a Cluedo in the Irish countryside

From our special correspondent in Dublin

We never imagined meeting a man so curious about others, so attentive, so elegant. John Banville, one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon authors of his generation, is a surprising man, but aren’t the Irish in general? In this grand Dublin hotel, he comes to meet us, smiling, a large basket in his hand. Did he just do his shopping? On closer inspection, the basket in question is filled with books. We will never know why and this originality only adds to the pleasure of meeting him. His work is impressive, acclaimed by critics, he even received the Booker Prize in 2005 for The sea, gripping novel about mourning. John Banville is undoubtedly a so-called “serious” author. When, in 2006, he decides to write police investigations, novels closer to those of Agatha Christie than those of Henry James, of whom he is a fervent admirer, the surprise is total. He changes his tone but also his name to…