Out Of This World by Graham Swift
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LAST ORDERS AND MOTHERING SUNDAY, reissuedfor the first time in Scribner
In 1972, Robert Beech, First World War veteran and prominent figure in the arms industry, is killed by a car bomb. The event cuts short the career of his son Harry, a news photographer, and comes close to destroying his granddaughter Sophie. Ten years later, Harry, now working in aerial photography, and Sophie, visiting an analyst in New York, remain scarred and divided by the event. Around their broken relationship and Harrys memories of his truncated career and his father, the novel builds a story that is acutely private yet sweepingly public, at the heart of which lies Harrys lifelong dedication of the camera.
Out of This World spans many of the twentieth centurys scenes of conflict, but also contains some of Graham Swifts most achingly intimate scenes of personal confrontationscenes that, powerful and haunting as photographs can be, no photographs can capture.
Deserves to be ranked in the forefront of contemporary literatureNew York Times
Superb, profoundSunday Times
In 1972, Robert Beech, First World War veteran and prominent figure in the arms industry, is killed by a car bomb. The event cuts short the career of his son Harry, a news photographer, and comes close to destroying his granddaughter Sophie. Ten years later, Harry, now working in aerial photography, and Sophie, visiting an analyst in New York, remain scarred and divided by the event. Around their broken relationship and Harrys memories of his truncated career and his father, the novel builds a story that is acutely private yet sweepingly public, at the heart of which lies Harrys lifelong dedication of the camera.
Out of This World spans many of the twentieth centurys scenes of conflict, but also contains some of Graham Swifts most achingly intimate scenes of personal confrontationscenes that, powerful and haunting as photographs can be, no photographs can capture.
Deserves to be ranked in the forefront of contemporary literatureNew York Times
Superb, profoundSunday Times