{"product_id":"ancient-light","title":"Ancient Light","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Banville's \u003ci\u003eAncient Light \u003c\/i\u003eis a story of obsessive young love and the power of grief \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Billy Gray was my best friend and I fell in love with his mother.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eIn a small town in 1950s Ireland a fifteen-year-old boy has illicit meetings with a thirty-five-year-old woman - in the back of her car on sunny mornings, and in a rundown cottage in the country on rain-soaked afternoons. Unsure why she has chosen him, he becomes obsessed and tormented by this first love. Half a century later, actor Alexander Cleave - grieving for the recent loss of his daughter - recalls these trysts, trying to make sense of the boy he was and of the needs and frailties of the human heart.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eAncient Light\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Startlingly brilliant\u003c\/b\u003e. Terrific - full of sadness and yearning'  Sunday Telegraph\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003cb\u003eDazzling\u003c\/b\u003e . . . captures a long-lost adolescent world of passion and desire',  \u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Illuminating, funny, devastating\u003c\/b\u003e. A meditation of breathtaking beauty and profundity on love and loss and death'  Financial Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Banville\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of fourteen previous novels including \u003ci\u003eThe Sea\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the 2005 Man Booker Prize. He was recently awarded the Franz Kafka Prize. He lives in Dublin.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":32057954959443,"sku":"","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780241955406.jpg?v=1764857713","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/ancient-light","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}