‘Billy Gray was my best friend and I fell in love with his mother’.
This is the story of John Banville’s new and brilliant novel, Ancient Light. It is set in the present day, with main character Alex Cleave, an aging actor, reminiscing about the past, his affair with Mrs Gray and the suicide of his daughter ten years ago. Alex was 15 when he started a love affair with Mrs Gray - or did she start it with him? The affair takes place in Ireland in the 1950s and Banville paints an atmospheric picture of rural Ireland. The best of Banville’s writing is the wonderful prose describing the past and their illicit love as he slowly builds up the characters of Alex and Mrs Gray. Truly a novel to savour.
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