Vision Of Elena Silves

Nicholas Shakespeare was born in 1957. The son of a diplomat, much of his youth was spent in Asia and South America. One of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists 1993, and considered by the Wall Street Journal as 'one of the best English novelists of our time', his prize-winning books have been translated into twenty-two languages. They include The Vision of Elena Silves (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award), Snowleg, The Dancer Upstairs, Inheritance, Priscilla, Six Minutes in May and acclaimed biographies of Bruce Chatwin and Ian Fleming. His most recent thriller featuring John Dyer was The Sandpit. He has been longlisted for the Booker Prize twice, was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Written with precision, clarity and rare beauty-Alongside Salman Rushdie and the late Bruce Chatwin, Shakespeare now joins the ranks of the New Exotics school -- Robert Carver New Statesman A story of love and insurrection brilliantly told-a remarkable debut-one of the best books about the continent written by an outsider Sunday Times An Englishman's novel of magic realism, flavoured with the more traditional English spices such as thriller and tourchsong, and a touch of Anglo-Saxon irony... A fine literary novel, combining several traditions and genres of fiction The Times A denouement that is unexpected, shocking and brilliantly conceived... I closed the novel with both satisfaction and regret Literary Review 'The Vision of Elena Silves is a terrific novel' -- John Sutherland London Review of Books