John Banville’s novel is the compelling confession of an unlikely killer. To what extent is this darkly poetic admission of guilt actually ‘true’?

The first-person prison testimony of Freddie Montgomery - convicted for the ghastly and seemingly motiveless kidnap and murder of a young woman. Trying to make sense of the crime that destroys life - and the career of the friend who unwittingly harbours him - Freddie’s monologue is also an attempt to come to terms with forty years of aimless drifting and dissolution, and to find some glimpse of order in an apparently random world.

Shortlisted
The Booker Prize 1989
Published by
Secker & Warburg
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
Shroud