Chris Paling Livres

The confessions of a midlist writer - what nobody sets out to be, but the destination of most.

Maurice Reid is a radio producer. He spends his days alone in his dark office communicating only by e-mail. His doctor ascribes this malaise to the constant changes Maurice has been facing at work. The Corporation is being streamlined and Maurice is beginning to wonder if there's still a place for him. There's certainly no room for him at home. His wife is living with another woman; his son is confused. And his girlfriend has come back from Brazil with an ultimatum. He seeks solace at work in the camaraderie of his battle-scarred colleagues, some still struggling to produce serious radio, others, like his editor 'Peculiar' Edwards, hatching suicidal schemes to bring the Corporation down around their heads. THE SILENT SENTRY is a heartbreakingly funny novel about how a large organisation is defined by the people who work in it - and the perils for both sides if that goes unacknowledged.

'Sendepause' ist ein Roman über den Alltag in der geschlossenen kleinen Welt eines Radiosenders. Nur im Kreis seiner ähnlich gebeutelten Kollegen findet der ehegeschädigte, leicht übergewichtige Maurice noch echten Trost und Anerkennung.

This is Paling's ninth novel, an unashamed potboiler that tos and fros between the art world present and 100 years ago. In 1912, Reilly, an impoverished artist, seems to be on an inexorable journey to the hangman's noose after a wealth of misleading circumstantial evidence leads the police to believe him guilty of murder. A century on, Samantha is a young secretary and an eccentric loner, until she finds a fellow soul in Reilly's work after viewing one of his paintings; she is drawn into an adventure that soon too puts her on the wrong side of the law.