The Genius Of The Sea - Hardcover

Murr, Naeem

3.76

45 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0434011150 ISBN 13: 9780434011155

Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd, 2003

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Daniel is a social worker in his thirties, raised in a council-flat in south London by a single-mother, he has never known his father, nor even his identity. His wife is in a psychiatric hospital, following a break-down, when a case of benefit fraud is referred to him, involving a man who lives in the flat in which he had lived as a child, the flat he abandoned untouched when his mother died of cancer over ten years ago. Amos, the claimant, who has claimed to have lost both his legs in an accident, turns out to be entirely fit and healthy, but his stories, (fantasties? lies?) of his life at sea, draw Daniel back to the flat again and again as he is seduced into a world of story reminiscent of Melville and Conrad. Amos' last tale, of when he killed a man, a fellow-sailor with whose sister he is in love, proves the most haunting of all. Is the story true, and if it is, is Amos Daniel's father? It is hard to compare this novel to anything else, but Murr's power of imagination and his fascination with stories, lies and madness are powerfully affecting and haunting. This novel announces him as a major talent.

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Review:

"Naeem Murr has a hideously beautiful imagination and a wholly original talent" (Mary Gaitskill)

"[Murr's] prose bursts into flower, taking us straight to the passionate heart of his characters. Words and phrases take on an almost translucent elasticity, stretching to encompass new ideas, giving scenes a compelling visual wholeness and suggesting real complexity" (Independent on Sunday)

"Clever and intense, Murr's writing captures the extraordinary power of human ties" (Time Out)

"The Genius of the Sea is not simply about a man in crisis, it is the story of each of us in our struggle to be intimate, to build faith, and to deserve love" (Akhil Sharma)

From the Publisher:

An extraordinarily imaginative second novel, reminiscent of Billy Budd and Lord Jim, by Booker shortlisted author of The Perfect Man

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