February 2008

As a child, Peter was entranced by an incomplete story found in a book edited by his Swiss grandparents, and the mystery at the heart of the tale follows him into adulthood. A novel driven by the Homeric idea of return, Homecoming picks up on the themes of identity and truth Schlink first explored in The Reader.

Lucas invites his closest friends to spend time over New Year and the holidays at Stoneborough Manor, his inheritance from a recently deceased uncle. As the temperature rises over the summer, the house begins to exert a peculiar influence over Lucas – he becomes obsessed by uncanny parallels between his friends, and films of his uncle’s friends from thirty years before.

Crippled by arthritis, Dora’s husband is unable to continue his book-binding business in Victorian London. Friendless and beset by creditors, she finds that more than money and morals are at stake when, taking matters into her own hands, she begins to accept illegal commissions from rich connoisseurs of pornography.

Twelve-year-old Newell embarks on his first night out in the big city, and by morning cannot be found. His suburbanite parents try to negotiate the seedy and dangerous underworld of Vegas, encountering characters whose desperate lives increase their panic.

Driving home, Wilberforce spots a sign reading “Francis Black: Fine Bordeaux Wines, Visitors Welcome”, and impulsively decides to call in. The hall, and Wilberforce’s previously undiscovered appetite for the good life provide him with fabulous new experiences, but also sow the seeds of his downfall.

Not fully realizing her motivation, the retired and somewhat lonely Eleanor invites two young women obviously struggling with the burden of motherhood into her home for a series of get-togethers. These Friday Nights quickly become an essential part of their lives, and the lives of three other women who join in later. When one of them meets a man, the whole dynamic of the group is threatened.