- Paperback: 259 pages
- Publisher: Picador USA; Reprint edition (Dec 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312421907
- ISBN-13: 978-0312421908
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,592,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A Landing on the Sun
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Product Description
Review
"An elegance and cunning reminiscent of Henry James, and Mr. Frayn's most artful creation so far." --"The New York Times Book Review"
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Product Description
A civil servant in the Cabinet Office, Brian Jessel, is asked to reopen the case of a predecessor who died in the 1970s, apparently by suicide. As he investigates the case he discovers what really happened - and the reader learns about Brian's own troubled life. By the author of "The Trick of It".
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A lovely mixture of wit, tragedy, an expose of the mind of the middle ranking civil servant, and throughout, two love stories bubbling to the surface despite their protagonists' attempts to ignore them. Very funny and very sad, often in the space of a page or two.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An excellent read which encompasses amongst other things suspense, philosophical debate and a love story. Although the plot is essentially about two people in a different era, the glimpses into the narrator's own personal life leave you wanting for more. This is an interesting insight into the workings of the Civil Service which highlights superbly how public money can be wasted.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
By turns touching and very funny, A Landing on the Sun charts a colourless civil servant's gradual unravellings of the mystery of a nameless committee headed by a late, suicidal colleague. Frayn doles out the information in calculated driblets, and the first few chapters do require patience, but - as with Headlong - the story then snares all your interest. I first read this during an extremely long and tedious train journey, but by the end would have willingly postponed arrival to reach the novel's conclusion more quickly..
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Subtle and poignant
Frayn captures brilliantly the civil service of the 1970s, and brought memories of the era flooding back for me (I worked in Whitehall in the 70s) - not only the buildings and... Read more
Published 4 months ago by dandelion
Irony in retrospect...
Frayn's wry, wily and touching yarn is all the more ironic, given David Cameron's current round of government-sponsored research into the nature of happiness. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Andy Millward
Not the thriller it appears to be - but a good, clever story all the...
A fascinating and original story about a civil servant who is tasked with investigated the mysterious death of a colleague some 15 years earlier. Read more
Published 16 months ago by BookWorm
Frayn's finest?
I love this book: it is beautiful and absorbing. Is it the perfect novel, I wonder? Part detective thriller, part procedural, part love story, part philosophy, part comedy, all... Read more
Published on 12 April 2009 by GJ
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