Patrick McGrath – författare

A story of self-obsession narrated by the point of view of a psychiatrist, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.As a psychiatrist in a top-security mental hospital in the 1950s, Peter Cleave has made a study of what he calls 'the catastrophic love affair characterized by sexual obsession.' His experience is extensive, and he is never surprised. Until, that is, he comes reluctantly to accept that the wife of one of his colleagues has embarked on such an affair...

A man is haunted by the memory of his mother with a rope round her neck. It is the American War of Independence, and having defied the British forces occupying New York she must pay for her revolutionary activities. But fifty years on, her son harbours a festering guilt for his inadvertent part in her downfall. In thrusting nineteenth-century New York, a ruthless merchant's sensitive son is denied the love of his life through his father's prejudice against the immigrants flooding into the city - and madness and violence ensue. In the wake of 9/11, a Manhattan psychiatrist treats a favoured patient reeling from the destruction of the World Trade Center, but fails to detect the damage she herself has sustained. In this trio of stunning tales from a master storyteller, Patrick McGrath excavates the layers of New York's turbulent history.

As a psychiatrist Charlie Weir has seen every kind of trauma New York has to offer. Yet he has never managed to overcome the tragic mistake, seven years earlier, that lost him his wife and his daughter, leaving him prone to corrosive loneliness and restless anger. Then into his life walks the alluring Nora Chiara, with her inescapable air of sadness and mystery, and Charlie falls for her quickly, hungrily. But he is increasingly haunted by ghastly half-memories from his childhood and as he retreats further and further into the recesses of his mind the delicate fabric of his life ruptures - with horrifying consequences.

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ASYLUM, TRAUMA AND THE WARDROBE MISTRESS'Wonderful, thrilling' JOHN BANVILLE'Has pleasure on every page' TIMESIt's 1975 and Francis McNulty, ageing poet, retired, is living in his childhood home in Cleaver Square with his daughter Gilly. Haunted by memories of the Spanish Civil War, in which he drove an ambulance, he sees awful visions of his old nemesis, General Franco, and is powerfully reminded of a terrible act of betrayal he committed in Spain. When Gilly announces her upcoming marriage, Francis is forced to confront his past, once and for all.'Impressive' GUARDIAN'A very moving portrayal of a complicated father-daughter relationship, neither of them fully able to break away' RACHEL JOYCE

***SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION***From the bestselling author of Asylum, Trauma and Spider'Ghosts of the theatre and the spectre of fascism haunt cold and grimy London in this atmospheric tale from a master of the grotesque.' GuardianJANUARY 1947.London is in ruins, there’s nothing to eat, and it’s the coldest winter in living memory. To make matters worse, Charlie Grice, one of the great stage actors of the day, has suddenly died. His widow Joan, the wardrobe mistress, is beside herself with grief.Then one night she discovers Gricey’s secret. Plunged into a dark new world, Joan realises that though fascism might hide, it never dies. Her war isn’t over after all. 'McGrath is one of the age's most elegantly accomplished divers into the human psyche . . . a master writer.' John Banville‘McGrath is that rare yet essential thing, a writer who can expose our darkest fears without making us run away from them.' New Statesman'Wonderfully sinister … a delight … you are in for a thrilling ride.' Spectator'A brilliant evocation of the theatrical world’s seedy glamour, The Wardrobe Mistress is also a moving portrait of a woman struggling to make sense of her past and imagine a future for herself.' Sunday Times'[A] rich and highly spiced feast of a novel, even before it reaches its classically gothic McGrath climax.' Reader's Digest