Eclipse

With this latest novel, John Banville—who has forged a brilliant international reputation with such works as and applies piercing reality to a ghost story to create a profoundly moving tale of a man confronting a life gone awry. The renowned actor Alexander Cleave has had a breakdown on stage. To recover, he retreats to his boyhood home. Haunted when he lived there as a youth, the house still shelters spirits, and now there are two new lodgers in residence. Overcome by resonant memories that seem to rise up out of the house itself, Cleave is compelled to consider his ruined career, his failing marriage, and his poignant relationship with an estranged daughter destined for doom. Breathtaking, even hypnotic, is a virtuoso performance by a writer in a league with Nabokov and DeLillo.