An End to Flight

Michael Painter, an Irishman teaching in a Catholic Mission School in Nigeria, is, by temperament and choosing, an observer. Boredom, and the fear of emotional involvement seem always to prevent him from taking a decisive leap. And so, as the relief planes lift the European doctors, teachers, and priests out of a country convulsed by a violent Civil War they cannot comprehend, Painter remains behind.

Still in search of something to give meaning to his life, Painter is submerged in the conflict as rival armies shuttle back and forth across the enormous battlefield, wrecking identical cruelties, slaughtering and being slaughtered. For Painter, as for the starving Biafrans, there is no real end to flight.

In a spare, muted style, Vincent Banville communicates the horror of Africa at war in a work of extraordinary power and depth. This is a timely re-issue of a celebrated novel that paints a picture of the beginnings of a struggle that endures to this day.

Winner of the Robert Pitman Prize for Fiction

'Powerful and compelling--a most magnificent book.' --Daily Express