Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL OF THE YEAR

‘There are war stories and there are love stories, but we only occasionally get war stories and love stories braided together. Tim Finch has written a wonderful novel, tiny and epic both. Laced with humour and sadness, this is an intimate account of what it means to make peace, both with others and with oneself’ COLUM McCANN

‘A shrewd delight’ independent.co.uk

Edvard Behrens is a senior diplomat of some repute, highly regarded for his work on international peace negotiations. Under his arbitration, unimaginable atrocities are coolly dissected; invisible and ancient lines, grown taut and frayed with conflict, redrawn.

In his latest post, Edvard has been sent a nondescript resort hotel in the Tyrol. High up on this mountain, the air is bright and clear. When he isn’t working, Edvard reads, walks, listens to music. He confides in no one – no one but his wife Anna. Anna, who he loves with all his heart; Anna, always present and yet forever absent.

Honest, honourable, tragic, witty, wise, an unforgettable novel of love, loss, and the human longing for peace, Peace Talks maps the darkest and most tender territories of the human heart.

Publisher Review

A shrewd delight * independent.co.uk * A profound novel about human frailty ... In its tone and minor-key approach, Peace Talks is reminiscent of the Julian Barnes of Levels of Life, plus lashings of (duly credited) James Salter ... Peace Talks turns out to be a moving and direct study of frailty , love and time, and luck and grief , of what is left when all the noise - of machination, violence and competing stories - is stripped away * Guardian * A tender and elegant portrait of a grieving individual searching for personal and political peace * Sunday Times * A feat of telling ... Masterfully rendered * Spectator * As well as shining a light on the conflict resolution industry, Finch plays a canny game with our assumptions about the motives behind Anna's murder, in a smart tale slyly engineered to warn against the perils of nationalist tub-thumping * Daily Mail * Tim Finch's elegant and wintry novel has something of the feel of early Kazuo Ishiguro, and a similar acute grasp of both character and situation ... In Behrends, Finch has created a narrator both open and opaque * Observer * Many news reporters have written novels, but this is one of the best. It combines Finch's understanding of international relations with a very human and touching story about love and loneliness ... It has poetry in its bones ... Its understanding of how individual human relationships, whether global or personal, govern every aspect of our loves makes it a profound and memorable read * Big Issue *