Cover of Eclipse

Eclipse

by John Banville · 2000

The Cleave Trilogy seriesNext:Shroud(2002) →

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In this deeply moving and original book, John Banville alloys mystery, fable, and ghost story with poignant psychological acuity to forge the riveting story of a man wary of the future, plagued by the past, and so uncertain in the present that he cannot discern the spectral from the real.

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When renowned actor Alexander Cleave was a boy living in a large house with his widowed mother and various itinerant lodgers, he encountered a strikingly vivid ghost of his father. Now that he's fifty and has returned to his boyhood home to recover from a breakdown on stage, he is not surprised to find the place still haunted. He is surprised, however, by new presences. And he is soon overwhelmed by how they, coupled with an onslaught of disturbing memories, compel him to confront the clutter that has become his life: ruined career, tenuous marriage, and troubled relationship with an estranged daughter.

Genre
literary fictionliterary fictionMore like thisLess of this
Setting
2000s2000sMore like thisLess of thisIrelandIrelandMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adult
Length
medium · 211 pages

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Liked Eclipse? Here’s where I’d start.

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