The Mansion

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John Updike

"On the third Wednesday of every August the inhabitants of a mansion-turned-poorhouse in central New Jersey hold their annual fair; this novel describes a fair that occurs about twenty years from now [1958], when the United States itself is heading downhill ... While 'The Poorhouse Fair, ' insofar as it regrets the decline of patriotism, handcraft, and religion, carries a conservative message, its technique is unorthodox; without so much regard for fictional conventions, the author attempts to locate, in the ambiguous area between farce and melodrama, reality's own tone."

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Robert Traver

At forty, Paul Biegler's life seems to have come to an end. After ten years as DA in his small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the people have elected a new hero, a young army veteran. And Biegler has been spending a lot of time fishing and thinking about his future. Then the call comes from Laura Mannion: her husband has been arrested on a charge of murder, but she claims that the man her husband killed assaulted her. Suddenly, Polly, as he is known to the entire town, sees his opportunity. Maybe he can show his rival that he can defend as well as prosecute. What follows is one of the most brilliant courtroom dramas of all time, as Polly puts together his defence and minutely examines the seething emotions under the placid surface of his town.

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V. S. Naipaul

Finding the centre is a celebrated work by V. S. Naipaul (Nobel Laureate, Booker Prize Winner), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

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Wilfrid Sheed

The novel's setting is the slightly worn-at-the-heels office of The Outsider, an influential journal of opinion with a small but dwindling circulation. The magazine and its staff have been dominated by the personality of editor-in-chief Gilbert Twining ever since that unorthodox "genius" of British journalism was imported a decade ago. But when a sudden illness sends Twining into enforced retirement, the underground struggle among his editors to supplant him surfaces