by Iris Murdoch
First published 2019
Bradley Pearson has left his career as a tax collector behind. He wants to spend his retirement years alone, crafting the novel that will redeem his two earlier failures. Bradley craves quiet and solitude for his literary ambitions. Instead, his doorbell rings constantly. His ex-wife appears at his door. Friends call with their problems. His sister arrives with her troubles. A young woman wants him to teach her about writing. Each interruption pulls Bradley deeper into other people's chaos. The dusty, self-centered man finds himself caught in a web of relationships and complications. These entanglements will not simply inconvenience him. They will destroy him. Bradley discovers that the very human connections he tries to avoid become the source of both his greatest inspiration and his ultimate downfall.
Genres: literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, adult-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-driven, fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
496 pages · Paperback · Vintage Classics