Synopsis
Julian Barnes's Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novel isbased on Arthur Conan Doyle's extraordinary real-life fight for justice. 'Julian Barnes... has taken the bones of a long-dead history and imbued them with vivid and memorable life' Observer. Arthur & George is based on the true story of two men. One is Arthur Conan Doyle, the other is George Edalji, a solicitor from Birmingham. Their nineteenth-century lives are worlds and miles apart, until a series of shocking events brings them together. In dubious circumstances, George is found guilty of harming animals and is sentenced to seven years' penal servitude a future of ignominious obscurity. However, when Arthur, who is now one of the most famous men in the land as creator of Sherlock Holmes, hears of this racist miscarriage of justice he decides to clear George's name...Told against the backdrop of Arthur's family life his own passionate affair with the woman who was to become the second Lady Conan Doyle and his wife's lengthy...
The Washington Post - Michael Dirda
Barnes's writing is, as usual, masterly throughout Arthur & George, not only as the pages shift from one man's consciousness to the other's but also in the way their author keeps the reader on edge. Facts are interpreted, then reinterpreted; the bigoted speak convincingly; nothing turns out quite as expected; and even the book's coda delivers a final shock.