The Visor

by Peter J. Jones

"The Old Tailor had stared at the space left by the young woman as she left the workshop, and it had seemed as though there was a faint trail left by those eyes like car headlights on a slow film photograph taken at night...He had not believed such a thing was possible. In a universe so vast, such a thing could be nothing but an act of quite deliberate malice. He did not know if she recognised him or not, and whoever had engineered this agony was determined to place him in an impossible position. He might well gaze, but he could not, under any circumstances, tell her the truth."

A man is living in Paris, France during the final years of the human era. Yet it is not the future that he fears, only the consequences of a hidden and terrifying past.

571 pages, Paperback

First published September 26, 2019

Reviews

[Deborah K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a big, multi-genre, multi-plot, surreal novel that deals with trauma and its aftermath. The style is literary, experimental in places, always attentive to the musicality of language even in the most horrific scenes. One of the most ambitious and creative books I've read in a long time, the story weaves together British and American expats in Paris in the early 2000's with Eastern European tailors and spies during WWII and its aftermath, and a few other settings I won't mention here because to do so would be to spoil the delightful twists that await. It's wonderful when a book can contain both horror and heart in a collection of multi-faceted characters (in this case, who may or may not be the same people in different versions of reality). Highly recommended if you enjoy a challenging, surreal book that doesn't wrap everything up with a neat little bow and leaves the perfect amount of mystery intact...

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dark novel that at times was a bit confusing. Certainly “multi narrative, multi genre”.

[Peter Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review copied from Amazon:

I thought this was really excellent. It is incredibly ambitious. The time- and gender-hopping reminded a little of David Mitchell. I though the writing was just excellent. There were numerous passages that I re-read for the pleasure of it.
But it was the ferry story that got me the most. The level of tension was almost unbearable. Knowing what was coming and the long build up! Really impressive stuff!