Knowing Max - Hardcover

Long, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002259931 ISBN 13: 9780002259934

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2000

Synopsis

Haunting novel about time and identity set in post-war ‘fast set’ Britain.

A brilliant new novel that is quite different from the wonderful Ferney but which has some of the same qualities. Memory and coincidence play a strong part as the narrator, himself trying to escape a passionate relationship, endeavours to piece together the remarkable life of the man who used to own an old trunk, stuffed with letters, bought in a street market. Racing driver, lover, officer, but maybe not gentleman, con-man, liar, thief – as the fascinating portrait of the trunk’s owner evolves, so the narrator is drawn deeper and deeper into a story with strange connections to his own life.

About this title

Review:

Praise for Ferney:

‘A story of love and self-discovery that resonates across the ages’
Nicholas Evans, author of The Horse Whisperer

‘The book grips... It belongs to the unputdownable, so goodbye sleep. I love it... the whole story sang’
Mary Wesley

‘The book is a lovely puzzle, exploring landscape and the lives that shape it, and a profound comment on the way each generation adapts to change. An ambitious and enthralling novel with distinct echoes of Hardy’
Mail on Sunday

From the Back Cover:

FROM THE AUTHOR OF 'FERNEY' COMES A HAUNTING NOVEL ABOUT TIME AND IDENTITY SET IN POST-WAR BRITAIN.

At the age of thirteen, Miles Malan witnesses a horrifying fatal accident, which will never fade from his memory.

Ten years later, in an old trunk in a street market, Milo, as he now likes to be called, catches sight of a photograph that takes him back to that tragic day – and will plunge him into an extraordinary story. Going through the contents of the trunk, Milo begins to piece together the life-story of its owner Max Owen, from the extravagant Thirties in Monaco and St Moritz, through the Second World War, to the shady underworld of post-war London.

Milo has good reason for hiding from the present, but the past, it soon becomes clear, is far from dead. Knowing Max will change Milo's life for ever.

James Long is the author of four acclaimed thrillers, and most recently the bestselling novel 'Ferney'. A former BBC correspondent, he lives with his wife and three children in Devon.

Praise for 'Ferney'

"A story of love and self-discovery that resonates across the ages"
NICHOLAS EVANS, author of 'The Horse Whisperer'

"The book grips . . . It belongs to the unputdownable, so goodbye sleep. I love it . . . the whole story sang"
MARY WESLEY

"The book is a lovely puzzle, exploring landscape and the lives that shape it, and a profound comment on the way each generation adapts to change. An ambitious, enthralling novel with distinct echoes of Hardy"
MAIL ON SUNDAY

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0002259931
• ISBN 13: 9780002259934
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320