Eclipse: A NovelIn this deeply moving and original book, John Banville alloys mystery, fable, and ghost story with poignant psychological acuity to forge the riveting story of a man wary of the future, plagued by the past, and so uncertain in the present that he cannot discern the spectral from the real. When renowned actor Alexander Cleave was a boy living in a large house with his widowed mother and various itinerant lodgers, he encountered a strikingly vivid ghost of his father. Now that he’s fifty and has returned to his boyhood home to recover from a nervous breakdown on stage, he is not surprised to find the place still haunted. He is surprised, however, at the presence of two new lodgers who have covertly settled into his old roost. And he is soon overwhelmed by how they, coupled with an onslaught of disturbing memories, compel him to confront the clutter that has become his life: ruined career, tenuous marriage, and troubled relationship with an estranged daughter destined for doom. |
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accordion afternoon Amphitryon arms asked Athena bicycle clips black pudding Book of Evidence buddleia Cass child cigarette circus corner crepuscular dark daugh door doorway dream everything eyes face faint fairy cakes falsetto father feel felt fingers frowning garden gave gaze ghost girl glass gone Goodfellow grey hair hall hand head hear heard hills shim inside JOHN BANVILLE kitchen knees knew laugh lavatory leaning lifted light Lily Lily's living lodgers looked Lydia morning mother motionless mouth never night nodding once past perhaps Quirke Quirke's realised remember seemed shadow shoulder shut side sigh silence smell smile smoke somehow someone sound stage stairs standing stare step stood stopped strange sunlight suntan lotion tell things thought took trees turned ululation voice walked wanly watching window woman wonder