Product Description

A civil servant in the Cabinet Office, Brian Jessel is asked to re-open the case of a predecessor who died in the 1970s, apparently by suicide. As he investigates the case he discovers what really happened - and the reader learns about Brian's own troubled life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #214847 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 259 pages

Customer Reviews

Could not put this book down
An excellent read which encompasses amongst other things suspense, philosophical debate and a love story. Although the plot is essentially about two people in a different era, the glimpses into the narrator's own personal life leave you wanting for more. This is an interesting insight into the workings of the Civil Service which highlights superbly how public money can be wasted.

Paper-shuffling turns into psychological tease
By turns touching and very funny, A Landing on the Sun charts a colourless civil servant's gradual unravellings of the mystery of a nameless committee headed by a late, suicidal colleague. Frayn doles out the information in calculated driblets, and the first few chapters do require patience, but - as with Headlong - the story then snares all your interest. I first read this during an extremely long and tedious train journey, but by the end would have willingly postponed arrival to reach the novel's conclusion more quickly..

Witty love story
A lovely mixture of wit, tragedy, an expose of the mind of the middle ranking civil servant, and throughout, two love stories bubbling to the surface despite their protagonists' attempts to ignore them. Very funny and very sad, often in the space of a page or two.