Freddie Montgomery is a cultured yet morally adrift man in his late 30s, living as a self-exiled intellectual on a Mediterranean island. Facing mounting debts that threaten his wife and child, Freddie returns to Ireland to reclaim a Dutch master painting he believes belongs to his inheritance. But his obsessive quest takes a dark turn: in a moment of reckless impulse, he murders his employers maid during a botched breakin.

From his jail cell, Freddie delivers a chilling confessionnot to prove innocence, but to reconstruct his life and the events that led him to kill because he could. His narrative is deeply introspective, steeped in philosophical reflection, and reminiscent of the moral ambiguity found in Dostoevsky or Camus. As Freddie grapples with guilt, memory, and selfjustification, readers are left questioning: how much of this confession is truth, and how much is selfdelusion?

Finalist of Man Booker Prize.