A SUNDAY TIMES AND TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2025
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SNOW AND THE SEA Everything was a puzzle everything a trap
set to mystify and hinder me. . . Winter 1899 and strange things are afoot. As the new
century approaches English hack writer Evelyn Dolman marries Laura Rensselaer the daughter of
a wealthy American plutocrat. But in the midst of a rift between Laura and her father Evelyn's
plans for a substantial inheritance look to be dashed. Arriving in Venice for their belated
honeymoon at Palazzo Dioscuri - the ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count
Barbarigo - the couple are met by a series of seemingly otherworldly occurrences which
exacerbate Evelyn's already frayed nerves. Is it just the sea mist blanketing the floating city
or is he really losing his mind? 'A marvellous and rewarding novelist . . . He is a magician
really.' THE SCOTSMAN 'Banville has a grim gift of seeing people's souls.' DON DeLILLO 'The
most eminent innovator in Irish fiction of the last 50 years.' IRISH TIMES 'One of my
favourite writers alive.' REBECCA F. KUANG 'Banville writes prose of such luscious elegance.'
NEW YORK TIMES
