Confessions

"Absolutely captivating" ANDREA CAMILLERI
"Monumental" Guardian

Drawing comparisons with Shadow of the Wind, The Name of the Rose and The
Reader, and an instant bestseller in ten languages, Confessions is an
astonishing story of one man s life, interwoven with a narrative that
stretches across centuries to create an addictive and unforgettable literary
symphony.

At 60 and with a diagnosis of early Alzheimer's, Adria Ardevol re-examines his
life before his memory is systematically deleted. He recalls a loveless
childhood where the family antique business and his father s study become the
centre of his world; where a treasured Storioni violin retains the shadows of
a crime committed many years earlier. His mother, a cold, distant and
pragmatic woman leaves him to his solitary games, full of unwanted questions.
An accident ends the life of his enigmatic father, filling Adria's world with
guilt, secrets and deeply troubling mysteries that take him years to uncover
and driving him deep into the past where atrocities are methodically exposed
and examined.

Gliding effortlessly between centuries, and at the same time providing a
powerful narrative that is at once shocking, compelling, mysterious, tragic,
humorous and gloriously readable, Confessions reaches a crescendo that is not
only unexpected but provides one of the most startling denouements in
contemporary literature. Confessions is a consummate masterpiece in any
language, with an ending that will not just leave you thinking, but quite
possibly change the way you think forever.

Translated from the Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem