The Untouchable is an engrossing, exquisitely written and almost bewilderingly s
mart book ...It's the fullest book I've read in a very long time, utterly accomp
lished, thoroughly readable, written by a novelist of vast talent' Richard Ford
Victor Maskell has been betrayed. After the announcement in the Commons and the
hasty revelation of his double life of wartime espionage, his disgrace is public
, his knighthood revoked, his position as curator of the Queen's pictures termin
ated. There are questions to be answered.
For whom has he been sacrificed? To
what has he sacrificed his life? No novel burrowed deeper beneath my skin than
The Untouchable ...Prose of great elegance, applied to a sardonic narrative, cre
ated an atmosphere at once austere, chilling and utterly believable' John Coldst
ream, Daily Telegraph Banville is the most intelligent and stylish novelist curr
ently at work in English ...the mien is austere and Victorian; the awareness, th
e ironic readings of the contemporary are razor-sharp' George Steiner, Observer
Brilliant displays of power and control ...magnificently written and, in its exp
loration of inhumanity, startlingly humane' Alex Clark, Guardian
