Bellevue Square
A psychological novel in which a writer investigates a mysterious man who resembles him, confronting memory, guilt, and family secrets along the way. Its metafictional design deepens the instability of identity.
Work Information
Chasing a double turns memory and guilt back toward the self.
As the protagonist pursues a man who seems to mirror him, memory and family secrets gradually overlap. Its metafictional approach brings out urban loneliness and the instability of self-image.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Anchor Canada
- Published
- 2018-09-18
- Pages
- 288 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.21 x 1.91 x 20.07 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780385684859
- ISBN-10
- 0385684851
- Price
- 3229 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Mystery & Thrillers/Thrillers/Psychological & Suspense
From Giller Prize-winning author Michael Redhill comes a literary thriller about a woman who fears for her sanity—and then her life—when she learns that her doppelganger has appeared in a local park. Jean Mason has a doppelganger. She's never seen her, but others swear they have. Apparently, her identical twin hangs out in Kensington Market, where she sometimes buys churros and drags an empty shopping cart down the streets, like she's looking for something to put in it. Jean's a grown woman with a husband and two kids, as well as a thriving bookstore in downtown Toronto, and she doesn't rattle easily--not like she used to. But after two customers insist they've seen her double, Jean decides to investigate. She begins at the crossroads of Kensington Market: a city park called Bellevue Square. Although she sees no one who looks like her, it only takes a few visits to the park for her to become obsessed with the possibility of encountering her twin in the flesh. With the aid of a small army of locals who hang around in the park, she expands her surveillance, making it known she'll pay for information or sightings. A peculiar collection of drug addicts, scam artists, philanthropists, philosophers and vagrants—the regulars of Bellevue Square—are eager to contribute to Jean's investigation. But when some of them start disappearing, she fears her alleged double has a sinister agenda. Unless Jean stops her, she and everyone she cares about will face a fate much stranger than death.
MICHAEL REDHILL is the author of the novels Martin Sloane , shortlisted for the Giller Prize and winner of the Books in Canada First Novel Award, Consolation , longlisted for the Man Booker Prize; and most recently, Bellevue Square , winner of the 2017 Giller Prize. He has written a novel for young adults, six collections of poetry, and four plays, including the internationally celebrated Goodness . He has also written a series of crime novels under the name Inger Ash Wolfe, one of which, The Calling , was made into a movie with Susan Sarandon and Donald Sutherland. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Reviews
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Excellent style and fascinating story, but the end was disappointing.
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We read this book for our book club. I can't say I enjoyed it. It was in part interesting and incite-full into mental illness. The end of the story was confusing and bizarre.
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Not everyone will like this book but I did. The ending isn’t tidy and the novel takes you from what seems a concrete world into one that is dreamlike. It is a complicated journey of the narrator. Being the first of a triptych, I wonder how the next will continue.
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My review does not require 20 more words so this will have to be enough from me at this time
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I quite agree with the review, "fiendishly clever"! Spiraling here, then there as one not sure of what is real, frightened and angry too, tells us her story. You must read this creative and engrossing tale carefully, there is much to take in. Definitely will of Redhill's work.
Related Literary Awards
- Giller Prize Edition 24 (2017) ・Winner