The Incident

The Incident

by KennethMacleod (Author), KennethMacleod (Author)

Synopsis

'Certainly there are ghosts in these towers. For me they are the ghosts of two children. And even now - ten years later and seven hundred miles away - I still wake most nights with the muffled echo of their cries in my ears and the weight of their deaths on my conscience...' Three lives; three turning points. Craig was a teenage lifeguard on a beach in Germany when two children died on his watch. It should never have happened. He was an expert swimmer. His grandfather, Gordon McInnes was on board a ship torpedoed during the war. He survived by clinging to the body of one of his colleagues. Years later, he met one of the crew of the U boat that attacked his ship. Gerd is a refugee of the Cold War. Recruited by the Stasi at a very young age, he escaped to the west after his mission went terribly wrong. He never went back. The Incident is a searingly powerful novel about fate; about those moments that change the course of a life forever. It is also a book about history, from the Second World war through to the current day, and the way incidents long past can have reverberate across generations.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 336
Edition: Hardback
Publisher: W&N
Published: 05 Apr 2012

ISBN 10: 0297866931
ISBN 13: 9780297866930
Book Overview: Three lives, three turning points: this stunning debut novel charts those moments that change the course of a life forever

Media Reviews
Gripping...The course of the long, hot day leading up to the tragedy on the beach pulsates with dread and fear, and is engrossingly broken up by a middle section, describing a man named Gerd's astonishing escape from East Berlin as a teenager in 1969' -- Catherine Taylor * THE GUARDIAN *
And all the while we await the incident - which, when it comes is beautifully written, well-paced and surprising. Proof that Macleod is a fiction strategist of talent. -- Tom Adair * THE SCOTSMAN *
A thought-provoking literary page-turner * SYDNEY MORNING HERALD *
the opening is a truly stunning account of ship torpedoed during the Second World War. Gordon McInnes survives the attack, and years later his grandson is a teenage lifeguard on a beach in Germany when two children die on his watch. The novel concerns three turning points that change the course of three lives forever -- Alice O'Keeffe * THE BOOKSELLER *
With lively dialogue and descriptive passages, this is an absorbing and emotional tale that spans two generations. -- Louise Purser * STAR magazine *
Stunning...It is a wonderful story about fate and the small important details that make us who we are; the events that change us irrevocably and how they continue to resonate through time. A powerfully perceptive debut from Kenneth McLeod. * WE LOVE THIS BOOK *
With its almost exclusively male cast of characters and easy conversational tone, this notably readable first work defies easy categorization. Not a thriller, social drama or bildungsroman - though containing elements of all three - it nevertheless offers compelling tale-spinning marked by a strong sense of foreboding and hallucination-sharp detail. As a beach read it's a striking cautionary tale. -- Elsbeth Lindner * BOOKOXYGEN *
Compelling * UNDISCOVEREDSCOTLAND.CO.UK *
Author Bio
Kenneth Macleod was born in Glasgow in 1972. He began working as a newspaper reporter at the age of seventeen then worked in the Scottish media for twelve years, before completing a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. He divides his time between Glasgow and Berlin, where he works as a tour guide. THE INCIDENT is his first novel.