Shuttlecock [Paperback]

Graham Swift (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 12, 1999

Prentis, senior clerk in the 'dead crimes' department of police archives, is becoming more and more confused. Alienated from his wife and children, and obsessed by his father, a wartime hero now the mute inmate of a mental hospital, Prentis feels increasingly unsettled as his enigmatic boss, Mr Quinn, turns his investigation towards him - and his father. Gradually Prentis suspects that his father's breakdown and Quinn's menacing behaviour are connected and the link is to be found in his father's memoirs, "Shuttlecock". 'Excellent, profound' - Alan Hollinghurst, "London Review of Books". 'An astonishing study of forms of guilt, laced with a thread of detection, and puckering now and then into outrageous humour' - "Sunday Times". 'A superbly written claustrophobic account of power that corrupts private and public life and of guilt that becomes obsession' - "Daily Telegraph". 'Swift's central strength as a writer is his integrity. Story and character are treated with a seriousness and respect that while allowing for the oddity of human behaviour - "Shuttlecock" is thoroughly and beautifully odd - always honours them' - "Times Literary Supplement". 'Serious, moving and often very funny indeed' - "Observer".

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An astonishing study of forms of guilt, laced with a thread of detection--and outrageous humor." -The Sunday Times (London)

"A world that is half Kafka, half Orwell--joined on a cord of elegant, tough, swift writing." -San Francisco Examiner


--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Prentis, the narrator of this nightmarish novel, catalogs "dead crimes" for a branch of the London Police Department and suspects that he is going crazy. His files keep vanishing. His boss subjects him to cryptic taunts. His family despises him. And as Prentis desperately tries to hold on to the scraps of his sanity, he uncovers a conspiracy of blackmail and betrayal that extends from his department and into the buried past of his father, a war hero code-named "Shuttlecock"--and, lately, a resident of a hospital for the insane. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Pan Books Ltd (November 12, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330353713
• ISBN-13: 978-0330353717
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,472,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A magnificent book. Grippin, enthralling & completely unique, September 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Shuttlecock (Paperback)

Following Graham Swift's well-deserved successes with Waterland & Last Orders, I'm amazed this book remains virtually unknown. It is one of my all-time favourites, repaying multiple readings.

It works on several levels - as a straight thriller (is the narrator really paranoid? is Quinn insane? what's the truth about Prentice Snr, a mute inmate in a mental hospital), as a wonderfully vivid decriptive novel (Wimbledon, the London underground & Eastern France are all brought to life magnificently), a terrific gallery of characters, a study on family relations, guilt and expectations ... I could go on.

My advice: buy it, read it & pass it on to your friends.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The one I have been looking for., July 25, 2002

By 

Edward Bach (Fullerton, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shuttlecock (Paperback)

For the past 40 years or so I have been looking for what I regard, the perfect book. This is it. I found it on my shelf, of all places. It had been sitting there for years ignored and overlooked for the more preferable reads, the bigger-better authors who garner the biggerst audience. Swift is magic. His main character, Prentis, is as I would draw him, ignomatic, real, diabolical. The book has a lurid, eeire feel to it, not creepy, but weird, the way I like it. Easy to follow but not shallow by any means. Anyone who becomes bored by reading Swift is a moron. There is a pile of substance between those simple lines, it just takes a littel intellect to find it.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The one I have been looking for., July 25, 2002

By 

Edward Bach (Fullerton, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shuttlecock (Paperback)

For the past 40 years or so I have been looking for what I regard, the perfect book. This is it. I found it on my shelf, of all places. It had been sitting there for years ignored and overlooked for the more preferable reads, the bigger-better authors who garner the biggerst audience. Swift is magic. His main character, Prentis, is as I would draw him, ignomatic, real, diabolical. The book has a lurid, eeire feel to it, not creepy, but weird, the way I like it. Easy to follow but not shallow by any means. Anyone who becomes bored by reading Swift is a moron. There is a pile of substance between those simple lines, it just takes a littel intellect to find it.