![]() First edition | |
Author | William Boyd |
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Language | English |
Publisher | Hamish Hamilton |
Publication date | 28 Sep 1987 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Pages | 384 |
ISBN | 0-241-12383-6 |
Preceded by | Stars and Bars (1985) |
Followed by | Brazzaville Beach (1990) |
The New Confessions is the fourth novel by the Scottish writer William Boyd published in 1987. The theme and narrative structure of the novel is modelled on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Les Confessions , the reading of which has a huge impact on the protagonist's life. The book is the first of Boyd's 'whole-life' novels which follow a protagonist through all, or at least most, of his or her life interspersing real and imagined events and people. Later such novels include Any Human Heart (2002), Sweet Caress (2015) and The Romantic (2022).
The book follows the life of John James Todd from his birth in Edinburgh up to his final exile on a Mediterranean island. Todd fights in the First World War and also films it as a cameraman, he then works for a film studio and ends up in Berlin where he starts his filming of The Confessions. After the financial collapse of his backer, he moves to Hollywood along with many German exiles. He becomes a war correspondent during the Second World War and then returns to America where he becomes caught up in the anti-communist witch hunts.