A Perfect Execution - Softcover

Binding, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 038525587X ISBN 13: 9780385255875

Publisher: Doubleday Canada, 1996

Synopsis

In the Vale of Aylesbury, near Oxford, during World War II, a young man named Jeremiah Bembo is shaken to his core by the sight of a downed German pilot - mortally wounded, taunted by villagers, hanging from a tree. This horrible vision of death effects a profound change in him, and presents a kind of calling: to become a benevolent executioner, a figure of succor and compassion in men's final hours. In time he is England's swiftest, most expert hangman, a revered and dreaded legend known as Solomon Straw. A Perfect Execution is the story of Jeremiah, of Solomon, of a man so moved by death that he becomes a merciful angel. It is also the story of the world that turns around him: of his wife, Judith, whose passions wash like tides over her husband's stony stillness; of his brash cousin, Will, who vies for Judith's heart; and of three restless young people whose longings intersect in a small-town tragedy that encompasses Jeremiah, Judith, Will - and Solomon Straw.

About this title

Review

From the author of In the Kingdom of Air comes A Perfect Execution, the tale of Jeremiah Bembo, England's greatest hangman. Propelled by a murder-mystery plot, the book is more the tale of the discovery of the hangman's true human identity than it is just a conventional search for the true identity of a murderer. Rich with metaphor--Bembo comes from a family of puppeteers and Binding doesn't shy away from references to manipulating the strings of destiny--and tautly executed, A Perfect Execution does an admirable job of getting inside the head of an executioner and rendering him both believable and believably human.

From the Publisher

Executioner Solomon Straw is unlike most in his profession. He comes to his calling out of love and compassion. After witnessing a prolonged and torturous killing of a downed German pilot, he vows to make death easy and painless for the condemned.

Straw perfects his art and is universally acclaimed as the best in England. His carefully chosen professional pseudonym ("Solomon" for wisdom and "Straw" for the fragility of human life) goes far beyond concealing his real identity from the curious and the vengeful: It allows him to isolate his caring and his passion, keeping them at bay even from his wife.

The unquestionable appeal of A Perfect Execution lies in Tim Binding's uncanny ability to create a novel of rare emotional power from cruel, even macabre events. The chillingly suspenseful plot and the sheer beauty of the language hold the reader mesmerized. The tightly-woven, often bizarre, circumstances of the characters' lives trigger a variety of responses--tears, joy, fear, and anger are often the results of reading a single page. As a reading experience, and as an exploration of punishment and compassion, A Perfect Execution is a novel like no other.

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday Canada
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 038525587X
• ISBN 13: 9780385255875
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 295