A Shadow of Myself - Softcover

Phillips, Mike

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000651197X ISBN 13: 9780006511977

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2001

Synopsis

Major European-based thriller from Britain’s leading black crime novelist: ‘Hugely ambitious ... this is also a splendid love story and a lesson in making crime fiction relevant’ Maxim Jakubowski, Guardian

Attending a film festival in Prague, black documentary film maker Joseph Coker is approached by a complete stranger claiming to be his brother. George, who has been brought up in East Germany by his Russian mother, tells Joseph that they share the same father: Kofi Coker, a Ghanaian now living in London. Joseph’s reluctant acceptance of this relationship propels him into a nightmare world of intrigue and murder that threatens not just his identity, but his life.

And behind the two sons is the enigmatic figure of Kofi himself, an idealistic African whose time in Kruschev’s Moscow led to betrayal and planted the seeds of tragedy in the next generation.

Both thriller and love story, A Shadow of Myself is set against the backdrop of post-Cold War Europe, exploring the impact of the Third World on its future. Gripping and moving, it follows its characters from the fifties to the present day, as they move between the clashing ideologies of East and West.

About this title

Review:

‘A poignant, exciting political thriller which reaches back through present tensions to the Cold War and the 1940s to reveal the bloody matrix of idealism and treachery where revolution is born’
Literary Review

‘Phillips has fashioned an ambitious novel that raises him from being a writer of excellent crime novels on to an altogether higher plane... A stirring, evocative book’
Marcel Berlins, Times

From the Back Cover:

“Phillips has fashioned an ambitious novel that raises him from being a writer of excellent crime novels to an altogether higher plane... A stirring, evocative book”
MARCEL BERLINS, 'The Times'

Attending a film festival in Prague, black documentary film maker Joseph Coker is approached by a complete stranger claiming to be his brother. George, who has been brought up in East Germany by his Russian mother, tells Joseph that they share the same father: Kofi Coker, a Ghanaian now living in London. Joseph’s reluctant acceptance of this relationship propels him into a nightmare world of intrigue and murder that threatens not just his identity, but his life.

And behind the two sons is the enigmatic figure of Kofi himself, an idealistic African whose time in Kruschev’s Moscow led to betrayal and planted the seeds of tragedy in the next generation.

Both thriller and love story, A Shadow of Myself is set against the backdrop of post-Cold War Europe, exploring the impact of the Third World on its future. Gripping and moving, it follows its characters from the fifties to the present day, as they move between the clashing ideologies of East and West.

”This impressive novel is much more than a political thriller: it is also a peculiarly touching love story... written in pared down minimalist prose, it is an original and rather beautiful novel”
NICOLA UPSON, 'New Statesman'

”The love scenes are handled with a tender frankness unblemished by prurience. The thrillerish moments are genuinely tense”
JULIAN RATHBONE, 'Independent'

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 000651197X
• ISBN 13: 9780006511977
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400