Synopses & Reviews
Set in an unspecified but eerily familiar time and landscape, this is the story of Mark, a protagonist who struggles against the machinations of a hostile society and bureaucracy. Suffering at first from the persecution of his father as a conscientious objector, his life quickly comes under the control of the Machiavellian Mr. Spector, an influential government minister who arranges Mark's education, later employment, and even accommodation. It is when Mark tries to break free from Spector's influence that his life begins to unravel.
Synopsis
After years languishing in the archives of the University of Tulsa, Anna Kavan's unfinished work, Guilty, is being published for the first time. Set in an unspecified time and landscape. Guilty is narrated by Mark, a man living in a country divided by war. A returning soldier, Mark's father declares himself a pacifist and is exiled, leaving Mark in the care of a shady government agent who becomes a dominant, controlling force in Mark's life. When Mark attempts independence to pursue an engagement with the docile Carla his life begins to unravel. Thwarted at every turn by bureaucracy, he begins to fall prey to the machinations and insecurities of his guilt-ridden mind.
About the Author
Anna Kavan was one of the greatest unsung enigmas in 20th-century British literature. Born Helen Ferguson, a fraught childhood and two failed marriages led her to change her name to that of one of her characters. Despite struggling with mental illness and heroin addiction for most of her life, she was still able to write fiction that was as powerful and memorable as any English female writer of the last 150 years.