The Sea (Vintage International) (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
This is a haunting, poignant story about memory and loss. It concerns a middle-aged Irishman, Max Morden, who returns to a seaside town where he spent his summers as a child, and recalls the relationship he had with the Grace family, in particular the mysterious twins Chloe and Myles.
Winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2005 The Sea is storytelling at it's best: unusual, well-developed characters; unexpected plot twists; lyrical, elegant prose. In some ways it is reminiscent of Michael Cunningham's "The Hours," especially how both novels address the past. A gem.
— John
This is a haunting, poignant story about memory and loss. It concerns a middle-aged Irishman, Max Morden, who returns to a seaside town where he spent his summers as a child, and recalls the relationship he had with the Grace family, in particular the mysterious twins Chloe and Myles.
Winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2005 The Sea is storytelling at it's best: unusual, well-developed characters; unexpected plot twists; lyrical, elegant prose. In some ways it is reminiscent of Michael Cunningham's "The Hours," especially how both novels address the past. A gem.
— From JohnDescription
BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An “extraordinary meditation on mortality, grief, death, childhood and memory" (USA Today) about a middle-aged Irishman who has gone back to the seaside to grieve the loss of his wife.
In this luminous novel, John Banville introduces us to Max Morden, a middle-aged Irishman who has gone back to the seaside town where he spent his summer holidays as a child to cope with the recent loss of his wife. It is also a return to the place where he met the Graces, the well-heeled family with whom he experienced the strange suddenness of both love and death for the first time.
What Max comes to understand about the past, and about its indelible effects on him, is at the center of this elegiac, gorgeously written novel—among the finest we have had from this masterful writer.
About the Author
John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. The author of thirteen previous novels, he has been the recipient of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, and a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction. He lives in Dublin.
Praise For…
“Remarkable. . . . The power and strangeness and piercing beauty of [The Sea is] a wonder.” —The Washington Post Book World
“With his fastidious wit and exquisite style, John Banville is the heir to Nabokov. . . . The Sea [is] his best novel so far.” —The Sunday Telegraph
“A gem. . . . [The sea] is a presence on every page, its ceaseless undulations echoing constantly in the cadences of the prose. This novel shouldn't simply be read. It needs to be heard, for its sound is intoxicating. . . . A winning work of art.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer
“The Sea offers an extraordinary meditation on mortality, grief, death, childhood and memory. . . . Undeniably brilliant.” —USA Today