A Man from Elsewhere

by J.G. Farrell

‘A distinguished traitor, Sayer thought, but a dying one…but a dying one. He did not know whether he was glad or sorry…’

Sayer is a young Communist journalist working in Paris. A rootless man, his only enduring passion is politics—in place of religious belief, his justification for existence. He is sent by his editor to destroy the reputation of Regan, a former Communist and famous writer, now dying in his village home in the South of France.

James Farrell, in this beautifully written first novel, shows Sayer's involvement, closer than he had ever expected, with Regan, Luc a film script writer, and the beautiful but disturbing Gretchen, in the heat burdened village of Saint Guilhem.

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

James Gordon Farrell, known as J.G. Farrell, was a Liverpool-born novelist of Irish descent. Farrell gained prominence for his historical fiction, most notably his Empire Trilogy (Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip), dealing with the political and human consequences of British colonial rule. The Siege of Krishnapur won the 1973 Booker Prize. On 19 May 2010 it was announced that Troubles had won the Lost Man Booker Prize, which was a prize created to recognize works published in 1970 (a group that had not previously been open for consideration due to a change in the eligibility rules at the time).

Farrell's career was cut short when he was drowned off the coast of Ireland at the age of 44.