A Maggot

An extraordinary work of fiction, from one of the world's most exceptional writers, in our new Fowles livery.An extraordinary work of fiction, from one of the world's most exceptional writers.The year is 1736 and five travellers are journeying across Exmoor on horseback, their purpose unknown. One evening they stop at a village inn for some rest and, soon after, hear that a man has been hanged nearby and that another is missing. What follows is a maze of beguiling paths and wrong turnings, rituals and revelations, unaccountable motives and cryptic deeds, as the mystery swerves towards a startling vision at its centre.'This altogether admirable novel serves, as all literature should, the forces of subversion' Anthony Burgess, Observer'The reader is carried headlong into a maze of violent death, bizarre sex, disguise and terror' Sunday Times

“A remarkable and brilliant work of fiction...the imaginative power of the novel is astounding, the technical virtuosity and structural daring equally so”

The Times
This altogether admirable novel serves, as all literature should, the forces of subversion. It is a worthy companion to The French Lieutenant's Woman, which does the same thing, but bolder in its experimentation and hence more notable as an artistic achievement Observer
Compelling and passionate fiction... Fowles's darting imagination skims across the landscape of two and a half centuries Times Literary Supplement
Brilliant and compelling...he deploys his usual seductive narrative gifts to great effect Guardian

John Fowles won international recognition with The Collector, his first published title, in 1963. He was immediately acclaimed as an outstandingly innovative writer of exceptional imaginative power. This reputation was confirmed with the appearance of his subsequent works including The Aristos, The Magus, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Ebony Tower, Daniel Martin, Mantissa and A Maggot. John Fowles died in 2005.

'The imaginative power of the novel is astounding, the technical virtuosity and structural daring equally so' The Times In his prologue, John Fowles tells us that A Maggot began as a vision he had of five travellers riding with mysterious purpose through remote countryside. This image gives way to another - a hanging corpse with violets stuffed in its mouth - which leads us into a maze of beguiling paths and wrong turnings, disappearances and revelations, unaccountable motives and cryptic deeds, as this compelling mystery swerves towards a starling vision at its centre. See also: The Magus

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