Shuttlecock - Couverture souple

Swift, Graham

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0330353713 ISBN 13 : 9780330353717

Editeur : Picador, 1999

Synopsis

Prentis, senior clerk in the 'dead crimes' department of police archives, is becoming more and more confused. Alienated from his wife and children, and obsessed by his father, a wartime hero now the mute inmate of a mental hospital, Prentis feels increasingly unsettled as his enigmatic boss, Mr Quinn, turns his investigation towards him - and his father. Gradually Prentis suspects that his father's breakdown and Quinn's menacing behaviour are connected and the link is to be found in his father's memoirs, "Shuttlecock". 'Excellent, profound' - Alan Hollinghurst, "London Review of Books". 'An astonishing study of forms of guilt, laced with a thread of detection, and puckering now and then into outrageous humour' - "Sunday Times". 'A superbly written claustrophobic account of power that corrupts private and public life and of guilt that becomes obsession' - "Daily Telegraph". 'Swift's central strength as a writer is his integrity. Story and character are treated with a seriousness and respect that while allowing for the oddity of human behaviour - "Shuttlecock" is thoroughly and beautifully odd - always honours them' - "Times Literary Supplement". 'Serious, moving and often very funny indeed' - "Observer".

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Prentis, the narrator of this nightmarish novel, catalogs "dead crimes" for a branch of the London Police Department and suspects that he is going crazy. His files keep vanishing. His boss subjects him to cryptic taunts. His family despises him. And as Prentis desperately tries to hold on to the scraps of his sanity, he uncovers a conspiracy of blackmail and betrayal that extends from his department and into the buried past of his father, a war hero code-named "Shuttlecock"--and, lately, a resident of a hospital for the insane.

Biographie de l'auteur

Graham Swift was born in 1949 in London, where he still lives and works. He is the author of six novels, including the acclaimed Waterland, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Guardian Fiction Award. His most recent novel, Last Orders, won the 1996 Booker Prize and was an international bestseller. Graham Swift's work has been translated into more than twenty languages.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Picador
• Date d'édition: 1999
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0330353713
• ISBN 13: 9780330353717
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 224
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible