Product Description

Alistair Langford, a high-powered lawyer, has at long last achieved 'almost all' his immense ambitions. But in the course of just one evening, he recklessly destroys it all. The scandal threatens his marriage and his family and even his own identity. Quite suddenly a secret he has kept hidden all his adult life is exposed. Meanwhile his son Luke is obsessed with a beautiful actress and refuses to believe that love has ended. His ideals in tatters, he seeks a kind of redemption by helping two Kosovan asylum seekers. But illegal night shifts merge uneasily with the parties of the young and wealthy and the collision of the two worlds proves dangerous. Desperate and in the unlikely possession of a gun, Luke is being led down a dark and violent path. Talitha Stevenson's second novel is a highly suspenseful story about sexual obsession, identity and the dangers of self-deceit. An exploration of the nature of love - in long married couples, the young, parents, between siblings and friends - it is also a morality tale for our times by one of the finest young writers at work today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #385683 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Review
'A mesmerizing novel...Stevenson has an incredible talent; she writes like a very old soul, with an exquisitely-tuned sensitivity to sin, guilt and sexual obsession' Jay McInerney 'An exceptionally talented writer' Guardian 'Stevenson captures especially well the thump in the loins and imagination of lust, the excitement of first contact, and agony of sexual withdrawal. It is architecturally expansive, well paced and frequently wise' Literary Review

Guardian
‘Stevenson is an exceptionally talented writer...she dissects her characters with eloquent, dispassionate attention to detail. Literature? Bang on the nose’

Evening Standard
‘Exposure explores the fundamental questions...there is a real sense of a fine intelligence having been at work’

Customer Reviews

Hard work and not worth it
This looked like it could be interesting.

"A deftly plotted, highly suspenseful, and astutely observed morality tale, Exposure explores the dangerous pleasure of offering charity, the effects of deceit and shame on a rigidly complacent family, and the nature of love among family and friends."

Unfortunately it wasn't. the characters were flat and beige, the situations straight from a tabloid, and an all too convenient ending.

Disappointing
Sadly I cannot agree with Russell. I found the characterization wooden and the actions of the characters not believable on the basis of how they were constructed in the novel. Luke's adoption of the refugees seemed bizarre and, whilst their problems are presumably meant to put his and his family's into context, again it felt an unconvincing treatment. I struggled on to the end just to see how matters were resolved.

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This sharply cut novel is diamond in the rough of today's fearful literature.It echoes Fitzgerald's 'The Beautiful and the Damned' in its themes and in its bravely distilled prose. The exposure of the title is a microscopic examination of the lies and sacrifices it costs to maintain an ultimately worthless public image in the narcissistic moral whirlpool of upper middle class England. The writing constantly demands respect. This, like the author's first novel, 'An Empty Room' is a pleasure to read.