Iain Pears

Henry Lytten - a spy turned academic and writer - sits at his desk in Oxford in 1962, dreaming of other worlds. He embarks on the story of Jay, an eleven-year-old boy who has grown up within the embrace of his family in a rural, peaceful world - a kind of Arcadia. But when a supernatural vision causes Jay to question the rules of his world, he is launched on a life-changing journey. Lytten also imagines a different society, highly regulated and dominated by technology, which is trying to master the science of time travel. Meanwhile - in the real world - one of Lytten''s former intelligence colleagues tracks him down for one last assignment. As he and his characters struggle with questions of free will, love, duty and the power of the imagination, Lytten discovers he is not sure how he wants his stories to end, nor even who is imaginary...

In his most dazzling and brilliant novel since "An Instance of the Fingerpost", Iain Pears tells the story of John Stone, financier and armaments manufacturer, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One he was able to manipulate markets, industries and indeed whole countries and continents. A panoramic novel with a riveting mystery at its heart, "Stone''s Fall" is a quest to discover how and why John Stone dies, falling out of a window at his London home. Chronologically, it goes backwards - London in 1909, then Paris in 1890, and finally Venice in 1867 - and Stone''s character and motivation deepen as the book progresses; in the first part he is almost an abstraction, existing only in the memory of those who knew him; in the second he is a character, but only a secondary one; in the third he is the narrator of the story. A quest, then, but also a love story and a murder mystery, set against the backdrop of the evolution of high-stakes international finance, Europe''s first great age of espionage and the start of the twentieth century''s arms race. Like "Fingerpost", "Stone''s Fall" is an intricate and richly satisfying puzzle, completely engaging on many levels, a triumphant return for one of the world''s great storytellers.

In his most dazzling and brilliant novel since An Instance of the Fingerpost,Iain Pears tells the story of John Stone, financier and armamentsmanufacturer, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One hewas able to manipulate markets, industries and indeed whole countries andcontinents.A panoramic novel with a riveting mystery at its heart, Stones Fall is a questto discover how and why John Stone dies, falling out of a window at hisLondon home.Iain Pears was born in 1955. He is the author of seven detective novels, a bookof art history and countless articles on artistic, financial and historicalsubjects, and three novels, An Instance of the Fingerpost, The Dream of Scipioand The Portrait.

Henry Lytten - a spy turned academic and writer - sits at his desk in Oxford in 1962, dreaming of other worlds. He embarks on the story of Jay, an eleven-year-old boy who has grown up within the embrace of his family in a rural, peaceful world - a kind of Arcadia. But when a supernatural vision causes Jay to question the rules of his world, he is launched on a life-changing journey. Lytten also imagines a different society, highly regulated and dominated by technology, which is trying to master the science of time travel. Meanwhile - in the real world - one of Lytten's former intelligence colleagues tracks him down for one last assignment. As he and his characters struggle with questions of free will, love, duty and the power of the imagination, Lytten discovers he is not sure how he wants his stories to end, nor even who is imaginary...

We are in Oxford in the 1660s - a time, and place, of great intellectual, scientific, religious and political ferment. Robert Grove, a fellow of New College is found dead in suspicious circumstances. A young woman is accused of his murder. We hear about the events surrounding his death from four witnesses: Marco da Cola, a Venetian Catholic intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; Jack Prescott, the son of a supposed traitor to the Royalist cause determined to vindicate his father; John Wallis, chief cryptographer to both Cromwell and Charles II, a mathematician, theologican and inveterate plotter; and Anthony Wood, the famous Oxford antiquary. Each witness tells their version of what happened. Only one reveals the extraordinary truth. An Instance of the Fingerpost is a magnificent tour de force: an utterly compelling historical mystery story with a plot that twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing until the very last page.

Un misterioso ladrón de cuadros renacentistas mantiene en jaque a la policía italiana. El hábil delincuente, apodado 'Giotto', lleva treinta años en activo, pero su identidad sigue siendo un enigma. De pronto la carta de una anciana moribunda arroja nueva luz sobre el caso. Jonathan Argyll, marchante ingles afincado en Milan y colaborador habitual de la policia, parte hacia un pueblo de Norfolk donde supuestamente tiene su guarida el escurridizo ladron

This is the simplest tale in the world Two people meet and fall in love But the route which brought Larissa Salmina and Francis Haskell to a backstreet Venetian restaurant in 1962 was anything but

La cuarta verdad presenta al lector un cuadro completo de las ideas filosóficas predominantes en la época. Pero el gran acierto del autor, atribuible sin duda a su afinada capacidad de narrar, es haber recreado fielmente no solo los habitos y costumbre de un tiempo pasado, sino tambien la manera de pensar y de ver el mundo sin lo cual seria imposible encontrar la solucion de la compleja trama. En suma, un autentico desafio para quienes buscan en una novela el estimulo intelectual ademas del placer de la lectura.

Durante la segunda mitad del siglo XVII, en los albores de la epistemología moderna, la tensión entre creencia y saber, fe religiosa y razón empírica, constituía el núcleo del debate intelectual. Partiendo del pensamiento de Francis Bacon, esta singular obra de Iain Pears es probablemente la novela de misterio mas erudita y entretenida desde la publicacion de El nombre de la rosa. La historia se desarrolla en Oxford, por entonces uno de los centros universitarios mas importantes de Europa. Robert Grove, un profesor del New College, muere envenenado y su sirvienta es acusada del crimen. Los cuatro testigos Marco da Cola, un gentil-hombre veneciano fascinado por la anatomia; Jack Prestcott, obsesionado con demostrar la inocencia de su padre; John Wallis, el criptografo y matematico ingles mas importante antes de Newton; y Anthony Wood, conocido erudito y anticuario de Oxford ofrecen su version de los hechos, pero solo uno de ellos dice la verdad. Pero, ¿acaso existe una sola verdad? Precedida de un notable exito en Inglaterra, Estados Unidos, Francia e Italia, donde no solo recibio excelentes criticas, sino que ademas ocupo los primeros puestos de las listas de los libros mas vendidos, La cuarta verdad presenta al lector un cuadro completo de las ideas filosoficas predominantes en la epoca. Pero el gran acierto del autor, atribuible sin duda a su afinada capacidad de narrar, es haber recreado fielmente no solo los habitos y costumbres de un tiempo pasado, sino tambien la manera de pensar y de ver el mundo, sin lo cual seria imposible encontrar la solucion de la compleja trama. En suma, un autentico desafio para quienes buscan en una novela el estimulo intelectual ademas del placer de la lectura.

This novel about idealism and its attendant disappointments begins in the fifth century B.C.E., when a scholarly writer named Manlius devoted his life to upholding the ideals of civilization against creeping barbarism--a resolve that includes armed force. The story continues into the 14th century, during the time of the Black Plague, when an agent seeking out ancient manuscripts for Pope Clement VI (of the Avignon Papacy) comes across Manlius's Neoplatonist manuscript ("The Dream of Scipio"), and inspired by his own high ideals tries to circumvent another plague, that of anti-Semitism. Finally, a historian in occupied France during World War II who has studied Manlius's manuscript is forced to work as a censor for the Germans. Each of these three sections also includes a love story, and each is a subtle illustration of Plato's ideas about harmony and order