In a dishevelled west London flat the body of a young man lies crumpled, the victim of a suicide. In a stylish family home less than a mile away is a writer: stranded in mid-life, his one triumph behind him, his family slipping away from him, all he has to hold on to is his self-belief that one day the world will recognise his talents. From these two seemingly unrelated elements, Terence Blacker creates a magnificently compulsive novel of ego, envy, self-deception and, ultimately, self-destruction. Gregory Keays is a man with a wonderful future behind him. A dazzlingly brilliant first work has led to a series of false starts, wrong turnings and critical cold shoulders. Reduced to compiling a book of literary lists and stuck in the mire of his latest fiction, Insignificance, Gregory's life turns around when he takes under his wing Peter Gibson, a promising student at the night school where he teaches creative writing. When Gibson kills himself following an argument with his mentor, Gregory pays him the highest compliment - he appropriates his work and passes it off as his own...
| ISBN | 075381272X | | Pages | 304 | | ISBN13 | 9780753812723
(What's this?) | | Weight (grammes) | 285 | | Publisher | Orion Publishing Co | | Published in | London | | Imprint | Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) | | Height (mm) | 198 | | Format | Paperback | | Width (mm) | 130 | | Publication date | 04 Oct 2001 | | Spine width (mm) | 23 | | DEWEY | 823.914 | | Academic level | General | | DEWEY edition | DC21 | |
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