Quite simply a masterpiece John BanvilleIve just found a stranger in my house In a bed on the second floor He was dying when I got there Youre going to have to deal with itHector Loursat has been a drunken recluse since his wife left him eighteen years ago Shut away in his dilapidated mansion in the small town of Moulins he barely speaks to his daughter But when the sound of a gunshot penetrates the padded walls of his study one night and he discovers a body Loursat is forced to act No longer able to ignore the world he determines to get to the truth of what happened and save an innocent life