Book description
The material collected here is a treasure trove, a fine retrospective
and a comprehensive guide to the work of Ireland's greatest living
novelist, John Banville. Selections are drawn from all of his novels, up
to and including 2012's Ancient Light; each piece standing alone,
short-story-like, but also resonating with those around it and
representing the novel from which it comes. There are radio plays, some
published in print for the first time here. There is a judicious
selection of his essays and reviews. Perhaps most beguiling of all are
the pieces of memoir, the early work (including Banville's first-ever
piece of published fiction, from 1966) and the chance to see facsimiles
of the handwritten first draft of the opening section of The Infinities.
Possessed of a Past is an extraordinary document of the writer's life
and work across nearly fifty years of practice, simultaneously offering
the perfect introduction to Banville's sublime art and manna to devoted
readers. John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is
the author of fifteen novels including The Sea, which won the 2005 Man
Booker Prize. He lives in Dublin. Raymond Bell lives in Ireland.
