The Blind Assassin

Ten days after the Second World War ends, Laura Chase drives her car off a bridge. Decades later her elderly sister Iris, heir to a once-prosperous Ontario family, writes down what she remembers: their sheltered girlhood, her marriage of convenience to the businessman Richard Griffen, who took over the family's fortunes, and the run of deaths that marked the Chases. Woven through her account are chapters of the novel published under Laura's name, about a nameless pair of lovers who meet in secret and pass the time inventing a lurid science-fiction story of an assassin who cannot see, along with newspaper clippings spanning more than sixty years. Slowly these layers shed light on Laura's so-called madness, on Richard's ambitions and on what Iris paid for her marriage.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Family, Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

Canada

First published

2000

Author's age

61 when first published

ISBN

9780385475723 (Nan A. Talese, United States)

9780771008634 (McClelland & Stewart, Canada)

9780747549376 (Bloomsbury, United Kingdom)

9780385720953 (Vintage, United States)

9780349013060 (Virago, United Kingdom)

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