Shuttlecock

by Graham Swift (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.25

  `Serious, moving and often very funny indeed' Observer

  Prentis, senior clerk in the `dead crimes' department of police archives, is becoming more and more confused.

  Alienated from his wife and children, and obsessed by his father, a wartime hero now the mute inmate of a mental hospital, Prentis feels increasingly unsettled as his enigmatic boss, Mr Quinn, turns his investigation towards him - and his father.

  Gradually Prentis suspects that his father's breakdown and Quinn's menacing behaviour are connected and the link is to be found in his father's memoirs, `Shuttlecock' . . .

  `Excellent, profound' Alan Hollinghurst, London Review of Books

  `An astonishing study of forms of guilt, laced with a thread of detection, and puckering now and then into outrageous humour' Sunday Times

  `A superbly written claustrophobic account of power that corrupts private and public life and of guilt that becomes obsession' Daily Telegraph

  `Swift's central strength as a writer is his integrity. Story and character are treated with a seriousness and respect that while allowing for the oddity of human behaviour - Shuttlecock is thoroughly and beautifully odd - always honours them' Times Literary Supplement

• Used

  Paperback
  1986

  $3.25

• New

  Paperback
  1992

  $17.23