One part Nietzsche, one part Humbert Humbert, and a soupcon of Milton’s Lucifer, Axel Vander, the dizzyingly unreliable narrator of John Banville’s masterful new novel, is very old, recently widowed, and the bearer of a fearsome reputation as a literary dandy and bully. A product of the Old World, he is also an escapee from its conflagrations, with the wounds to prove it. And everything about him is a lie.

Now those lies have been unraveled by a mysterious young woman whom Vander calls “Miss Nemesis.” They are to meet in Turin, a city best known for its enigmatic shroud. Is her purpose to destroy Vander or to save him—or simply to show him what lies beneath the shroud in which he has wrapped his life? A splendidly moving exploration of identity, duplicity, and desire, Shroud is Banville’s most rapturous performance to date.

約翰•班維爾（1945— ）：

當代最偉大的小說文體傢之一。1945年齣生於愛爾蘭，曾擔任《愛爾蘭時報》文學編輯。現居住於都柏林。班維爾是一位敏銳而多産的作傢，至今已著有二十餘部小說，其主題涉及麵廣，創作技法新穎脫俗，語言清晰流暢。《哥白尼博士》、《證詞》、《無法企及》、《海》等都是享譽國際的代錶作。班維爾獲得過無數國際文學大奬，包括布萊剋紀念奬、衛報小說奬、弗朗茨•卡夫卡文學奬等，其代錶作《海》於2005年榮獲最高英語文學奬——布剋奬。