Double Vision (Om) - Softcover

Pat Barker

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141018070 ISBN 13: 9780141018072

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, 2004

Synopsis

This gripping novel explores the effects of violence on the journalists and artists who have dedicated themselves to representing it.In the aftermath of September 11, reeling from the effects of reporting from New York City, two British journalists, a writer, Stephen Sharkey, and a photographer, Ben Frobisher, part ways. Stephen returns to England shattered; he divorces his duplicitous wife and quits his job. Ben follows the war on terror to Afghanistan and is killed.Stephen retreats to a cottage in the country to write a book about violence, and what he sees as the reporting journalist's or photographer's complicity in it. Ben's widow, Kate, a sculptor, lives nearby, and as she and Stephen learn about each other their world speedily shrinks, in pleasing but also disturbing ways. The sinister events that begin to take place in this small town, so far from the theaters of war Stephen has retreated from, will force him to act instinctively, violently, and to face his most painful revelations about himself.

About this title

About the Author

Pat Barker was born in 1943. Her books include Another World, Border Crossing, Double Vision, and the highly acclaimed Regeneration trilogy: Regeneration (1991), which was made into a film of the same name; The Eye in the Door (1993), which won the Guardian Fiction Prize; and The Ghost Road (1995), which won the Booker Prize. More recently she has published a second fiction trilogy comprising Life Class, Toby's Room, and the final novel in the series, Noonday­. Pat Barker lives in Durham.

Review

"A story that is both terrifying and fascinating....Wholly engrossing."--Neil Gordon, "New York Times Book Review""One doesn't often find the caliber of writing displayed in Barker's latest, a compulsively readable novel."--Joanne Wilinson, "Booklist""As briskly taut as a thriller and, at the same time, a deeply thoughtful consideration of how our lives are changed by sweeping historical tragedy and everyday acts of violence...We keep paging rapidly through the novel, even as we pause to admire the trenchant reflections."--Francine Prose, " O" Magazine

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0141018070
• ISBN 13: 9780141018072
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320