- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Black Swan; paperback / softback edition (5 Dec 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0552997080
- ISBN-13: 978-0552997089
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.6 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 272,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Anna and Luke are a young, childless couple whose lives are overturned when a homeless man, Declan, moves in with them. Gently he insinuates himself into their lives and becomes obsessed with a story that Luke is writing. Part of the novel is then re-enacted which leads to an unexpected finale.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Luke and Anna live a good life in London, both employed, able to indulge their interests in socialising, and Luke doesn't mind some "funny fags" now and then. The only blott on the landscape for our young protagonists is that despite trying every method imaginable, Anna is unable to conceive their child.
Luke then encounters Declan, an apparently homeless man who somehow knows where Luke lives. He arrives at their door one day and insinuates himself into their lives so that he ends up staying for a while. Declan is a simple man, but he brings great disruption into the lives of Luke and Anna. Luke reads him portions of a novel he is writing, "The Crab People", which begins to mirror many occurrences in Luke and Anna's lives. Whilst Luke is away on a photography course with the poly he works for, Declan takes Anna to a woodland shack and there takes pictures of a sleeping Anna tied up after they make love.
Luke finds the negatives and all hell breaks loose, culminating in Declan being removed from their house by the police.
But wait! Anna begins to feel she may be pregnant, and it clearly can't be Luke's. She sets off to try and find Declan at the mental institution he has previously attended, triggering a series of events which conclude in a most unexpected denouement.
I have raved about Simon Maginn in the past, though his last book A SICKNESS OF THE SOUL was a disappointment. With this novel however he has returned to form, delivering a disturbing and thought-provoking treatment of the relationships between those who are what they seem, Luke and Anna, and those who are not, Declan. He manages to portray the alienation of a seemingly backward man in a sympathetic way, whilst at the same time hinting of a darker side to the same man's nature. Maginn stealthily removes the foundations of Luke and Anna's life whilst keeping the reader hooked on wanting to know what comes next.
A compelling and intelligent work which should confirm Maginn's growing maturity and talent.
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