The Untouchable

John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945.  He is the author of more than ten novels, including The Book of Evidence, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Guinness Peat Aviation Award.  He won the Booker Prize for his novel The Sea in 2005.  He lives in Dublin.

"Maskell takes his place with John le Carre's Alec Leamas as one of spy fiction's greatest characters.  Poetic and deeply affecting." -People

"[Banville's] books are not only an illuminating read—for they are always packed with information and learning—but a joyful and durable source of aesthetic satisfaction." -The New York Review of Books

"Enthralling... Victor Maskell is a thinly disguised Anthony Blunt... Banville has pulled off a marvelous series of tricks." -Anita Brooker, The Spectator

"Banville has the skill, ambition and learning to stand at the end of the great tradition of modernist writers." -Times Literary Supplement

"It must by now be an open secret that on this [U.K.] side of the Atlantic, Banville is the most intelligent and stylish novelist at work." - George Steiner, The Observer

"Banville's acute characterization and laceratingly witty prose capture perfectly the paradoxically idealistic yet cynical mood of the upper classes in 1930s Britain." -Time Out

"An icy detailed portrait of a traitor, and a precise meditation on the nature of belief and betrayal... subtle, sad, and deeply moving work." - Kirkus Reviews

"Delectably droll and masterful... The rich fabric of this novel blends the shrewd humor of a comedy of manners with the suspense of a tale of espionage." - Booklist

"[Written with] grace and intelligence... His story is so well told that why he spied—and who betrayed him—become secondary." - Library Journal