Charles Palliser
The six novels I’ve published are all very different but what they have in common is the desire to intrigue and puzzle the reader. My first novel, The Quincunx, which became an international bestseller in a dozen languages, is an elaborate mystery in which the central character has to find his way through a series of clues and misdirections in order to find what he believes is the truth. And the reader makes the same journey and perhaps comes to a different conclusion about what “the truth” really is. The five novels I’ve published since then have been less complex (and much shorter!) but I’ve continued to tease my readers by provoking their curiosity without always completely satisfying it. After all, it’s in the imagination of the reader, not just the author, that the story has to happen.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
Ottawa Review of Books
“Occasionally, very occasionally, a novel comes along these days that is imbued with a sense of classic literature. Such is the case with Charles Palliser's latest novel, Sufferance. … Like much great literary fiction, this work is a journey into the human conscience.”
New York Times
Charles Palliser's work is "so compulsively absorbing that reality disappears"
London Review Of Books
The Spectator:
“Sufferance could well become a contemporary classic.”