Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize: An unhappy marriage is further
shaken when IRA terrorists invade the couple's home in this "first rate"
thriller (The New York Times).
Michael Dillon, a self-described "poet in a business suit," is a
once-aspiring writer in Belfast whose dreams have been consumed by a
stultifying career as a hotel manager and a hateful marriage to his
unstable wife, Moira. But on the day he decides to leave Moira for his
younger lover and take off for London, IRA terrorists break into the
Dillon home. Their plan is simple: They'll hold Moira hostage while
Michael plants a bomb designed to kill a rabble-rousing Protestant and
his flock convening for a political rally. If Michael goes to the
police, Moira dies. It's only the first choice of many--because in Brian
Moore's "breathtakingly constructed" nightmare, the day has just begun
(Los Angeles Times).
"The plot [is] one that only a spoiler would reveal--and risk ruining
the surprises that detonate throughout the novel like cleverly hidden
and elegantly designed incendiary devices. The notion of 'unbearable
suspense' is, of course, a cliché, but I found that I kept briefly
putting down the novel to postpone the moment when I had to face what
might happen next." --Francine Prose, The New York Times
