Shuttlecock

By: Graham Swift

Narrated by: Alex Jennings

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LAST ORDERS AND MOTHERING SUNDAY, reissued for the first time in Scribner

Prentis, employed in the police archives, is becoming confused. His obsession with the plight of his father, a wartime hero now the mute inmate of a mental hospital, is alienating him from his wife and children, while at work he feels under scrutiny from his intimidating boss, Quinn. Gradually, Prentis suspects that his father’s breakdown and Quinn’s menacing behaviour are related and that the connection is to be found in his father’s memoir: ‘Shuttlecock’.

Shuttlecock is an intense psychological thriller and much more. With poignant force and sometimes dark comedy, it links the secrecies and quirks of domestic life with the enigmas and violence of crime and war.

‘A small masterpiece’ The Guardian

‘Excellent, profound’ Alan Hollinghurst

Critic reviews

'A superbly written claustrophobic account of power that corrupts private and public life and of guilt that becomes obsession.'

'A small masterpiece.'

'A novel as elegant in construction as in style…Serious, moving and often very funny indeed.'

'An astonishing study of forms of guilt, laced with a thread of detection, and puckering now and then into outrageous humour.'

'Thoroughly gripping and beautifully written.' (Margaret Forster)

'Excellent, profound.' (Alan Hollinghurst)

'Swift’s central strength as a writer is his integrity. Story an character are treated with a seriousness and respect that while allowing for the oddity of human behaviour – Shuttlecock is thoroughly and beautifully odd – always honours them.'