The Untouchable

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Betrayal and espionage in a high-stakes game.

If you're drawn to the shadowy world of spies and the complexities of loyalty, "The Untouchable" will grip you. Its web of intrigue and Banville's literary finesse make it a standout read. Peeling back layers of a double life, it's for the reader who thrives on depth and the thrill of deceit. The prose alone, with its almost poetic quality, is worth the journey through this treacherous landscape.

  • Whitbread Award Nominee for Novel (1997)
  • Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award (1998)
  • Lannan Literary Award for Fiction (1997)
Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

The Untouchable

Regular price $10.90
Unit price
per
$9.81 Thryft Club Member Price
ISBN: 9780330339322
Authors: John Banville
Publisher: Picador
Date of Publication: 1998-01-01
Format: Paperback
Goodreads rating: 3.94
(rated by 3759 readers)

Description

One of the most dazzling and adventurous writers now working in English takes on the enigma of the Cambridge spies in a novel of exquisite menace, biting social comedy, and vertiginous moral complexity. The narrator is the elderly Victor Maskell, formerly of British intelligence, for many years art expert to the Queen. Now he has been unmasked as a Russian agent and subjected to a disgrace that is almost a kind of death. But at whose instigation?As Maskell retraces his tortuous path from his recruitment at Cambridge to the airless upper regions of the establishment, we discover a figure of manifold doubleness: Irishman and Englishman; husband, father, and lover of men; betrayer and dupe. Beautifully written, filled with convincing fictional portraits of Maskell's co-conspirators, and vibrant with the mysteries of loyalty and identity, The Untouchable places John Banville in the select company of both Conrad and le Carré."Contemporary fiction gets no better than this... Banville's books teem with life and humor." - Patrick McGrath, The New York Times Book Review"Victor Maskell is one of the great characters in recent fiction... The Untouchable is the best work of art in any medium on [its] subject." - Washington Post Book World"As remarkable a literary voice as any to come out of Ireland; Joyce and Beckett notwithstanding." - San Francisco Chronicle
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Betrayal and espionage in a high-stakes game.

If you're drawn to the shadowy world of spies and the complexities of loyalty, "The Untouchable" will grip you. Its web of intrigue and Banville's literary finesse make it a standout read. Peeling back layers of a double life, it's for the reader who thrives on depth and the thrill of deceit. The prose alone, with its almost poetic quality, is worth the journey through this treacherous landscape.

  • Whitbread Award Nominee for Novel (1997)
  • Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award (1998)
  • Lannan Literary Award for Fiction (1997)
Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.