Eclipse

<p><b>The first of John Banville’s Cleave Trilogy, concerning father and daughter Alexander and Cass Cleave, <i>Eclipse </i>is a lyrical exploration of memory, family and identity.</b><br><br>Alexander Cleave, actor, has left his career and his family behind and banished himself to his childhood home. He wants to retire from life, but finds this impossible in a house brimming with presences, some ghostly, some undeniably human.<br><br>Memories and anxiety for the future, and more particularly for his beloved but troubled daughter, conspire to distract him from his dreaming retirement.<br><br>This humane and beautifully written story tells the tragic tale of a man, intelligent, preposterous and vulnerable, who in attempting to bring the performance to a close finds himself travelling inevitably towards a devastating denouement.<br><br><b>‘This unsparing, compassionate, humane book demonstrates again that Banville is in a class of his own’ – <i>The Spectator</i></b><br><br><b>Continue the story with <i>Shroud</i>.<br><br>Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.</b></p>