The Sparsholt Affair

'A highlight of Hollinghurst's career, and one of the best books of the year' Independent In 1940, David Sparsholt goes up to Oxford University. Charismatic and good-looking, he seems to have little awareness of the effect he has on others, not least on the lonely and romantic Evert Dax. As the Blitz rages fifty miles away in London, the university exists in a strange limbo, in which nightly blackouts conceal secret liaisons. Aware that they will soon be called up, David and Evert forge an unlikely friendship that will colour their lives - and those of their friends - for decades to come . . . The Sparsholt Affair tells the story of a circle of friends and families, with David and Evert at their centre; we see their reputations rise and fall, watch as one becomes the subject of a national scandal, and follow the impact of such sensational events across the generations. Through this captivating human drama, Alan Hollinghurst explores the social, sexual and cultural revolutions that made the world we know today. 'Thrillingly stylish and gripping' Alex Preston 'A sweeping and intimate masterpiece' Geoff Dyer

Hollinghurst is a master storyteller ... thrilling in the rather awful way that the best Victorian novels are, so that one finds oneself galloping somewhat shamefacedly through the pages in order to discover what happens next. John Banville

Alan Hollinghurst is the author of five novels, The Swimming-Pool Library, The Folding Star, The Spell, The Line of Beauty and The Stranger's Child. He has received the Somerset Maugham Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction and the 2004 Man Booker Prize. He lives in London.

Alan Hollinghurst is the author of several novels including The Swimming-Pool Library, The Folding Star, The Spell, The Line of Beauty and The Stranger's Child. He has received the Somerset Maugham Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction and the 2004 Man Booker Prize. He lives in London.