A Stranger in Corfu

Le Carré meets The Durrells - A Stranger is Corfu is a brilliantly atmospheric thriller. Suspenseful, vivid and impossible to put down -- TOM HOLLAND Imagine the Slow Horses had parents who were also spies. Imagine those parents were on a small island, just off Corfu. Imagine that their chequered pasts might be catching up with them. And then realise you don't need to imagine it because Alex Preston has done it for you with this beautifully taut, clever, classy thriller -- NATALIE HAYNES Taut, tense and utterly gripping: Preston evokes a wonderfully thrilling story from the dreamy Ioanian. Nothing short of brilliant -- ADAM RUTHERFORD A beautiful, taut novel laced with the thrills of lives half-lived and never escaped; of friendship, love and relentless betrayal beneath Corfu's blazing sun and the restless, dark sea - where secrets threaten to drown them all. A story that haunts long after the last page -- EVIE WYLD A stylish literary spy novel in which Agatha Christie meets the Cambridge Five, set on a sun-soaked island off Corfu. Sophisticated and stylishly self-aware, it weaves political intrigue with lyrical prose in an artful reimagining of the classic spy story -- SARAH CHURCHWELL A gripping thriller that explores the lives shaped - and shattered - by Cold War politics in Europe's southern fringe. Preston captures the fractured legacy of British intelligence and the ghosts it leaves behind with haunting precision. I was captivated from start to finish -- PETER FRANKOPAN Beautifully crafted . . . brings new layers of accomplishment to the growing genre of 'sidelined spy lit' . . . Preston adds plenty of danger and intrigue to make an electrifying, original read that asks profound questions about the human cost of patriotic service * * Financial Times * * Gripping, dark and clever: spies with troubled backstories; a small island off Corfu; Albania just across the water. It will be huge -- SOFKA ZINOVIEFF Alex Preston's tale of Cold War spies marooned in Corfu presents an achingly poignant portrait of intersecting lives set against a decades-long canvas spanning seminal moments in Britain's spy story. The simmering plot explodes into violence, but Preston never loses sight of the fact that at the heart of his tale are characters whose luminosity lingers long after the final page is turned. A beautifully written examination of what it means to put your life - and soul - on the line for a cause. A spy novel of the highest calibre -- VASEEM KHAN I read it in one breathless sitting. A Stranger in Corfu is vivid and compulsive, elegant and clever. I loved it -- FRANCESCA SEGAL