The Last Weekend - Hardcover

Morrison, Blake

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701184841 ISBN 13: 9780701184841

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2010

Synopsis

Set over a long weekend in East Anglia, Blake Morrison's new novel is the chilling story of a rivalrous friendship - as told with deceptive casualness by the narrator, Ian. It opens with a surprise phone call from an old university friend, inviting Ian and his wife, Em, for a few days by the sea. Their hosts, Ollie and Daisy, are a golden couple, and the scene is set for sunlit relaxation. But dangerous tensions quickly emerge.

In taut, lucid prose, with flashes of wit and moments of troubling uncertainty, Blake Morrison perfectly conveys the stifling atmosphere of a remote cottage in the hottest days of summer. Ominous revelations from Ian's past slowly intrude. And his rivalry with Ollie intensifies as they resurrect a seemingly forgotten bet made twenty years before. Each day becomes a series of challenges for higher and higher stakes, setting in train actions that will have irreversible consequences.

The Last Weekend is a deftly crafted page-turner, where little can be taken for granted and nothing is quite as it seems. It offers a dark, haunting tale of friendship, sexual passion and jealousy - and confirms Blake Morrison's reputation as one of Britain's most talented writers.

About this title

About the Author

Born in Yorkshire, England, BLAKE MORRISON is the author of two bestselling memoirs, And When Did You Last See Your Father? and Things My Mother Never Told Me, three novels, The Justification of Johann Gutenberg, South of the River and The Last Weekend, and a study of the Bulger murder case, As If. He is also a poet, critic, journalist and librettist. He teaches creative writing at Goldsmiths College and lives in London, England. Visit his website at www.blakemorrison.com.

Review

"The fascination is horrible, the prose addictive, the situation magnificently claustrophobic, the denouement shocking" -- Alan Taylor * Herald * "Morrison has created far more than a sinister take on the country-house novel... This is a suspenseful thriller, but more importantly it succeeds as an exceedingly clever investigation into the strangeness of lies" -- Christian House * Independent on Sunday * "A compelling psychological thriller that, in parts, will cause you to actually flinch" -- Ben Felsenberg * Metro * "Delightfully twisted" -- David Mills * Esquire * "This is one achievement among several for Blake Morrison, who has written a novel that is at once artful and naturalistic, restrained and yet suggestive, and faithful to a perspective from which the readers wants to recoil" -- Stephen Abell * Times Literary Supplement *

Edition details

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0701184841
• ISBN 13: 9780701184841
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272