Shadowplay

"A better question might be: what didn’t catch the judges’ eyes? Shadowplay employs both first and third person narrative, uses diary pages, private notes, newspaper cuttings and, occasionally, Ellen Terry’s voice. Yet it’s so smooth. Never a hiccup. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter Also, though the novel’s ostensibly about three titans of the Victorian theatre, it’s really a deep exploration of the exposed and the hidden, “the other man that every man contains.” Joseph O’Connor wants us to shiver, and we do. As for the writing, every page has an eye-catcher, often more than one. I could hardly read the book in public, so strong was the urge to accost complete strangers with ‘Just listen to this!’ Could there be a more perfect vignette than Ellen Terry clip-clopping home after a show, alone in the dawn? I can still hear the “alleluia of the linnets.” A collective biography can only go so far in relationship exploration. So, for example, a collective biography of Bram, Henry and Ellen—after Shadowplay , I feel on first-name terms—would focus more on time and place of meetings, on correspondence, on what is irrefutable. A novelist is free to fill the emotional gaps (and other gaps, too, if there are any), without being accused of speculation. So biographers and novelists do different jobs. I’ve never tried to flip from one to the other, but I imagine that’s pretty hard."