The Optimists

by Andrew Miller (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2006

  $19.45

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $3.35

  The exceptional and powerful novel from the Booker-shortlisted author of Oxygen

  In a world where people slaughter the innocent without mercy or retribution, how can we have faith in humanity, or the future?

  Clem Glass, a photojournalist, returns from Africa to London convinced he knows the answer - mankind is fundamentally wicked and there is no hope for us. Yet when his sister falls ill and he takes her back to the West Country of their childhood, he cannot ignore the decency, joys and small kindnesses of those around him, or the pulse of goodness in his own heart. Until news comes that offers Clem the chance to confront the author of his nightmares.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2005

  $4.32

  Clem Glass was a successful photojournalist, fired by his conviction that only photographs could capture the world's true face. Then, in Africa, he witnesses the grotesque aftermath of a genocidal massacre and returns to London with the belief that people, including himself, are fundamentally wicked. Now nothing - work, love, sex - can rouse him, and no other outlook can shift his altered vision. Not his father's Christianity, nor the new-found humanitarianism of his friend and fellow journalist Silverman. The one close relationship Clem is able to maintain is with his older sister, Clare, who has been struck down by the return of a mental illness she had been free from for twenty years. Together they set up home in the rural Somerset of their childhood, and together they keep the darkness at bay. Then just as Clare begins to recover, news arrives out of the blue that the man responsible for the massacre has been spotted in Brussels. But is vengeance the answer? And can optimism ever be more than self-deceit?

• New

  Paperback
  2006

  $12.59

  The exceptional and powerful novel from the Booker-shortlisted author of Oxygen

  In a world where people slaughter the innocent without mercy or retribution, how can we have faith in humanity, or the future?

  Clem Glass, a photojournalist, returns from Africa to London convinced he knows the answer - mankind is fundamentally wicked and there is no hope for us. Yet when his sister falls ill and he takes her back to the West Country of their childhood, he cannot ignore the decency, joys and small kindnesses of those around him, or the pulse of goodness in his own heart. Until news comes that offers Clem the chance to confront the author of his nightmares.