John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. His first book, Long Lankin, was published in 1970. His other books are Nightspawn, Birchwood, Doctor Copernicus, Kepler, The Newton Letter, Mefisto, The Book of Evidence (which was shortlisted for the 1989 Booker Prize), Ghosts, Athena, The Untouchable, and Eclipse. He lives in Dublin.
“Hypnotic. . . . As much as any author today, [Banville]
demonstrates the continuing relevance of words like ‘artistry’ and
‘masterpiece.’”
—The New York Times Book Review
“The style—the voice—is a phenomenon, a wonder in itself. . . .
Shroud is full of . . . secrets that change everything once you
notice them. . . . Dazzling.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Glittering, far-reaching intelligence. . . . Sentences,
paragraphs, pages that by their exact and passionate beauty
transport the reader and make the world new.” —The Boston Globe
“A seductive narrator. . .a writer of fastidious skill who captures
the most delicate registers of feeling and mood with an often
sublime precision.” —Newsday
“A virtuoso tale of grief, loss and salvation. His dazzling
lyricism and extraordinary language resonate long after the story
ends. . . . This dreamlike novel . . . glows with the subdued
brilliance of its author’s searching intellect. The long stretches
of breathtaking prose, addictive and illuminating, are what make
this Shroud just shy of miraculous.” —The Oregonian
“A ravishingly beautiful writer. His prose is clean and unfussy. .
.and his images and metaphors have a visionary keenness that’s
almost violent; they strike the readers like
blows.” —Salon
“Shroud shocks its reader. . . . It throbs along powerfully . . .
until out of nowhere a beautiful sentence stops things cold.
Banville’s prose is thick and sumptuous.” —Entertainment
Weekly
“Can only be called a page-turner. . .what propels the reader’s
fascination and admiration is the brilliance of its art.” —St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
“Banville. . . [has] an allusive, alliterative prose style; a sly
sense of humor; a meditative intelligence drawn to art and
artifice; an appraiser’s eye that seeks out the odd corners of
beauty in this world but reserves a disdainful glance for its
conventions. . . . An unlikely and affecting story of redemption.”
—Houston Chronicle
“A work of fiction with . . imaginative ambition and integrity.”
—The Washington Post Book World
“John Banville is a master of narrative, language and imagery. His
fictional characters . . . have daunting intellectual and
individual breadth. . . . The author’s gift is the taut examination
of characters as they hold their own disquieted review of
themselves. His prose is eloquent and his language reverberates
with clarity.” —Rocky Mountain News
“As much potboiler mystery as it is intellectual tour de force. . .
. As a meditation on the nature of personal identity, indeed on the
meaning of truth, Shroud is a masterpiece.” —Fort Worth
Morning Star-Telegram
“Every sentence of Shroud is thrilling with Nabokovian wit, sorrow
and beauty.” —The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
“Difficult to resist. . .Banville has always been a sumptuous
writer, but his love for the Jamesian sentence seems especially
well-suited here.” —The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Almost every one of his gorgeous sentences has the brooding,
propulsive power of the heavens above his narrator’s lost Belgian
home. . . . Banville weaves a haunting, lingering tale of a soul
forever severed from its own identity.” –Seattle Weekly
“Hallucinatory. . .His skill at not losing us along the way is
simply extraordinary. So is his prose, which, like Shroud, is
hypnotic.” –Delaware News-Journal
“Narratively performs the very theory it allegorizes. The story
engages quite suspensefully. His diction and command of language .
. . are nothing short of genius.” –The Mobile Register
“Part mystery, part epistemological jigsaw puzzle, part
black-comedy. . . We’re treated, on nearly every page, to the
pleasure of a formidable writer’s fresh take on age-old themes: the
nature of self and the limits of love.” –LA Weekly
“I am grateful for what I discovered [in Shroud], grateful for
watching a deeply moral writer at the top of his game, grateful for
having known a literary character far more intimately that most
‘real people’ I have met. It will. . .amaze you.” –Huntsville
Times
“In this mesmerising novel, taut with intelligence, compassion and
wit, Banville has once again worked his extravagant alchemy,
transmuting this prose of the familiar world into the poetry of
revelation and renewal.” —Independent on Sunday
“In beautiful, lucid prose, John Banville describes a tragedy so
strongly rooted in history and character that, like all real
tragedies, it could not happen otherwise.” —The Times (London)
“Morally gripping as it is, Shroud is still a Banville performance,
playing brilliantly with language in the gap between actuality and
perception . . . Shroud will not easily be surpassed for
combination of wit, moral complexity and compassion. It is hard to
see what more a novel could do.” —The Irish Times
Alex Vander is a fraud, big-time. An elderly professor of literature and a scholarly writer with an international reputation, he has neither the education nor the petit bourgeois family in Antwerp that he has claimed. As the splenetic narrator of this searching novel by Banville (Eclipse), he admits early on that he has lied about everything in his life, including his identity, which he stole from a friend of his youth whose mysterious death will resonate as the narrator reflects on his past. Having fled Belgium during WWII, he established himself in Arcady, Calif., with his long-suffering wife, whose recent death has unleashed new waves of guilt in the curmudgeonly old man. Guilt and fear have long since turned Vander into a monster of rudeness, violent temper, ugly excess, alcoholism and self-destructiveness. His web of falsehoods has become an anguishing burden, and his sense of displacement ("I am myself and also someone else") threatens to unhinge him altogether. Then comes a letter from a young woman, Cass Cleave, who claims to know all the secrets of his past. Determined to destroy her, an infuriated Vander meets Cass in Turin and discovers she is slightly mad. Even so, he begins to hope that Cass, his nemesis, could be the instrument of his redemption. Banville's lyrical prose, taut with intelligence, explores the issues of identity and morality with which the novel reverberates. At the end, Vander understands that some people in his life had noble motives for keeping secrets, and their sacrifices make the enormity of his deception even more shameful. This bravura performance will stand as one of Banville's best works. (Mar. 10) Forecast: As literary editor of the Irish Times, Banville is better known in Europe than in the U.S. Discriminating readers are the market for his 13th novel, which should figure among the literary prizes for 2003. Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
"Hypnotic. . . . As much as any author today, [Banville]
demonstrates the continuing relevance of words like 'artistry' and
'masterpiece.'"
-The New York Times Book Review
"The style-the voice-is a phenomenon, a wonder in itself. . . .
Shroud is full of . . . secrets that change everything once
you notice them. . . . Dazzling." -Los Angeles Times Book
Review
"Glittering, far-reaching intelligence. . . . Sentences,
paragraphs, pages that by their exact and passionate beauty
transport the reader and make the world new." -The Boston
Globe
"A seductive narrator. . .a writer of fastidious skill who captures
the most delicate registers of feeling and mood with an often
sublime precision." -Newsday
"A virtuoso tale of grief, loss and salvation. His
dazzling lyricism and extraordinary language resonate long after
the story ends. . . . This dreamlike novel . . . glows with the
subdued brilliance of its author's searching intellect. The long
stretches of breathtaking prose, addictive and illuminating, are
what make this Shroud just shy of miraculous." -The
Oregonian
"A ravishingly beautiful writer. His prose is clean and unfussy. .
.and his images and metaphors have a visionary keenness that's
almost violent; they strike the readers like blows." -Salon
"Shroud shocks its reader. . . . It throbs along
powerfully . . . until out of nowhere a beautiful sentence stops
things cold. Banville's prose is thick and sumptuous."
-Entertainment Weekly
"Can only be called a page-turner. . .what propels the reader's
fascination and admiration is the brilliance of its art." -St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
"Banville. . . [has] an allusive, alliterative prose style; a sly
sense of humor; a meditative intelligence drawn to art and
artifice; an appraiser's eye that seeks out the odd corners of
beauty in this world but reserves a disdainful glance for its
conventions. . . . An unlikely and affecting story of redemption."
-Houston Chronicle
"A work of fiction with . . imaginative ambition and integrity."
-The Washington Post Book World
"John Banville is a master of narrative, language and imagery. His
fictional characters . . . have daunting intellectual and
individual breadth. . . . The author's gift is the taut examination
of characters as they hold their own disquieted review of
themselves. His prose is eloquent and his language reverberates
with clarity." -Rocky Mountain News
"As much potboiler mystery as it is intellectual tour de force. . .
. As a meditation on the nature of personal identity, indeed on the
meaning of truth, Shroud is a masterpiece." -Fort Worth
Morning Star-Telegram
"Every sentence of Shroud is thrilling with Nabokovian wit,
sorrow and beauty." -The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
"Difficult to resist. . .Banville has always been a sumptuous
writer, but his love for the Jamesian sentence seems especially
well-suited here." -The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"Almost every one of his gorgeous sentences has the brooding,
propulsive power of the heavens above his narrator's lost Belgian
home. . . . Banville weaves a haunting, lingering tale of a soul
forever severed from its own identity." -Seattle Weekly
"Hallucinatory. . .His skill at not losing us along the way is
simply extraordinary. So is his prose, which, like Shroud,
is hypnotic." -Delaware News-Journal
"Narratively performs the very theory it allegorizes. The story
engages quite suspensefully. His diction and command of language .
. . are nothing short of genius." -The Mobile Register
"Part mystery, part epistemological jigsaw puzzle, part
black-comedy. . . We're treated, on nearly every page, to the
pleasure of a formidable writer's fresh take on age-old themes: the
nature of self and the limits of love." -LA Weekly
"I am grateful for what I discovered [in Shroud], grateful
for watching a deeply moral writer at the top of his game, grateful
for having known a literary character far more intimately that most
'real people' I have met. It will. . .amaze you." -Huntsville
Times
"In this mesmerising novel, taut with intelligence,
compassion and wit, Banville has once again worked his extravagant
alchemy, transmuting this prose of the familiar world into the
poetry of revelation and renewal." -Independent on
Sunday
"In beautiful, lucid prose, John Banville describes a tragedy so
strongly rooted in history and character that, like all real
tragedies, it could not happen otherwise." -The Times
(London)
"Morally gripping as it is, Shroud is still a Banville
performance, playing brilliantly with language in the gap between
actuality and perception . . . Shroud will not easily be
surpassed for combination of wit, moral complexity and compassion.
It is hard to see what more a novel could do." -The Irish
Times
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