The Horned Man

Description

'This enormously inventive, superbly written novel puts more seasoned authors in the shade' - Sunday Times Lawrence Miller, an English expatriate in New York, tells the story of what appears to be an elaborate conspiracy to frame him for a series of brutal killings. The intricate plot entangles Miller, a teacher of Gender Studies, in the lives of a womanising colleague under investigation for sexual harassment, a lonely attorney who has developed an inexplicable passion for Miller, and a shadowy Bulgarian who adapts Kafka for the stage, is prone to acts of explosive violence, and may or may not be sleeping under Miller's office desk.As the novel spirals to its shocking conclusion, Lawrence Miller traverses, in terror, the streets of Manhattan, tracking the lines of human connection across the city and out to the decaying suburbs beyond, in wild pursuit of his persecutors.

James Lasdun's books include The Horned Man and Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked. He teaches creative writing at Columbia University and reviews regularly for the Guardian. His work has been filmed by Bernardo Bertolucci (Besieged) and he co-wrote the films Sunday, which won Best Feature and Best Screenplay awards at Sundance, and Signs and Wonders, starring Charlotte Rampling and Stellan Skarsgard.

Bristling with precise, poetic descriptions of scene and gesture * Guardian * Lasdun's prose is crisp, clear, meticulously calibrated. His attention to detail is immaculate... A novel which locks its readers inside it, keeping them trapped even after they have reached the end * The Times * The Horned Man is a marvellous novel, both compellingly readable - I literally couldn't put it down - and deeply philosophical -- John Burnside * Scotsman * A chilling tale of urban paranoia, poetically executed * Time Out *