Author John Banville has been receiving plenty of praise for his elegant and beautiful prose in his novel, The Sea (winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize) a story about life, death, love, and loss. The story begins with Max Morden, a man who is both mourning his wife’s recent death and unable to forget disturbing events of his past. Coming to a crossroads at his life, Max decides to return to a seaside town he had visited as a boy where he had a formative summer with the Grace family, particulary with seductive twins Myles and Chloe. Max hopes to come to terms with his loss, but will he be able to exorcise the memories that the Grace family left on him as well? Banville is subtle in unveiling shocking plot twists about past rememberances and characters who are not what they seem, giving an overall beautiful impression on the nature of life and the incomprehensibility of death.

Read a review of The Sea here.