Spies A Novel [Paperback]

The National Bestseller

The sudden trace of a disturbing, forgotten aroma compels Stephen Wheatley to return to the site of a dimly remembered but troubling childhood summer in wartime London. As he pieces together his scattered memories, we are brought back to a quiet, suburban street where two boys--Keith and his sidekick, Stephen--are engaged in their own version of the war effort: spying on the neighbors, recording their movements, and ferreting out their secrets. But when Keith utters six shocking words, the boy's game of espionage takes a sinister and unintended turn, transforming a wife's simple errands and the ordinary rituals of family life into the elements of adult catastrophe.

Childhood and innocence, secrecy, lies and repressed violence are all gently laid bare as once again Michael Frayn powerfully demonstrates that what appears to be happening in front of our eyes often turns out to be something we cannot see at all.

Michael Fraynis the author of ten novels, including the bestsellingHeadlong, which was aNew York TimesEditor's Choice selection and a Booker Prize finalist. He has also written thirteen plays, among themNoises OffandCopenhagen, which won three Tony Awards in l999. He lives in London.

. . . a master of intellectual mystery masquerading as ripping popular entertainment. . .a gorgeous melancholy that shivers the mind. The New York Times Book Review

Marvelously effective. . .a novel of extraordinary power and wisdom, a tour de force of humane insight. The Baltimore Sun

Bernard Shaw couldn't do it, Henry James couldn't do it, but the ingenious English author Michael Frayn does do it: write novels and plays with equal success. [He] has extended his reach and seriousness while keeping a sprightly intellectuality. John Updike, The New Yorker

InSpies, recollections of actual things--the 'disconcerting perfume' of privet hedglƒ²