Book details

Double Vision

A Novel

Author: Pat Barker

Double Vision

Double Vision

$21.00

About This Book

Double Vision from Pat Barker, a gripping novel about the effects of violence on the journalists and artists who have dedicated themselves to representing it

In...

Page Count
272
On Sale
11/11/2004

Book Details

Double Vision from Pat Barker, a gripping novel about the effects of violence on the journalists and artists who have dedicated themselves to representing it

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, reeling from the effects of reporting from New York City, two British journalists, a writer, Stephen Sharkey, and a photographer, Ben Frobisher, part ways. Stephen, facing the almost simultaneous discovery that his wife is having an affair, returns to England shattered; he divorces and quits his job. Ben returns to his vocation. He follows the war on terror to Afghanistan and is killed.

Stephen retreats to a cottage in the country to write a book about violence, and what he sees as the reporting journalist's or photographer's complicity in it; it is a book that will build in large part on Ben's writing and photography. Ben's widow, Kate, a sculptor, lives nearby, and as she and Stephen learn about each other their world speedily shrinks, in pleasing but also disturbing ways; Stephen's maid, with whom he has begun an affair, was once lovers with Kate's new studio assistant, an odd local man named Peter. As these connections become clear, Peter's strange behavior around Stephen and Kate begins to take on threatening implications. The sinister events that take place in this small town, so far from the theaters of war Stephen has retreated from, will force him to act instinctively, violently, and to face his most painful revelations about himself.

Imprint Publisher

Picador

ISBN

9780312424107

Reading Guide

In The News

“A story that is both terrifying and fascinating....Wholly engrossing.” —Neil Gordon, New York Times Book Review

“One doesn't often find the caliber of writing displayed in Barker's latest, a compulsively readable novel.” —Joanne Wilinson, Booklist

“As briskly taut as a thriller and, at the same time, a deeply thoughtful consideration of how our lives are changed by sweeping historical tragedy and everyday acts of violence...We keep paging rapidly through the novel, even as we pause to admire the trenchant reflections.” —Francine Prose, O Magazine

About the Creators

Double Vision

Double Vision

$21.00