After Darke

(Paperback)

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Description

Released from prison after serving his sentence for the assisted death of his wife, his health failing and his chronic impatience exacerbated, Dr James Darke self-isolates. But on his return he understands that he is now a displaced person, lost in a new world for which his education and inclinations have not prepared him.

Irascible, misanthropic, intensely bookish, fastidious in his tastes and rich enough to indulge them, Darke is a happy shut-in, busily writing oppositional pamphlets and composing a literary hoax. But his daughter and the Bulgarian housekeeper she hired to look after him have other ideas.

After Darke is a moving, witty reflection on grief, ageing and love in all its forms, and James Darke is one of the most memorable, exasperating yet loveable characters of contemporary fiction.

Reviews

A riot of eloquent bigotry and bluster . . . What Gekoski excels at is the hard, witty, shouty - yes, masculine - business of creating a literary hero like James Darke. * The Times *
Unbroken, unbowed and raging against the wokeness of the modern world * Mail on Sunday *
[A] masterpiece of negative catharsis. The novel's antihero, Dr James Darke - a reclusive, misanthropic bibliophile, filled with general rancour towards the world - gives paradoxical pleasure by venting so biliously on our behalf. For readers weary of earnest piety and emotion easily bought. * The Australian *

Author Bio

Rick Gekoski came from his native America to do a Ph.D at Oxford, and went on to teach English at the University of Warwick. In 1982, sick of lecturing, he decided to become a full-time rare book dealer, specialising in important twentieth-century first editions and manuscripts. He lives in London and spends time each year in Paris and New Zealand.