John Banville

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SNOW'Banville is one of my favourite writers alive.' REBECCA F. KUANG'More than a touch of genius.' THE TIMES 'A pleasure to read' IRISH TIMESOn the east coast of Ireland, one of the country's most prominent citizens takes his business partner's son out sailing and, while out at sea, shoots himself dead. This strange, enigmatic event captures the attention of pathologist Quirke who begins to investigate. When a second death occurs, one even more shocking than the first, Quirke uncovers dark secrets buried in a rivalry between two entangled families. Praise for the Quirke Series:'A joy to read.' Sunday Times'Darkly dangerous [with] flinty humour.' Daily Telegraph'Beguiling characters and evocative settings . . . Impeccable.' The Times

'Absorbing, atmospheric' Guardian'A romp of a read, a compelling fix' ScotsmanIn 1950s Dublin, world-weary pathologist Quirke is reckoning with grief. A woman he loved has died, a man he once admired is dying, and his daughter is still finding it hard to accept him as her father. When an old acquaintance approaches him about his wife's apparent suicide, Quirke recognizes trouble. But, as always, trouble is something he cannot resist. Praise for the Quirke Series:'A joy to read.' Sunday Times'Darkly dangerous [with] flinty humour.' Daily Telegraph'Beguiling characters and evocative settings . . . Impeccable.' The Times

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SNOW'Banville is one of my favourite writers alive.' REBECCA F. KUANG'More than a touch of genius.' THE TIMES William 'Big Bill' Mulholland is head of one of New York's wealthiest dynasties. When Mulholland gets wind of a hostile biography planned, he commissions his journalist son-in-law John Glass to pen the official line. To help with the job, Glass hires a beady-eyed researcher - 'the lemur'. But the next day, the Lemur is found dead, shot through the eye with a Beretta. What is the secret he knew, had he told anyone else, and why are the police suddenly asking Glass a lot of questions?

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SNOW'Banville is one of my favourite writers alive.' REBECCA F. KUANG'More than a touch of genius.' THE TIMES Newspaper magnate Richard Jewell is found dead at his country estate, a shotgun still in his hands. Few see his demise as cause for sorrow, but before long, Quirke realizes that, rather than the suspected suicide, 'Diamond Dick' has been murdered. Suspicion soon falls on one of Jewell's biggest rivals, but as Quirke gets to know Jewell's beautiful, enigmatic wife, his fragile sister and those who work for the family, it becomes clear that not everything in this household is as it seems. Praise for the Quirke Series:'A joy to read.' Sunday Times'Darkly dangerous [with] flinty humour.' Daily Telegraph'Beguiling characters and evocative settings . . . Impeccable.' The Times

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SNOW'Banville is one of my favourite writers alive.' REBECCA F. KUANG'More than a touch of genius.' THE TIMES As a deep, bewildering fog cloaks Dublin, a young woman named April is found to have vanished. Flawed pathologist Quirke responds to a request to help find her. Speaking with those who knew her, he begins to realize that there may have been more behind the young woman's secrecy than he could have imagined. When a disturbing discovery is made, the complex web of love, lies, jealousy and dark secrets that April spun her life from finally begins to unravel. Praise for the Quirke Series:'A joy to read.' Sunday Times'Darkly dangerous [with] flinty humour.' Daily Telegraph'Beguiling characters and evocative settings . . . Impeccable.' The Times

Inspired by the true story of Anthony Blunt and the Cambridge Five spy ring, The Untouchable is a beautifully crafted novel by John Banville, author of the Booker Prize-winning The Sea.Victor Maskell has been betrayed. After an announcement in the House of Commons and the hasty revelation of his double life of wartime espionage, his disgrace is public, his knighthood revoked, his position as curator of the Queen’s pictures terminated. There are questions to be answered. For whom has he been sacrificed? To what has he sacrificed his life?‘The Untouchable is an engrossing, exquisitely written and almost bewilderingly smart book . . . It’s the fullest book I’ve read in a very long time, utterly accomplished, thoroughly readable, written by a novelist of vast talent’ Richard FordNow part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

Ghosts opens with a shipwreck, leaving a party of sightseers temporarily marooned on an island. The stranded castaways make their way towards the refuge of the isle’s reclusive savant; but the big isolated house which is home to Professor Silas Kreutznaer and his laconic assistant, Licht, is also home to another, unnamed presence . . .Onto this seemingly haunted island, where a strange singing hangs in the air, Banville drops a scrumptious cast of characters – including a murderer – and weaves a tale where the details are clear but the conclusion polymorphous – shifting appearances, transformations and thwarted assumptions make this world of uneasy calm utterly enthralling.‘As fascinating, complex, stimulating and energetic as any work of art . . . A work which proves Banville as a master, the artist in total control of his craft’ The Times ‘John Banville’s funniest book . . . another triumph by our most outrageously inventive and daring novelist’ The Sunday Independent‘Makes this astonishingly attractive novelist one of the most important writers now at work in English – a key thinker, in fact, in fiction’ The London Review of BooksNow part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

The first of John Banville’s novels concerning father and daughter Alexander and Cass Cleave, Eclipse is a lyrical exploration of memory, family and identity.Alexander Cleave, actor, has left his career and his family behind and banished himself to his childhood home. He wants to retire from life, but finds this impossible in a house brimming with presences, some ghostly, some undeniably human. Memories and anxiety for the future, and more particularly for his beloved but troubled daughter, conspire to distract him from his dreaming retirement.This humane and beautifully written story tells the tragic tale of a man, intelligent, preposterous and vulnerable, who in attempting to bring the performance to a close finds himself travelling inevitably towards a devastating denouement.‘This unsparing, compassionate, humane book demonstrates again that Banville is in a class of his own’ The SpectatorNow part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

The second volume of John Banville’s Revolutions Trilogy and winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize, Kepler is a gorgeous historical novel exploring the life of Johannes Kepler, one of the world’s greatest mathematicians.Johannes Kepler, born in 1571 in south Germany, was one of the world’s greatest mathematicians and astronomers. The novel Kepler, by John Banville, brilliantly recreates his life and his incredible drive to chart the orbits of the planets and the geometry of the universe while being driven from exile to exile by religious and domestic strife. At the same time it illuminates the harsh realities of the Renaissance world; rich in imaginative daring but rooted in poverty, squalor and the tyrannical power of emperors.‘Superbly illuminates the man, the time, and the everlasting quest for knowledge’ The Observer

Dark secrets and reality unravel in Shroud, the second of John Banville’s three novels to feature Cass Cleave, alongside Eclipse and Ancient Light. Axel Vander, distinguished intellectual and elderly academic, is not the man he seems.When a letter arrives out of the blue, threatening to unveil his secrets – and carefully concealed identity – Vander travels to Turin to meet its author. There, muddled by age and alcohol, unable always to distinguish fact from fiction, Vander comes face to face with the woman who has the knowledge to unmask him, Cass Cleave. However, her sense of reality is as unreliable as his, and the two are quickly drawn together, their relationship dark, disturbed and doomed to disaster from its very start.‘Shroud will not be easily surpassed for its combination of wit, moral complexity and compassion. It is hard to see what more a novel could do’ The Irish TimesNow part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

The first volume of John Banville’s Revolutions Trilogy and winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Doctor Copernicus is a rich historical novel that explores the life of one of history’s greatest scientists. The work of Nicholas Koppernigk, better known as Copernicus, shattered the medieval view of the universe and led to the formulation of the image of the solar system we know today. Here his life is powerfully evoked in a novel that offers a vivid portrait of a man of painful reticence, haunted by a malevolent brother and baffled by the conspiracies that rage around him and his ideas while he searches for the secret of life.‘Banville is superb . . . there are not many historical novels of which it can be said that they illuminate both the time that forms their subject matter and the time in which they are read: Doctor Copernicus is among the very best of them’ The EconomistNow part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SNOW 'Absorbing' The Times'Gripping' ScotsmanQuirke's pathology department, set deep beneath 1950s Dublin, is his own gloomy realm: always quiet, always night, and always under his control. Until, late one evening, he stumbles across a body that should not be there. The investigation he opens uncovers a dark secret at the heart of the city's high Catholic network - a secret with the power to shake his own family and everything he holds dear. Praise for the Quirke Series:'A joy to read.' Sunday Times'Darkly dangerous [with] flinty humour.' Daily Telegraph'Beguiling characters and evocative settings . . . Impeccable.' The Times

Inspired by the crimes of Malcolm Macarthur in Ireland, 1982, The Book of Evidence by John Banville is a gripping portrait of a cold, deceptive and utterly unprecedented killer, shortlisted for the Booker Prize.''Banville writes a dangerous and clear-running prose and has a grim gift of seeing people''s souls'' – Don DeLillo, author of White Noise and LibraFreddie Montgomery has committed two crimes. He stole a small Dutch master – an unattributed painting of a middle-aged woman – from a wealthy family friend. And he murdered a chambermaid who caught him in the act, bludgeoning her to death with a hammer.An eccentric narcissist, he has little to say about the woman he killed. He travels through life without any apparent remorse. He killed her, he says, because he was physically capable of it. It made sense to him.However, as he narrates his testimony, there is one thing he cannot understand. One thing he would desperately like to know. Why did he want to steal the painting?''Remarkable'' – Ruth Rendell, author of the Inspector Wexford novelsThe Book of Evidence is the first in John Banville''s acclaimed Frames Trilogy. It is followed by Ghosts and Athena.Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SNOW AND THE SEAEverything was a puzzle, everything a trap set to mystify and hinder me. . .Winter 1899, and strange things are afoot. As the new century approaches, English hack writer Evelyn Dolman marries Laura Rensselaer, the daughter of a wealthy American plutocrat. But in the midst of a rift between Laura and her father, Evelyn’s plans for a substantial inheritance look to be dashed.Arriving in Venice for their belated honeymoon at Palazzo Dioscuri – the ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo – the couple are met by a series of seeminglyotherworldly occurrences, which exacerbate Evelyn’s already frayed nerves. Is it just the sea mist blanketing the floating city, or is he really losing his mind?''A marvellous and rewarding novelist . . . He is a magician, really.'' THE SCOTSMAN‘Banville has a grim gift of seeing people’s souls.’ DON DeLILLO‘The most eminent innovator in Irish fiction of the last 50 years.’ IRISH TIMES‘One of my favourite writers alive.’ REBECCA F. KUANG‘Banville writes prose of such luscious elegance.’ NEW YORK TIMES

‘Banville is one of my favourite writers alive.’ REBECCA F. KUANG''Beautifully written and intriguing.'' GUARDIANHe had seen drowned people. A sight not to be forgotten.1950s, rural Ireland. A loner comes across a mysteriously empty car in a field. Knowing he shouldn’t approach, but unable to hold back, he soon finds himself embroiled in a troubling missing person’s case, as a husband claims his wife may have thrown herself into the sea.Called in from Dublin to investigate is Detective Inspector Strafford, who soon turns to his old ally - the flawed but brilliant pathologist Quirke - a man he is linked to in increasingly complicated ways.Readers were gripped by The Drowned:''Addictive and atmospheric'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐''Remarkable . . . it took my breath away'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐''Another flawless Strafford and Quirke mystery'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐''Outstanding, Banville is the best crime writer out there'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐On UK bestseller list w/e 13/11/2021-27/11/2021 for Paperback Fiction

A világsikerű Hó napfényben fürdő folytatása!Amikor a dublini kórboncnok, Quirke egy ismerős arcot pillant meg a spanyolországi szabadsága alatt, először nem tudja, nem csak a képzelete űz-e bizarr tréfát vele. Valóban egy olyan nő lehet az, aki elvileg halott? És aki kapcsolatban állt egy bűncselekménnyel, amely egy egész ír politikus dinasztiát tehet tönkre?Quirke úgy dönt, nem hagyja annyiban a dolgot: hazatelefonál a rendőrségre, és Strafford felügyelő hamarosan úton van, hogy nyomozzon az ügyben. De nemcsak ő, hanem egy profi bérgyilkos is."A tenyerébe temette az arcát. A szorgos munkával töltött évek, amelyek során oly sokszor hunyt szemet különféle dolgok fölött és alázkodott meg olyan emberek előtt, akik arra sem voltak méltóak, hogy a cipőfűzőjét bekössék, a rengeteg cselszövés - lehet, hogy mindez hiábavaló volt. És miért? Azért, mert a Latimereket, a hazafias feddhetetlenség oszlopait, az Ügy szentségének védelmezőit az a komoly veszély fenyegeti, hogy leleplezik a mocskos kis titkaikat, hogy az egész ország megismerje őket, és mindenki a tenyerét dörzsölje kárörömében.""Nincs nagy különbség John Banville bűnügyi regényei és egyéb prózái között. Ugyanaz az elegáns ritmus, ragyogó stílus és a személyes, társadalmi és politikai kapcsolatok finom elemzése jellemző rájuk, mint amivel kiérdemelte a Booker-díjat."Irish Sunday IndependentJOHN BANVILLE (1945-) az ír irodalom élő klasszikusa, felsorolhatatlan egyéb díj mellett Booker-díjas is (azt 2005-ben kapta A tenger című regényéért). Magyarul bámulatos életművének csak töredéke olvasható egyelőre.Bűnügyi regényeket évekig álnéven írt, de újabban az igazi nevével felvállalja azokat is: irodalmi értékű krimiket nem sokan írtak olyan színvonalon, mint ő.