John Banville

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...

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...