 First Edition (US) | |
| Author | John David Morley |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction, mystery, crime, philosophical |
| Publisher | André Deutsch (UK) The Atlantic Monthly Press (US) |
Publication date | 1987 |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 214 pp (US edition) |
| ISBN | 0-233-98150-0 (UK) ISBN 0-87113-152-8 (US) |
The Case of Thomas N. (1987) is a novel by John David Morley.
"Found by a police officer on a bench by the river" [1] in an unnamed European city, a 16-year-old amnesiac boy is given the name ‘Thomas N.’ by state officials (‘N.’ being a bureaucratic abbreviation of ‘Name Unknown’), [2] before being diagnosed as suffering from a "fear of anything that objectively demonstrated his existence". [3] Explicitly referencing the mysterious 19th century case of Kaspar Hauser, the novel follows Thomas N.'s progress from psychiatric clinic to orphanage to an ostensibly normal existence living in a boarding-house and working in a nearby hotel. But soon he is embroiled in the investigation of an especially vicious and brutal murder, charged with a crime of which he has no memory of committing.
"To refer to The Case of Thomas N. as a thriller-as-philosophical enquiry would convey, roughly, the mix of intellectual and narrative excitement it contains. But it would not do justice to the precision of Morley’s prose, the playful rigour of his ideas, or the suggestiveness of his method" wrote Robert Winder in The Independent , [4] concluding: "Morley will some day be a name to be reckoned with." [4] In her review in The Spectator , novelist Anita Brookner saw the book as "a fearsome piece of work… Mr. Morley has contrived a nightmare. A reminder of the European origins of the psychological novel, it is an achievement worthy of considerable respect." [5]
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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1983.
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The Sense of an Ending is a 2011 novel written by British author Julian Barnes. The book is Barnes's eleventh novel written under his own name and was released on 4 August 2011 in the United Kingdom. The Sense of an Ending is narrated by a retired man named Tony Webster, who recalls how he and his clique met Adrian Finn at school and vowed to remain friends for life. When the past catches up with Tony, he reflects on the paths he and his friends have taken. In October 2011, The Sense of an Ending was awarded the Booker Prize. The following month it was nominated in the novels category at the Costa Book Awards.
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