[home] [news] [this year's award] [publishers] [libraries] [award archive] [faqs] [dublin city public libraries] [IMPAC] [contact us]
|
The
2004 Award
|
|
Spies by Michael Frayn Publisher
of Nominated Edition: |
Nominated by:
|
| the complete A-Z listing of nominated authors |
|
ABOUT
THE BOOK
|
| In the quiet cul-de-sac where Keith and Stephen live the only immediate signs of the Second World War are the blackout at night and a single random bombsite. But the two boys start to suspect all is not as is seems when one day Keith announces a disconcerting discovery: the Germans have infiltrated his own family. And when the secret underground world they have dreamed up emerges from the shadows they find themselves engulfed in mysteries far deeper and more painful than they have bargained for. |
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
| Michael Frayn was born in London in 1933 and began his career as a journalist on the Guardian and the Observer. His nine previous novels include Towards the End of the Morning, The Trick of It and A landing on the Sun. His most recent, Headlong, was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize, Whitbread Novel Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. Spies won the 2002 Whitbread Novel Award. His thirteen plays range from Noises Off to Copenhagen, and he has translated a number of works, mostly from the Russian. He is married to the biographer and critic Claire Tomalin. |
|
Reader
Review
|
|
Michael Frayn's novel is an excellent piece of writing, well crafted and full of nostalgia. Stephen and Keith are neighbours and friends - England is at war and the boys, with their fertile imaginations, decide that there is a German spy in their midst. Their detective work produces unexpected results. Frayn brilliantly explores the pain and confusion of a child's mind, his knowing but not understanding. Spies must surely make the IMPAC Dublin Award shortlist. Member
of the Raheny Library reading Group, Dublin, Ireland |
 |
[home] [news] [this year's award] [publishers] [libraries] [award archive] [dublin city public libraries] [IMPAC] [faqs] [contact us]
Copyright
© 2007 Dublin City Public Libraries
