John Banville

The brand new Strafford and Quirke murder mystery from the bestselling author of Snow. A chilling must-read. 'Haunting . . . compelling.' Daily Mail 'Banville is one of my favourite writers alive.' Rebecca F. Kuang 'The repressed and sinister world of 1950s Ireland is exposed in beautiful, sometimes chilling prose.' Financial Times He had seen drowned people. A sight not...

1950s Dublin, in a lock-up garage in the city, the body of a young woman is discovered, an apparent suicide. But pathologist Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford soon suspect foul play. The victim's sister, a newspaper reporter from London, returns to Dublin to join the two men in their quest to uncover the truth. But, as they explore her...

When Dublin pathologist Quirke glimpses a familiar face while on holiday with his wife, it's hard, at first, to tell whether his imagination is just running away with him. Could she really be who he thinks she is, and have a connection with a crime that nearly brought ruin to an Irish political dynasty? Unable to ignore his instincts, Quirke...

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SNOW '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...

A rich historical novel about the aftermath of betrayal, from the Booker prize-winner. 'What was freedom, she thought, other than the right to exercise one's choices?' Isabel Osmond, a spirited, intelligent young heiress, flees to London after being betrayed by her husband, to be with her beloved cousin Ralph on his deathbed. After a sombre, silent existence at her husband's...

'The body is in the library,' Colonel Osborne said. 'Come this way.' Following the discovery of the body of a well-loved parish priest at Ballyglass House—the Co. Wexford family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family—Detective Inspector St. John Strafford is called in from Dublin to investigate. Facing obstruction from all angles, Strafford is determined to identify the murderer. But,...

From the Booker Prize-winning John Banville comes a playful, multilayered novel of nostalgia, life and death, and quantum theory. A man with a borrowed name steps from a flashy red sports car—also borrowed—onto the estate of his youth. But all is not as it seems. There is a new family living in the drafty old house: the Godleys, descendants of...

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SNOW 'Absorbing' The Times 'Gripping' Scotsman Christine Falls takes readers into Quirke's pathology department, set deep beneath 1950s Dublin. This is his own gloomy realm: always quiet, always night, and always under his control. That is, until one evening when he stumbles across a body that should not be there. The investigation he initiates uncovers...

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...

The first of John Banville's Cleave Trilogy, 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...

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...

Dark secrets and reality unravel in Shroud, the second novel in John Banville's Cleave Trilogy, 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...

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...

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...

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 Libra Freddie...

A story of obsessive young love and overwhelming grief from the Booker Prize-winning author - now a Penguin Essential. 'Billy Gray was my best friend and I fell in love with his mother.' Alexander Cleave, an actor who thinks his best days are behind him, remembers his first unlikely affair as a teenage boy in a small town in 1950s...

Northern Spain is southern Ireland, she said. It rains all the time, everywhere is green, and everyone is Catholic. You will love it. On the idyllic coast of San Sebastian, Spain, Dublin pathologist Quirke is struggling to relax—despite the beaches, the cafes, and his disarmingly lovely wife. So when he glimpses a familiar face in the twilight at the bar...