The Sandpit
A sophisticated literary thriller for fans William Boyd and John Le Carré
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3.8 • 8 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
'A remarkable contemporary thriller... A triumph' WILLIAM BOYD
A journalist becomes embroiled in a world of secrets and paranoia when a nuclear scientist goes missing.
When John Dyer returns to Oxford from Brazil with his young son, Leandro, he expects a quiet life. His time living on the edge as a foreign correspondent is over.
But these rainy streets turn out to be just as treacherous as those he used to walk in Rio. Leandro's schoolmates are the children of powerful people, and a chance conversation with another father, Iranian scientist Rustum Marvar, sets Dyer onto a truly dangerous path.
Then Marvar disappears. Soon, sinister factions are circling, and become acutely interested in what Dyer knows about Marvar's world-changing discovery...
'An absorbing thriller with shades of John le Carré' Evening Standard
'Exciting... A page-turner' Daily Telegraph
Customer Reviews
Wordy
3.5 stars
Author
British novelist and biographer, e.g. Evelyn Waugh, Mario Vargas Llosa, Bruce Chatwin, Martha Gellhorn, and Dirk Bogarde. (Well, la de da, as Annie Hall might say). His father was a diplomat. He grew up in the Far East and in South America, but was educated at the Dragon School preparatory school in Oxford, then at Winchester College and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Worked as a journalist for the BBC then The Times as an assistant arts and literary editor. Subsequently, literary editor of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. Patron of a trust that helps poor kids in Peru, which arose out of an article he once wrote. The Wall Street Journal hailed him as "one of the best English novelists of our time." In January 2012, according to journalists, Nicholas Shakespeare's writings were mistakenly confused for William Shakespeare's by French presidential candidate François Hollande! Make of that what you will.
Plot
Fifty-something foreign correspondent John Dyer comes home from Brazil to research an obscure Amazonian tribe in the library at Oxford (the Taylorian rather than the Bodleian), as you would. He plonks his only son Leandro in a progressive prep school called The Phoenix at Oxford, of which he is an alumnus, and which seems to bear a remarkable resemblance to the one the author went to himself. Meanwhile, his ex has remarried and lives in Rio. Leandro plays football with the son of a displaced Iranian nuclear scientist named Marvar. Both are bullied by the son of a Russian oligarch and his trophy wife. Other parents an international banker, an American CIA agent, and a British spy. Yes, it's one of those schools. Our boy and Marvar become matey, sort of, then the scientist and his son disappear with John-boy the last person to see them alive. Le Carrean plot unfolds. Nuclear fusion is involved.
Narrative
Third person from POV of main protagonist
Characters
Well drawn generally in the style of Graham Greene more than Le Carre (both are mentioned in the blurb). Parental advisory: Pomposity++.
Prose
Elegant but wordy, verging on prolix at times IMHO. Keep your dictionary handy.
Bottom line
Well executed. Good if you like Le Carre. I don't particularly, and had to force myself to keep reading more than once.