Acts of the Assassins

Richard Beard’s most recent book is Acts of the Assassins, which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize.In the twenty years since his first book he has published critically acclaimed novels and narrative non-fiction, including Becoming Drusilla, the story of how a friendship between two men was changed by a gender transition. He was formerly Director of the National Academy of Writing in London, and is now a Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo and has a Creative Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia. He is an optimistic opening batsman for the Authors Cricket Club.

"The Acts of the Assassins is...spectacularly successful. It is thoughtful and clever and brutal and true... It is a Chinese puzzle box of a novel. A garden of forking paths. A page-turner. A modern classic" -- Benjamin Judge Book Munch "Extraordinarily funny...confident and enchanting" Guardian "It is a darkly funny, virtuoso performance... so cleverly done it almost winks at the reader" -- Phil Baker Sunday Times "Controversial, thought-provoking, funny and challenging, Acts of the Assassin is a delightfully fantastic and utterly compelling tale" -- Declan Burke Sunday Business Post "One of the strangest and most interesting novels written this century... Brave and gripping novel" Catholic Herald