Strangers on a Train: A Virago Modern Classic

Description

CLASSIC THRILLER BEHIND THE HITCHCOCK FILM AND UPCOMING , and Highsmith's first novel - soon to be remade by David Fincher, director of Gone Girl, with a screenplay by Gillian Flynn. By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley and Carol 'Her books have stylistic texture, psychological depth, mesmeric readability' SUNDAY TIMES 'The original, the best, the gloriously twisted Queen of Suspense' MARK BILLINGHAM 'A gem . . . A magnificent suspense' DAILY MAIL The psychologists would call it folie a deux . . . 'Bruno slammed his palms together. "Hey! Cheeses, what an idea! I kill your wife and you kill my father! We meet on a train, see, and nobody knows we know each other! Perfect alibis! Catch?''' Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno are passengers on the same train. Haines is a successful architect in the midst of a divorce, Bruno a mysterious smooth-talker with a sadistic proposal: he'll murder Haines's wife if Haines will murder Bruno's father. As Bruno carries out his twisted plan, Guy finds himself trapped in Highsmith's perilous world, where, under the right circumstances, ordinary people are capable of extraordinary crimes. From this moment, almost against his conscious will, he is trapped in a nightmare of shared guilt and an insidious merging of personalities.

Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to New York when she was six. In her senior year, she edited the college magazine, having decided at the age of sixteen to become a writer. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train (1950), was made into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. The Talented Mr Ripley (1955), introduced the fascinating anti-hero Tom Ripley, and was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1999 by Anthony Minghella. Highsmith died in Locarno, Switzerland, in February 1995. Her last novel, Small g: A Summer Idyll, was published posthumously, the same year.

Highsmith is a giant of the genre. The original, the best, the gloriously twisted Queen of Suspense - Mark Billingham To call Patricia Highsmith a thriller writer is true but not the whole truth: her books have stylistic texture, psychological depth, mesmeric readability - Sunday Times Her novels, with their mysterious non sequiturs, weird pairings and attractions and moments of stifled comedy, have an unearthly sheen all their own...Highsmith was a genuine one-off, and her books will haunt you - Daily Telegraph I love Highsmith so much . . . What a revelation her writing is - Gillian Flynn One closes most of her books with a feeling that the world is more dangerous than one had ever imagined - New York Times Book Review