Book description
In 1983, an ordinary teenager called Daniel Rathbone fell in love,
spurned a friend, and stumbled on the ability to see in the dark. On his
twenty-fifth birthday, Daniel is bequeathed a second no less unusual
gift - a Victorian writing box, the legacy of his father and the
repository of his youthful secrets, and of his current feelings of
guilt. When a visit from the once-spurned friend, Carey Schumacher,
coincides with the death of a contemporary, Daniel's peculiar endowments
are enlisted to make lasting sense of lost time and place. From Bath to
Brixton, from the 1960s to the 90s, The Oversight follows a trail of
thwarted and victorious affections. It is an intently comic tale of
vision and delusion; of family, friendship and desertion; and of the
divisively cruel need to belong. A multi-layered debut of distinction.
'Deeply impressive... Eaves simply does not put a foot wrong' Evening
Standard 'Remarkable... I was so absorbed in the novel, so admiring of
its cleverness and poise... a moving , frequently funny and impressive
debut' Sunday Times 'Eaves hasn't created a hero who can leap tall
buildings, he's created something rarer still: a vivid portrait of a man
getting to grips with adulthood' The Face 'Subtle
wondrous...intelligence and taste...gems of dry humour...a varied and
accomplished first novel' Scotland on Sunday Will Eaves was born in
Bath in 1967. He is the author of two other novels, The Oversight (2001)
and Nothing To Be Afraid Of (2005), and a collection of poems, Sound
Houses (2011). For many years he was the arts editor of the Times
Literary Supplement. He now teaches at the University of Warwick.
