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Summary
Summary
From the bestselling author of Headlong , a mesmerizing novel about secrecy, imagination, and a child's game turned deadly earnest
The sudden trace of a disturbing, forgotten aroma compels Stephen Wheatley to return to the site of a dimly remembered but troubling childhood summer in wartime London. As he pieces together his scattered images, we are brought back to a quiet, suburan street where two boys, Keith and his sidekick-Stephen-are engaged in their own version of the war effort: spying on the neighbors, recording their movements, ferreting out their secrets.
But when Keith utters six shocking words, the boys' game of espionage takes a sinister and unintended turn. A wife's simple errands and a family's ordinary rituals-once the focus of childish speculation-become the tragic elements of adult catastrophe.
In gripping prose, charged with emotional intensity, Spies reaches into the moral confusion of youth to reveal a reality filled with deceptions and betrayals, where the bonds of friendship, marriage, and family are unravelled by cowardice and erotic desire. Master illusionist Michael Frayn powerfully demonstrates, yet again, that what appears to be happening in front of our eyes often turns out to be something we can't see at all.
Author Notes
Michael Frayn is the author of the award-winning "Copenhagen" & twelve other plays, including "Noises Off". The most recent of his nine novels is "Headlong", a New York Times Editor's Choice & Booker Prize finalist. He lives in London.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
By the author of the bestselling Booker Prize finalist Headlong, this dark, nostalgic and bittersweet parable evokes the childhood escapades of an isolated and hapless young boy caught up in the uncertainties of wartime London in the early 1940s, just after the horrors of the Luftwaffe blitz. Stephen Wheatley, now a grandfather living abroad, is drawn back to London to revisit his boyhood home, to deal with the complexities and eventual tragedy engendered by what seemed a harmless game of spy when he was just a schoolboy during WWII. His best friend at the time was Keith Hayward, the bright son of rather standoffish parents; Keith and Stephen embark on a childish adventure after Keith announces that his British mother is a German spy. The murky plot follows their frustrations as they try to shadow Keith's mum as she goes through the mundane ritual of stopping by her sister's house with letters and a shopping basket, only to disappear into the neighboring streets. Discovering at last that she takes a route through the culvert beneath the railroad and leaves letters in a box hidden on the other side, they eventually learn that she sometimes meets a tattered, bearded tramp hiding in a bombed-out cellar. When Keith's mum finally realizes they have found her out, she secretly seeks Stephen's loyalty, making him complicit. Thrust into a role far beyond his years, but helpless to refuse, he is overwhelmed. As it plays out to a surprising denouement, this enigmatic melodrama will keep readers' attention firmly in hand. (Apr. 3) Forecast: Fans of Headlong may miss that novel's dark comedy, but those who appreciate Frayn for the rigorous intelligence of his fiction will find him in fine form here. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
Following up Booker Prize finalist Headlong and the Tony Award-winning Copenhagen, Frayn crafts a story of World War II London, where two boys playing at spy discover things about family and neighbors they shouldn't know. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
I don't know how Keith notices the first of the secret signs. I realize that he's stopped turning the pages and brought the diary very close to his eyes, the magnifying glass forgotten. "What?" I whisper. He points to the space for a Friday in January. It seems at first to be empty. Then I see some kind of handwritten mark, nestling inconspicuously in the little gap between the date itself and the phase of the moon: a tiny x. He slowly turns the pages of his mother's diary. More x's. As I record them, a pattern begins to emerge-the x, whatever it is, happens once a month. In some places it's crossed out, and entered a day or two earlier or later. "She has meetings," I suggest. "Secret meetings. They're planned in advance only sometimes the person can't come so they have to change the date..." "Look at the moon," Keith whispers. I go back to the beginning, tracking the phases of moon. Yes, the little x's are approximately keeping step with the lunar calendar. "The night of no moon," he says. The hairs rise on my neck. I can see the possibilities as clearly as he can-the unlit plane landing on the fairway of the golf course, the parachutist falling softly through the perfect darkness... Excerpted from Spies: A Novel by Michael Frayn All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.