The Back of His Head

Raymond Thomas Lawrence turned a conservative Canterbury upbringing and the Algerian War of Independence into novels that won him the Nobel Prize. Seven years after his death, the trust set up to guard his copyright and run his home, the Residence, as a museum is short of money and visitors. Its four members are Peter Orr, the nephew he adopted as his son, a bitter failed poet, a former mistress with one novel to her name, and a quiet printer of fine books. Peter tells the story, and Thom Ham, the body-builder hired to look after Lawrence in his last years, adds his part on tape. As an academic schemes to become the official biographer, the trustees' memories slowly darken the picture of a writer who controlled everyone around him.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Satire (assigned by AI)

Set in

New Zealand

First published

2015

ISBN

9781776560462 (Victoria University Press, New Zealand)