The Breath of Night - Softcover

Arditti, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1909807664 ISBN 13: 9781909807662

Publisher: Arcadia Books, 2014

Synopsis

While working as a missionary priest in the Philippines during the Marcos dictatorship, Julian Tremayne championed the Communist rebels and found himself imprisoned for murder. Now, three decades later, following Julian's death, a cult develops around him, even calling for sainthood. When Philip Seward goes to investigate on behalf of Julian's family, he is drawn into a labyrinth of vice, violence, and corruption where nothing and nobody are what they seem. Enriched by a gallery of engaging characters ranging from priests to prostitutes, GIs to gangsters, and street children to Imelda Marcos, this outstanding novel is at once a gripping psychological thriller, a challenging moral mystery, and an unforgettable voyage into a dark and exotic landscape. "Arditti tackles issues of faith, class, and corruption, and the relationship between fact and remembered personal experience, in this beautiful double portrait of the Philippines during the Marcos regime and its aftermath. . . A complex morality tale that in lesser hands could have become a simple foreign adventure."--Publishers Weekly***, Sept. 29, 2014 "Polished language, an effective buildup, and the meditation on the meaning of belief that's thoughtful rather than overbearing."--Library Journal, Nov. 1, 2014

About this title

About the Author:

Michael Arditti is the prize-winning author of eight works of fiction, including Easter, which won the Mardi Gras & Waterstone s Award, was shortlisted for the Creative Freedom Award and which was longlisted for the Costa, selling over 25,000 copies. The Breath of Night was published to enormous critical acclaim in 2013, appearing in almost all broadsheets and literary magazines. He reviews for several newspapers and appears regularly on BBC Radio 4.

Review:

British author Arditti (Jubilate) tackles issues of faith, class, and corruption, and the relationship between fact and remembered personal experience, in this beautiful double portrait of the Philippines during the Marcos regime and its aftermath. It is also a carefully unfolding mystery. Julian Tremayne, a Catholic missionary in San Isidro who rejects the idea that a priest should concern himself only with the next world, writes impassioned letters to his parents back home in England, chronicling his life there in the 1970s and 80s. Three decades later, Philip Seward travels to the Philippines at the behest of the family of his late fiancée, Julian s great-niece. His objective is to research firsthand the details of Julian s life and death in order to support a petition on the part of Julian s former parishioners in San Isidoro for his canonization as a saint. Philip s informants and guides during his quest engage the reader s sympathies, even when their behavior is frustrating, reprehensible, mundane, or miraculous. Their stories and Philip s reactions to them form the human backbone of a complex morality tale that in lesser hands could have become a simple foreign adventure. --Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

n the opening pages of this new work from British author Arditti (The Celibate), who frequently explores issues of contemporary faith, Philip Seward explains why he has traveled to the Philippines to determine whether missionary priest Julian Tremayne had the requisites for sainthood. Julian was the uncle of Philip s tragically deceased fiancée, and the family is desperate to prove Julian s bona fides three decades after he was presumably killed by communist guerrillas. The novel then alternates between Julian s bright letters home and wimpy Philip s increasingly fraught sojourn in the Philippines, which ends surprisingly. VERDICT Polished language, an effective buildup, and the meditation on the meaning of belief that s thoughtful rather than overbearing; good for book clubs. --Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Arcadia Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1909807664
• ISBN 13: 9781909807662
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400