Double Vision: A Novel

Double Vision from Pat Barker a gripping novel about the effects of violence on the journalists and artists who have dedicated themselves to representing it. In the aftermath of September 11 2001 reeling from the effects of reporting from New York City two British journalists a writer Stephen Sharkey and a photographer Ben Frobisher part ways. Stephen facing the almost simultaneous discovery that his wife is having an affair returns to England shattered; he divorces and quits his job. Ben returns to his vocation. He follows the war on terror to Afghanistan and is killed. . Stephen retreats to a cottage in the country to write a book about violence and what he sees as the reporting journalists or photographers complicity in it; it is a book that will build in large part on Bens writing and photography. Bens widow Kate a sculptor lives nearby and as she and Stephen learn about each other their world speedily shrinks in pleasing but also disturbing ways; Stephens maid with whom he has begun an affair was once lovers with Kates new studio assistant an odd local man named Peter. As these connections become clear Peters strange behavior around Stephen and Kate begins to take on threatening implications. The sinister events that take place in this small town so far from the theaters of war Stephen has retreated from will force him to act instinctively violently and to face his most painful revelations about himself.