Riassunto:
An extraordinary intellectual thriller set in Oxford in the 1660s, AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST has been compared to both Umberto Eco's THE NAME OF THE ROSE and Rose Tremain's RESTORATION. The 1660s were a time of great ferment - intellectual, religious and political - and this is reflected in Pears's text. The novel is centred on a suspicious death, that of Robert Grove, fellow of New College. We hear about it from four witnesses, a Venetian Catholic intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; the son of a supposed traitor to the Royalist cause, determined to vindicate his father; John Wallis, chief cryptographer to both Cromwell and Charles II, a mathematician, theologican and master spy; and Anthony Wood, the famous Oxford antiquary. Each of the first three witnesses is unreliable - they seem convincing, but the conclusions are contradictory - and only Wood, in the final volume, reveals the truth. Brilliantly written, utterly convincing, gripping from the first page to the last, AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST is destined to be a major international bestseller.
L'autore:
Iain Pears was born in 1955. Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, he has worked as a journalist, an art historian and television consultant. He is the author of six highly praised detective novels, which include The Raphael Affair, The Bernini Bust and An Instance of the Fingerpost. He has also written a book of art history and countless articles on artistic, financial and historical subjects.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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