Light of Day

This is an intense, beautifully written novel that recounts one day in the life of George Webb, once a police detective (dismissed for "corrupt practices"), now a private investigator specializing in domestic cases. The novel is about why we do what we do. So, along with the day's events, we hear George's version of how his past has made him who he is. Graeme Malcolm's reading is wonderful. George Webb, the central character, is also the narrator for most of the novel, and Malcolm becomes Webb. His reading makes us believe and almost understand all of Webb's "why did I ..." and "if only I had ..." The story jumps between different periods in Webb's past and his immediate present, yet Malcolm never lets us become lost. In his voice, we always know where we are because we know George. R.E.K. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

March 31, 2003
George Webb, a divorced ex-cop and the narrator of this fine novel, works as a private investigator in London specializing in "matrimonial work": finding evidence of philandering. Some of the tearful women who enter his office become lovers (one, Rita, becomes his heart-of-gold assistant), but Sarah Nash becomes something altogether different. A language teacher and translator, she wants Webb to follow her husband and his lover, Kristina Lazic, a refugee taken in by the Nashes, to the airport "to see if she really goes"—alone—back to Croatia. Sarah knows the truth of the affair already; she's just looking for a sign that her husband can love her again. But the story belongs to Webb, through a masterful interior monologue that links the action of the present with a meditation on the past. Webb's movements on a particular day in November furnish the opportunity to learn about his childhood, his failed marriage, his career as a policeman terminated by a minor scandal and his constrained and lonely life. Sarah becomes Webb's opportunity for a second chance at happiness and redemption. But that reality will have to wait until her release from prison (it's not giving away the plot to note her crime: the murder of her husband). While this story sounds a bit like an American noir thriller from the 1930s (and Swift's title may be a nod to the noir fascination with night and shadow), the Booker Prize–winning author (for Last Orders) is after bigger themes: the weight of history, the role of fate, the inexplicable vagaries of love. Though perhaps not at the level of Last Orders, this beautifully written novel is a worthwhile addition to the Swift canon. (May 5)Forecast:It's been nearly seven years since the publication of
Last Orders, and an expectant readership may well justify Knopf's 75,000 first printing. Lovely cover art won't hurt.