Jean Guiloineau Books

A brilliant novel by an acclaimed author who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2000.

The setting is Berlin. Into this divided city, wrenched between East and West, between past and present; comes twenty-five-year-old Leonard Marnham, assigned to a British-American surveillance team. Though only a pawn in an international plot that is never fully revealed to him, Leonard uses his secret work to escape the bonds of his ordinary life -- and to lose his unwanted innocence. The promise of his new life begins to be fulfilled as Leonard becomes a crucial part of the surveillance team, while simultaneously being initiated into a new world of love and sex by Maria, a beautiful young German woman. It is a promise that turns to horror in the course of one terrible evening -- a night when Leonard Marnham learns just how much of his innocence he's willing to shed. "From the Paperback edition.

In mid-80s post-industrial America, a small town struggles with the remnants of defunct factories as a young journalist and college dropout, Bill, writes for The Daily Truth. His essays reflect on the decline of industry and his family's legacy, haunted by his father's suicide and their once-thriving industrial empire. The monotony of summer is shattered when local troublemaker Ronny Lawton reports his father missing, leading to the discovery of a dismembered finger. The town suspects Ronny of murder, but evidence is lacking. As the Lawton family's tragic story captivates the community, Ronny becomes an unlikely icon. Bill's obsession with the case deepens; he becomes entangled with Ronny’s estranged wife, uncovers a decomposing head, and finds himself a suspect in the murder investigation. Tensions escalate when Ronny takes his wife, child, and Bill hostage during a standoff with the FBI. Bill's eventual escape leads him to reflect on the disillusionment of the American dream. The narrative, marked by sharp, intense writing, explores the decline of a town, an era, and individual lives, intertwining a gripping murder mystery with profound commentary on failed aspirations and inevitable destruction.

Helping to research her lover's film on the great plague, Andrea returns to Provence. Traveling with Mandia, a fellow South African and Black activist, helps Andrea put into perspective the more hedonistic elements of her new life. As the story unfolds in a landscape evoked with breathtaking mastery, Andrea and Mandia confront the uneasy relationships that develop between themselves and their lovers. Their difficulties form an allegory for those faced by two disparate continents, as they undertake the process of reconciling Europe's past and Africa's present.