The Prison of Perspective -- Signed by Author

A chance encounter, a road crash, an air crash, a hold-up at a bank: How do such events connect people? How do people see the situation from their different perspectives?

Three narrative strands follow the lives of three individuals - Peter, Cathy and Ivan - through the second half of the 20th century, from post-war austerity and mediocrity in the 1950s and 60s to the fast moving lifestyle of the present decade, whereby the plot is embedded in real events in the period. The three biographies intersect at crucial points, which reveals their internal landscapes and the different ways of understanding reality. Things are not always what they seem, and we do not always know the whole truth.

Rudolph Bader was born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1948. At university he read English and German literatures and linguistics as well as Islamic studies and near eastern languages. He has lived and worked as a researcher and university professor in many countries including Germany, Switzerland, Canada and Australia. Under his German name he published widely in the field of postcolonial literatures, he translated Shakespeare, worked as a book reviewer and a theatre director, and he has always been very active in teacher training and in various intercultural projects. The Prison of Perspective is Rudolph Bader's first novel. He is already busy writing his second novel. Today, he lives in Sussex and in Switzerland.