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Robert Edric was born in 1956. His novels include Winter Garden (1985 James Tait Black Prize winner), A New Ice Age (1986 runner-up for the Guardian Fiction Prize), A Lunar Eclipse, The Earth Made of Glass, Elysium, In Desolate Heaven, The Sword Cabinet, The Book of the Heathen (shortlisted for the 2001 WH Smith Literary Award) and Peacetime (longlisted for the Booker Prize 2002). He is also the author of the widely-acclaimed Song Cycle Trilogy, which comprises Cradle Song, Siren Song and Swan Song.
The best historical fiction has something to say about the present as well as the past; Edric has demonstrated this in his previous novels and does so again, with accomplishment, in this latest work. Set in the Belgian Congo at the end of the 19th century, an Englishman, Nicholas Frere, is held in custody at a remote trading post, charged with murdering a native child. At a time when the balance of power in the region is shifting, the case casts a long political and cultural shadow. But it is the personal crisis at the dark heart of the story which Edric uses to illuminate the broader isses. As Frere awaits trial, a friend and colleague probes the truth of an incident obscured by deceit, rumour and the reticence of the accused himself. Prolific and critically acclaimed since his prize-winning debut in 1985, Edric has struck an especially rich vein of form recently. The writing is as clear and intelligent as ever, without being showy, offering a characteristically subtle counterpoint to the relationship between men, and between the strong and the weak in today's global economy. (Kirkus UK)
