In his long and estimable career, Brian Moore has written a number of novels prized for their storytelling qualities and for a wonderfully graceful synthesis of the funny, the sardonic, the poignant and the near tragic; his reputation as a supremely entertaining "serious" writer is secure. In his best-remembered novels—"The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne" (1956) and "The Luck of Ginger Coffey" (1960), my own favorite among his 14 books—he works that indefinable miracle of creating a character in such a way that it is difficult to believe we have not actually known Judith Hearne or poor luckless Ginger….

These highly readable novels succeed most compellingly on an immediate level: rich with convincing detail, communicating the admixture of drollery and sorrow that characterizes "real" life, populated with individuals who speak and act and dream and breathe as if altogether innocent of the fact that they are mere fictitious characters...