The Murderer: (Penguin Modern Classics)

A haunting psychological study of one man's descent into violence, from one of the major Guyanese novelists of the twentieth century 'For me life hasn't got dreams, success and all that damn nonsense. Life is full of shadows- some of them soft and others conceal a hammer.' Galton Flood is a lonely man, restless and ill at ease with his family. He leaves his home in Guyana's capital, Georgetown, for a remote township, and the first of a string of precarious jobs. Meeting Gemma, his landlord's daughter, appears to offer a first chance of meaningful connection - maybe even happiness. But there is a darkness inside Galton, and soon jealousy and paranoia lead him to fatally, violently unravel. With this haunting portrait of a mind undone, celebrated Guyanese writer Roy Heath evocatively recreates the country of his youth- its rivers, townships and tenement yards, and the tensions shimmering below the surface of a community.

About the Author :
Roy Heath (1926-2008) grew up in Guyana, and moved to Britain in his twenties. He trained as a lawyer and was called to the bar in both Britain and Guyana, but worked instead as a writer and a secondary school teacher in London. The Murderer, his second novel, won the Guardian Fiction Prize when it was published in 1978. His subsequent works include the Armstrong trilogy - made up of From the Heat of the Day, One Generation and Genetha - and The Shadow Bride, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Though Heath spent most of his life in Britain, all of his fiction was set in Guyana.

Review :
A beautiful writer and an unforgettable book. The Murderer, Roy Heath's masterpiece, is written with immediacy and precision. In a few sentences, Heath creates a psychological tension that is totally convincing and gripping. Slowly, as the main character grows more obsessed and distant from others, he also becomes more complex and fascinating and memorable. A literary thriller ... The Murderer is a strange, luminous, and beguiling work by a writer with a mysterious and captivating Caribbean voice, who shied away from publicity and is now resurrected. A character who might have been created by Dostoevsky. A picture of a lost soul emerges that is mysteriously authentic and unique as a work of art. A hauntingly powerful story. A notable study of paranoia, remarkable for its psychological insight and the restraint of its climax. Guyanese authors are a radiant constellation, and Roy Heath stands rightfully among them. His unique style stands out from others of his time, and ours.

The prose style is graceful, old-fashioned, almost Latinate. The dialogue on the other hand, is pure Guyanese vernacular, and the gap between the two, between the sense of distance in the prose and intimacy in the dialogue, makes the novel chilling and tense and deeply original.