Shroud (Windsor Selection S.) - Tapa dura

Axel Vander, celebrated academic and man of culture, is spending his twilight years on the west coast of America, when, out of the blue, a letter arrives hinting at the secrets he has been hiding for fifty years. To find out just how much the writer knows about his past, Vander arranges to meet her in Turin. But he is thrown into emotional turmoil by this encounter with Cass Cleave, a deeply troubled young woman desperate to discover a reason to continue living; and the meeting of the two leads inexorably towards disaster.

"'The devalued phrase "beautifully written" becomes hard currency in the fiction of John Banville. He is a master, and his prose gives continuous sensual delight' - Martin Amis"