Christopher Burns Libri

Like a seashell, when you hold it to your ear, poetry resonates with the beating of your heart ...

Sophie Parnaby was the surviving sister of Dexter Parnaby, a celebrated missionary and explorer whose plane had crashed into the South American jungle twenty years before. When Toby Savage landed the job of cataloguing her library he was delighted.Until now his life had been dull and here was a challenging assignment, a chance to rub shoulders with the wealthy, even to experience a little secondhand adventure amongst the dusty anthropological volumes.But Sophie needed a biographer for her sainted brother. That task would take Toby into the dense rainforests in search of clues and make his name. Meanwhile there were mysteries closer to home. What were the strange markings on the wrists of Sophie s Indian servant Jorge, for example?Jorge had been plucked from the jungle as a child-rescued or kidnapped, _ depending on your point of view-and civilized in the West. But Jorge had plans of his own, as Toby was soon to discover ...The range of character and location highlight the confidence and strength with which Burns is writingTIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENTAn ingenious anthropological mystery story... bringing a freshness to contemporary British fictionINTERZONE

It begins on a quiet city street. A young woman is robbed, with the crime witnessed by a man holding a camera. In the aftermath, victim and voyeur meet. It ends six months later, by which point both their lives - and the way they choose to live them - have changed irrevocably. This is the story of what happened in between.

Featuring as the central character, a priest who has resigned his calling due to a loss of faith, this suspense novel was a contender for the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award.