Synopsis
In the turbulent political summer of 1968, the lives of four very different people become inextricably intertwined. All four are shape-shifters, identity-switchers, two for criminal reasons, two for blameless purposes of survival. One of the four is a smooth con man, a charmer similar in style to Bernie Madoff, stylish, gentlemanly, classy and unencumbered by a conscience. Another is an equally charming and even smoother serial killer who never arouses suspicion. The four lives are scattered (to Vietnam, to France, to Australia) but are drawn back together in Manhattan in 1996 for the trial of the Vanderbilt claimant and a tense thriller climax. International Dublin Literary Award Nominee Nominated by: The State Library of South Australia, Adelaide Publisher of nominated edition: HarperCollins Australia Nomination Citation: A dark and delicious tale which begins as a complex riddle of identity and class divisions in wonderfully drawn settings in France, Australia and Manhattan. The story never becomes too cryptic though. Our panel highly recommended this novel. Australian reviews of THE CLAIMANT Here is one of the most unusual fictional postscripts to Australia’s involvement in Vietnam, besides being a vivid, ambivalent snapshot of American politics of the 1960s as galvanized by the war….Hospital combines psychological acuity with command of a range of settings, from luxurious to grunge, that will tempt those who might wish to bring the novel to the screen. In the meantime, readers have a big book to enjoy. Sydney Morning Herald The Claimant shares its vibrantly beating heart with the implications and intricacies of privelege, the iron grip of lineage, the complexities of naming and identity…and the persistence of the essential self…. Janette Turner Hospital is a splendid prose stylist in command of her art, and amazingly confident in exploring and testing its possibilities – now a lush sensuousness, now a sort of electric sparking precision and, and not least of all her armoury, a free-ranging referencing of literature and art… The Claimant is a genuine page-turner. Australian Book Review The Claimant is a book about spies and collaborators, about art and religion, and its focus is a fictional court case in the late 20th century over a family fortune and the search for a lost heir. Its concern is the way our identities change, even in the simplest ways, depending on the stages of our lives, who we are with, what the expectations are of us – our class, our politics, our nationalities. Told in an intricate and complex way, The Claimant is …a mystery thriller. It’s a feat of plotting, and I imagined Janette Turner Hospital holding all the plot points and identities like a huge hand of cards. Australian Broadcasting Commission: National Book Program [Interview with Romona Koval, who selected The Claimant for nationwide discussion]
About the Author
Janette Turner Hospital was born and educated in Australia. She grew up on the steamy sub-tropical coast of the north-eastern state of Queensland and began her teaching career in remote tropical high schools. She and her husband, also a Queenslander, moved to the USA in the late 1960s for graduate school. At the time, they had no intention of staying, but since then both Hospitals have taught in universities in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States. Hospital's first published short story appeared in the Atlantic Monthly (USA) and received an "Atlantic First" citation in 1978. Her first novel, The Ivory Swing (set in the village in South India where she and her husband spent a sabbatical in l977) won the $50,000 Seal First Novel Award in l982. Since then she has won a number of prizes for her nine novels and four short story collections, and her work has been published in twelve languages. Her novels have appeared in New York Times "Notable Books of the Year" lists, and she has won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award and Australia's Patrick White Award for lifetime literary achievement. A recent short story, "Afterlife of a Stolen Child," was included in Best American Mystery Stories 2015. Janette Turner Hospital is Carolina Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of South Carolina and Adjunct Professor of English at the University of Queensland, Australia. She has been Visiting Writer in Residence at MIT, Boston University, Colgate, and Columbia. She spends parts of each year in South Carolina, New York, and Australia. For more information, visit www.janetteturnerhospital.com
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