Tremor of Forgery - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 034900627X ISBN 13: 9780349006277

Publisher: Virago Press Ltd

Synopsis

BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY AND STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

INTRODUCED BY DENISE MINA

''Highsmith is a giant of the genre. The original, the best, the gloriously twisted Queen of Suspense'' MARK BILLINGHAM

''She kind of takes you by the hand and walks you toward the cliff. I like that sensation'' GILLIAN FLYNN

''One of Highsmith''s finest novels'' NEW YORK TIMES

A gripping novel that explores the shifting sands of moral values - is murder still murder when committed in a lawless place?

Howard Ingham, an American writer, is in Tunisia working on a screenplay, and feeling stranded. No one has written to him since he arrived - neither the film director who he is supposed to be meeting in Tunis, nor his lover in New York.

The erratic mail eventually brings news of the director''s suicide. For reasons obscure even to himself, Ingham decides to stay and work on a novel, but a series of events - a hushed-up murder and a vanished corpse - lures him inexorably into the deep, ambivalent shadows of the town; into deceit and away from conventional morality. Ultimately, what is in question is not justice or truth, but the state of his oddly quiet conscience.

''Highsmith is the poet of apprehension rather than fear . . . Highsmith''s finest novel to my mind is The Tremor of Forgery, and if I were asked what it is about I would reply, "apprehension"'' GRAHAM GREENE

About this title

About the Author

Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to New York when she was six, where she attended the Julia Richman High School and Barnard College. In her senior year she edited the college magazine, having decided at the age of sixteen to become a writer. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, was made into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. The Talented Mr Ripley, published in 1955, introduced the fascinating anti-hero Tom Ripley, and was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1999 by Anthony Minghella. Graham Greene called Patricia Highsmith 'the poet of apprehension', saying that she 'created a world of her own - a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger' and The Times named her no.1 in their list of the greatest ever crime writers. Patricia Highsmith died in Locarno, Switzerland, in February 1995. Her last novel, Small g: A Summer Idyll, was published posthumously, the same year.

Review

One of Highsmith's finest novels * New York Times * One of her best books ... She creates a lot of dread and a lot of apprehension very casually -- Jonathan Lethem * Chicago Tribune * Highsmith is the poet of apprehension rather than fear . . . Highsmith's finest novel to my mind is The Tremor of Forgery, and if I were asked what it is about I would reply, "apprehension"' -- Graham Greene I love [Highsmith] so much . . . what a revelation her writing is -- Gillian Flynn * Wall Street Journal *

Edition details

• Publisher: Virago Press Ltd
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 034900627X
• ISBN 13: 9780349006277
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272