ABSOLUTION

388 pp., paperback, Reprint, London, (2012) 2013

A novel set in post-apartheid South Africa. World-renowned novelist Clare Wald and daughter of anti-apartheid activists, is searching for information on her daughter who joined the armed struggle and disappeared. Sam Le Roux is writing Clare's biography.

This novel won the Spear's Best First Book Award.

"A wonderfully constructed and gripping novel about betrayal and shadows in South Africa" A.S.Byatt

"With probing finesse, Flanery opens up the question of guilt in two victims who may have been accessories to killers. The physical violence and ... landscapes tell of South Africa, but the characters' interiority and the sophisticated sense of the past are wonderfully Henry James." Literary Review

"Flanery's portrayal of South Africa is explosively powerful...This is an exceptionally intelligent, multi-layered novel. encompassing politics, history, a gripping storyline and complex characters. It has absorbing depictions of grief, guilt, parenthood and sibling rivalry, and is beautifully written" Independent

Patrick Flanery was born in California in 1975 and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. He lives in London.