A powerful new novel from the acclaimed author of Oyster - a novel that crystallises the deepest hopes and fears of the twenty-first century.
Lowell tries not to think about the past, about the hijacking that killed his mother. Samantha, on the other hand, cannot let the past go. As a child she survived the hijacking of Air France 064, and as an adult she obsessively digs for answers. Specifically, she wants to find a shadowy figure called Salamander, a man she believes was a key player in the unravelling of the tragedy.
It is the death of Lowell's father, and his legacy of a blue sports bag crammed with documents and videotapes, that finally brings Lowell and Samantha together and reveals the interconnections between victims and perpetrators, saved and damned.
But in this murky world of endless ailiases and surveillance, who can be trusted? When does the quest for truth become a dangerous obsession? When does the assembling of facts tip into paranoia? And what difference can the truth make?
This is fast-paced, breathtaking, confronting fiction that brings us with acute intimacy into the chaos of terror and the cruelty - and unexpected hope - of survival.
Deep, dark and enthralling
This is going to be a book that divides opinions, I suspect. I couldn't put it down... but it gave me wild dreams, which is saying something. A dark, dark plot - a sharp observation of human nature under terrible pressure - far fetched and yet eminently believable at the same time. Feeling like something that is a more challenging read? A book in which the worst that can happen does, and where the next feature in the plot lies just out of your vision, under dark waters.... I really enjoyed this book - and it made a deep impression on me.
Jan, 10/12/2008
