Description
In this chilling, formally elegant novel, a first-person narrator sits in jail awaiting trial and offers what he calls a confession—an account of a murder that feels both meticulously reasoned and profoundly unstable. As Frederick Montgomery recounts his flight and his time hiding by the sea, the story becomes a psychological investigation into how a mind constructs “evidence,” memory, and motive. Banville’s signature style—cool, lyrical, and relentlessly precise—turns the act of narration into a trap, inviting readers to question what is true, what is performed, and what is withheld. At its core, the book explores intention versus action, the moral fog of self-justification, and the unsettling ways imagination can make harm seem inevitable.
Available Editions
paperback
Warner Books
Published Jan 1, 1991
219 pages
ISBN: 9780446392532
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Details
First Published
1989
Language
eng
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for The Book of Evidence by John Banville.