Murther & Walking Spirits

Nov 7, 2025 3:54 PM

Author:Robertson Davies

'I was never so amazed in my life as when the Sniffer drew his concealed weapon from its case and struck me to the ground, stone dead.'

So begins the story of Connor 'Gil' Gilmartin when he catches his wife in flagrante with the Sniffer, his former colleague and now his murderer. Unfortunately, death is only the first indignity Gil is about to suffer. For he lingers on as a ghost, and from this bleak vantage - made even less endurable by the fact that he must spend the afterlife sitting beside his killer at a film festival - he is forced to view the exploits and failures of his ancestors, from the forerunners who sailed up the Hudson to Canada during the American Revolution to his university-professor parents.

Reviews

Will be recognized with the very best works of this century

—— New York Times Books Review

Vintage Davies, employing a subtle feeling for family relationships and a genuine understanding of money and power while indulging in effortless intellectual acrobatics

—— Sunday Telegraph

Davies' devotees will recognize at once the master's sharp ear for proverbial wisdoms, his relish for fantastical and dark linguistic corners, his magpie accumulations of odd bits of lore and historical tidbits

—— Observer

An extraordinary tapestry of a book - richly layered, embroidered with detail and stitched together with skill and style

—— Time Out

Amos Oz is a commanding artist who ranks with the most important writers of our time.MY MICHAEL, an early work, reveals him to have been from the first everything we know him to be today: a visionary fabricator of breathtaking power and wit, as well as a crafty interpreter of difficult souls.

—— Cynthia Ozick

What stands out...is Oz's strident lyricism

—— Rosanna Boscawen , Observer

So full of surprises that even to start describing it you have to give a few away...compelling

—— Sunday Times

A novel of scintillating brilliance... a modern myth of good and evil... Gripping

—— Metro

A dissection of the emotional fissures that tear families apart

—— Mail on Sunday

The novel...is thoughtful and beautifully written, examining lost lives, chances and choices

—— Daily Mail

A sort of historical treatise follows, one that is devoid of the kind of colourful details which abound in stereotypical lottery daydreams, but which nevertheless endears the reader to Andy and his cause, and sets up an enticing conclusion'

—— Sunday Business Post

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