A Closed Book by Gilbert Adair

A Closed Book

Gilbert Adair

Describes the increasingly disturbing relationship which unfolds when a writer, blinded in a car accident, employs a younger man to help write his new book. Unsettling, claustrophobic detail, revealed entirely through dialogue, forces the reader to experience the world from the point of view of the blind writer. I found this an uncomfortable, but at the same time, darkly compulsive read.

Extract
'I have a fear of the dark, John. I have a terrific fear of the dark.'
'A fear of the dark?'
'I know, I know. It makes no sense for a blind man to be afraid of the dark. But there you are and there it is. I've always been claustrophobic. I feel claustrophobic in the universe.'
'Wow. That is claustrophobic.'
'It's no laughing matter.'
Parallels
  • The Killjoy by Anne Fine
  • Killing Me Softly by Nicci French
  • The Private Parts of Women by Lesley Glaister