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Set on the bleak and windy island of Houat near the coast of Brittany, The Portrait describes the retreat into isolation of the painter Henry MacAlpine, who has performed a Gauguin-like cutting off of his previous life, leaving a successful career in London (not to mention rich patrons and enthusiastic gallery owners) behind him for a more spartan existence in this unvisited spot. Several years pass, and the reclusive MacAlpine is called upon by the first person he has seen from his old life in four years. This is the art critic William Nasmyth, whose approbation (or otherwise) can make or destroy an artist's career. He has come, he says, to sit for a portrait. What follows is a remarkable battle of wills between two very driven individuals; a psychological duel that has echoes of the mordant writing in the early plays of Harold Pinter. The other analogy that springs to mind for Pears’ compelling and disturbing novel is the Ingmar Bergman film Persona, similarly set on a remote island, which also treats of a personality shift between two strong-willed individuals. During the course of the sitting, the real subject of the novel becomes clear through the conversation of the two men: this is a scarifying narrative of thwarted desire, cruelty, suicide and even murder. This spare and economical novel exerts a grip from the first paragraph, and its two main protagonists are drawn with assiduously observed detail. --Barry Forshaw
Praise for An Instance of the Fingerpost:
‘This is a novel that combines the simple pleasures of Agatha Christie with the intellectual subtlety of Umberto Eco. It is a landmark in the genre’ John Sutherland, Sunday Times
‘Enthralling... An Instance of the Fingerpost is a brilliant achievement... wholly absorbing’ T.J. Binyon, Evening Standard
‘A slippery thriller of audacious ingenuity’ Robert Minghall, Independent on Sunday
Praise for The Dream of Scipio:
‘Combining the visceral pleasures of a thriller with the more intellectual excitements of a novel of ideas... ‘ Sunday Telegraph
‘Combines dazzling erudition with assured narrative skills to offer glimpses of some of history’s darkest corners’ Independent on Sunday
‘Vivid, admirably imagined, ultimately very moving... This is a novel of the very highest ambition... Immediate, sensuous, beautiful’ Allan Massie, Scotsman
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Book Description Audio Book. Condition: New. 5 New Audio CDs. New! New in the shrink wrap. Factory sealed. Publisher remainder mark under the shrink wrap. BRAND NEW. Gift quality. Enjoy this unabridged audio CD performance!. Seller Inventory # NCDAudio6101048
Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 0.35. Seller Inventory # Q-0143057502