Glen Duncan is the critically acclaimed author of six previous novels, including Death of an Ordinary Man; I, Lucifer; and, most recently, The Bloodstone Papers. He lives in London.
British writer Duncan's cerebral, propulsive seventh novel (after The Bloodstone Papers) digs with philosophical intensity into the timely question of what makes both a terrorist and a torturer tick--with a twist: the terrorist is Augustus Rose, an African-Italian-American former journalist turned successful New York restaurateur. Rose, recruited during his naOve youth into an international organization that practices "vigilante democracy," is imprisoned in Guantanamo, where Harper, an efficiently cruel U.S. operative, interrogates him, providing the main thread of the novel's three plot lines. The second recounts Rose's complex romance with Selina, which blossomed in 1968 when he was age 21 and ended three decades later with her death in a Barcelona bombing. The third sees a post-torture Rose retire to a bleak British island where he's awaiting death, until he's drawn into the violent world of a girl who befriends him. Duncan describes physical pain and emotional anguish with dramatically distilled, merciless prose, all the while carving a wondrous love story out of a tragic contemporary world where torture has become a numbing norm. (Jan.) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
Londoner Duncan's seventh novel (after The Bloodstone Papers) is as timely as it is heartbreaking-which is both a warning and a recommendation. Herein is the exquisitely crafted story of Augustus Rose, a man of mixed ethnic background who came to terrorism late in life. The backdrop is the protagonist's harrowing interrogation by the U.S. government, but the narrator's memories of his lover soon take precedence. The mix of brutal politics and wrenching personal emotions is reminiscent of William T. Vollmann or Salman Rushdie. The interrogator's philosophical asides may be a bit much for American readers ("This is the crux. The failure of the scripts. Love, justice, equality, salvation"), but a certain class of readers will devour the book like an emergency broadcast even through our hero's dissolution.-Travis Fristoe, Alachua Cty. Lib. Dist., FL Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
"Duncan can be clairvoyant about how people live now. . . . A Day and a Night and a Day . . . leave[s] you with the sense of having been brushed by something uncanny, so close does Duncan get to saying the unsayable. Bracing and original." -- New York Times Book Review"Thrilling, a probe deep into the heart of our age . . . bracing and original." -- International Herald Tribune"Imagery is a tool of seduction for Duncan, who is one of England's best-kept literary secrets. And he wields it brilliantly . . . A Day and a Night and a Day is a triumph." -- Richmond Times-Dispatch"A gripping, entertaining read." -- Orlando Sentinel"A stunning new novel...I defy most readers to put it down." -- Cleveland Plain Dealer"[Glen Duncan's] paragraphs are nothing less than accomplishments. A DAY AND A NIGHT AND A DAY....delivers an astonishingly heady and warm and enthralling read. This is the good stuff." -- Charles Bock, bestselling author of BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN"Gripping...the darkest and most convincing account of the idiocies, insights and horrors of the "war on terror" that I've yet read." -- Salon.com"This stunning novel contains equal doses of cruelty and beauty, rendered with language so precise that it reaches your nerves with both pain and delight. There are no lukewarm emotions in this novel, only the intensity of people perpetually on the verge -- Dalia Sofer, bestselling author of The Septembers of Shiraz"Glen Duncan is one of the best English-language writers working today--smart and musical, funny and serious at once. A day and a night and a day is a good estimation of how long it will take you to gulp down this wonderful novel." -- Darin Strauss, bestselling author of Chang & Eng and More Than it Hurts You"Grim, violent and paradoxically elegant." -- Kirkus Reviews"Duncan's polished, merciless, and frequently hilarious prose supplies a trove of pleasures all its own." -- Publishers Weekly"A meticulously artful book." -- New York Magazine
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