'Shroud will not be easily surpassed for its combination of wit, moral complexit
y and compassion. It is hard to see what more a novel could do' Irish Times Axel
Vander, distinguished intellectual and elderly academic, is not the man he seem
s. When a letter arrives out of the blue, threatening to unveil his secrets -- a
nd carefully concealed identity -- Vander travels to Turin to meet its author.
There, muddled by age and alcohol, unable always to distinguish fact from fict
ion, Vander comes face to face with the woman who has the knowledge to unmask hi
m, Cass Cleave. However, her sense of reality is as unreliable as his, and the t
wo are quickly drawn together, their relationship dark, disturbed and doomed to
disaster from its very start. 'In beautiful, lucid prose John Banville describes
a tragedy so strongly rooted in history and character that, like all real trage
dies, it could not happen otherwise' The Times 'Banville is merciless in the det
ails ...he has a gift for enigmatic clarity' Daily Telegraph 'The narrative freq
uently takes on the qualities of a dream, writhing with pursuits and escapes, pe
opled by shape-shifters and avatars, subject to its own climatic and topographic
al realities' Guardian 'A moving and shockingly intimate record of life lost and
found again' Time Out
