoch
- Shortlisted
- The Booker Prize 1969
- Published by Chatto & Windus
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A government official lies dead - but awkward questions around his supposed suicide remain in Iris Murdoch’s thriller-meets-romantic comedy
On a hot summer day, a shot rings through a Whitehall office. An official has apparently shot himself, but the circumstances are questionable - prompting Octavian Gray, head of the department, to investigate. Lawyer John Ducane is charged with leading the task, while at the same time he attempts repeatedly - and unsuccessfully - to break up with his mistress. When Ducane travels to Gray’s Dorset home everything becomes even more mysterious. Because nothing is quite as it seems.
Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin and made her writing debut with Under the Net in 1954. She wrote 26 novels and several books of philosophy
More about Iris Murdoch Other nominated books by Iris Murdoch
Through the spiritual trials of two troubled stepbrothers, Iris Murdoch conducts an inventive allegorical exploration of morality
Iris Murdoch turns her microscopic gaze on vanity and obsession in her 19th novel, which won the Booker Prize in 1978
Iris Murdoch’s 15th novel is part-thriller, part-love story: a book that explores the intricacies and inconsistencies of human relationships
Obsessed with spiders and preoccupied with death, an old man lies at the centre of Iris Murdoch’s intricate web of relationships and passions
An exploration of love and its excesses, missteps, and modest triumphs.
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