He Wants

Product Description

Observer Book of the Year 2014 Lewis Sullivan, an RE teacher at a secondary school, was approaching retirement when he wondered for the first time whether he ought to have chosen a more dramatic career. He lives in a village in the Midlands, less than a mile from the house in which he grew up. He always imagined living by the sea. His grown-up daughter visits every day, bringing soup. He does not want soup. He frequents his second-favourite pub, where he can get half a shandy, a speciality sausage & a bit of company. But when a childhood friend appears on the scene, Lewis finds his life & comfortable routine shaken up. In Moore`s inimitable, haunting style, this seemingly simple but in fact multi-layered narrative unfolds with compelling assurance. Moving between Lewis`s current life of cosy habit, his memories of childhood, & his aged father agitating away in a nursing home, plot twists thicken & weave with stealthily increasing tension. Always unexpected, sparely written & beautifully crafted, He Wants deftly dissects the themes of loneliness, anxiety, the weight of recollection & the complex nature of friendship & family ties. A surprising, lingering & intensely moving tale which reflects the prodigious talent of one of our most exciting novelists.