The Story Archive

The Book of Evidence

John Banville · 1989 CE · Novel · English · Contemporary

A scientist who has left his wife and son hostage on a Mediterranean island comes home to Ireland owing money to serious people, learns that his mother has sold the Dutch paintings, and goes to a neighbour's house to take one back. The statement he writes from his cell is a great deal more interested in the woman in the portrait than in the woman he met on the stairs. Shortlisted for the Booker, and the first of three novels narrated by Freddie Montgomery.

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