Product Description

It is a Thursday evening. After work Martin Blom drives to the supermarket to buy some groceries. As he walks back to his car a shot rings out…

When he wakes up he is blind. His neurosurgeon, Bruno Visser, tells him that his loss of sight is permanent and that he must expect to experience shock, depression, self-pity, even suicidal thoughts before his rehabilitation is complete. But it doesn't work out quite like that. And one spring evening, while Martin is practising in the clinic gardens with his new white cane, something miraculous happens.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #518524 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09-19
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Sunday Times
`A stunningly clever thriller'

Observer
`A stunning premise, brilliantly unravelled…it confirms Thomson in the front rank of English authors'

Guardian
`Wonderful … he has an extraordinary capacity to construct a parallel universe … a powerful creative talent'

Customer Reviews

Fantastic
Just recently re-read this book, I hated knowing how it went! I thought it was brilliant, great concept, and I loved the two stories running side by side.

sheer perfection
An astounding read. Every sentence burns with vivid imagination. Not a wasted word, and you are gripped with a lynchian story that entertains and surprises. Half way through the plot and tone totally about turn, to an unsettling but brilliant conclusion. Sheer beauty.

Great start - poor finish
Having read the glowing reviews at the head of this section as I had just finished the last page of the novel I wondered whether that person had read the same novel - or had indeed read any other novels to compare it with - then the sneaky feeling the author himself had penned it crossed my mind - ah conspiracies within conspiracies!

I do have to say I concur with the more negative reviews; the novel is well written but ruins a great premise by not following through. Starting off as a great twist on two genres, conspiracy thriller and detective story, the creative impetus is really squandered by a cut and paste job of another narrator/storyline in the second half.

Not for me to read into the curious ending any great ideas about non-visibility of the blind character - just a perception that the writer was incapable of fulfilling satisfactorily the narrative strands he had posited. This is disappointing as Thomson has great writing skills, which isn't matched (in this novel, I'd be curious to see how his others pan out) by an ability to plot. It's as if he tired of the story and wanted it to end.