The Executor

Description

An elegant and unsettling novel about Matt, a man who becomes the literary executor of a friend's estate, and the moral dilemmas he faces when he uncovers some unpublished, and potentially explosive, material 'Exquisitely metered, intimate and yet profound, glimmeringly intelligent.A worthwhile, interesting and impressive achievement' Edward Docx, Guardian What matters most- fidelity or art? Marriage or friendship? The wishes of the living or the talents of the dead? Literary executor Matt Holmes finds himself considering these questions sooner than he thinks when his friend, the poet Robert Pope, dies unexpectedly. A trail of clues Rob has left within his archives leads Matt to a series of shocking discoveries that begins to unsettle everything he thought he knew about his friend. Should Matt conceal what he has found or share it? After all, it's not just Rob's reputation that could be transformed forever.

Born in Skipton, Yorkshire, Blake Morrison is the author of bestselling memoirs, And When Did You Last See Your Father? (winner of the J.R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography and the Esquire Award for Non-Fiction) and Things My Mother Never Told Me ('the must read book of the year' - Tony Parsons),. He also wrote a study of the disturbing child murder, the Bulger case, As If. His acclaimed recent novels include South of the River and The Last Weekend. He is also a poet, critic, journalist and librettist. He lives in South London.

A novel of multi-level brilliance, which offers a smart, funny mystery built around ethical concerns over privacy and biography, while casting a beady eye on workplace politics and male midlife crises -- Anthony Cummins * Daily Mail * Adept, attentive and occasionally beautiful ... When the poetry starts to break through, the book comes alive - reverberatingly, ravishingly so. Everything is illuminated... enter the revivifying excitements of adultery, incest, euthanasia; sex and lust and love; dreams, mortality and death... exquisitely metered, intimate and yet profound, glimmeringly intelligent, slyly sensual ... A worthwhile, interesting and impressive achievement -- Edward Docx * The Guardian * Generously and skilfully written ... The unravelling of the novel's moral perplexity is both ingenious and persuasive... A pleasing and very satisfying novel. -- Allan Massie * The Scotsman * A dark and compelling tale of what we leave behind us when we die -- Alex Preston * The Guardian * A stylist and satirical take on Kindle-era publishing, and is also a timely interrogation on the pertinence of "rampant masculinity" in contemporary fiction. -- Kitty Grady * Financial Times *