There is no such thing as an ordinary life. But Kenneth Brill's is more extraordinary than most. By the time he is arrested for espionage towards the end of the Second World War he has an incredible story to tell.

Under interrogation he describes his unusual childhood, shares the decadent details of his training as a painter at the prestigious Slade School of Art in the 1930s and explains just why he was so very friendly with the prostitutes of London's Soho underworld; he narrates his heroic actions as a camouflage officer before El Alamein, when he helped pull off one of the greatest acts of deception in the history of warfare, and accounts for his part in a night-time break-in of the royal residence of Buckingham Palace.

This is a life lived to the full, whether as son, friend, lover, teacher or pupil. The only question is: whose side is he really on?

'A huge, complex novel, at turns both blackly funny and bleakly moving, driven by truly original characters' Daily Mail

'Clever, subtle, and rewarding' Times Literary Supplement

'A sprawling novel of war, betrayal, art and the truth of storytelling itself' (Independent) from the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted Gerard Woodward

About the Author
Gerard Woodward is the author of a number of novels, including Nourishment and an acclaimed trilogy comprising: August (shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread First Novel Award), I'll Go to Bed at Noon (shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize) and A Curious Earth. He was born in London in 1961, and published several prize-winning collections of poetry before turning to fiction. His collection of poetry, We Were Pedestrians, was shortlisted for the 2005 T.S.Eliot Prize. His most recent poetry collection, Seacunny, was published in 2012. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

Reviews
This is a huge, complex novel, at turns both blackly funny and bleakly moving, driven by truly original characters, rich in obscure pieces of knowledge, evocative of a long-lost, little-known past, and always absorbing - in a word, a masterpiece. * Daily Mail *
A sprawling novel of war, betrayal, art and the truth of storytelling itself * Independent *
Tantalising . . . playful yet sombre . . . What impresses is how Woodward uses first-person narration to illuminate his protagonist's troubled psychology without direct statement . . . An elegy for a lost England and an exploration of repressed sexuality, Vanishing is . . . the work of an intelligent author pursuing his own path. * Sunday Telegraph *
Clever, subtle, and rewarding . . . an ambitious investigation into the nature of truth . . . ingenious * Times Literary Supplement *
Such narrative breadth finely accommodates Mr Woodward's incisive prose: he negotiates the strange topographies of the past with a tender, childlike curiosity * Country Life *
A vividly drawn tale of war, art and sexuality * Independent *
Compelling . . .Vanishing is a portrait of an artist as a young man, with a very unreliable artist constructing the narrative. . . .ambitious, rangy and unusual * New York Times *



Book Information
ISBN 9780330518659
Author Gerard Woodward
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Picador
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Weight(grams) 370g
Dimensions(mm) 197mm * 130mm * 31mm