‘Sleek, beautiful, breathtakingly cunning prose’ Sunday Times Athena is the third in the Frames Trilogy, a set of loosely connected novels by the Booker Prize-winning author, John Banville. Morrow – a clerkish, middle-aged type encumbered with a chain-smoking dying aunt and a considerable talent for wallowing – is at a loose end when, on two separate occasions, he is beckoned up the stairs of an empty Dublin house. The first is an offer of dubious work, and Morrow soon becomes caught up in a conspiracy to authenticate a series of fake paintings. The second, possibly even odder, is an offer of a love – of a sort. Written in typically luminous prose and featuring a rich cast of characters, Athena is a paean to art, painting, and love, in all its mercurial richness.
John Banville
John Banville is an Irish writer known for his precise prose, introspective narratives, and exploration of themes such as memory, identity, and loss. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Man Booker Prize for his novel "The Sea" in 2005. Banville often blurs the lines between reality and fiction, creating intricate and complex characters that grapple with the complexities of human experience. His writing is marked by its lyrical beauty and intellectual depth, making him a prominent figure in contemporary literature.