Hardcover, 285 pages
English language
Published Feb. 11, 1968 by Faber & Faber.
Something to Answer For
by P. H. Newby
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It was 1956, and he was in Port Said. About these two facts, Townrow was reasonably certain, but a murderous attack left him certain about little else—maybe just the conviction that the British usually did the right thing and that to be a crook a man must assume the society he lived in was honest.
He had been summoned to Egypt by the widow of an old friend, Elie Khoury, who had been found dead in the street. Murdered? Nobody but the widow seemed to think so. Confusingly, Townrow had a half-memory of Elie's body being buried at sea. And what about Leah Strauss? Evidently, he was having an affair with her, but there were times when he wondered whether he would turn out to be her American husband. If he was her American husband, why did his memory seem to be Irish? And only an Englishman, surely, would take …
It was 1956, and he was in Port Said. About these two facts, Townrow was reasonably certain, but a murderous attack left him certain about little else—maybe just the conviction that the British usually did the right thing and that to be a crook a man must assume the society he lived in was honest.
He had been summoned to Egypt by the widow of an old friend, Elie Khoury, who had been found dead in the street. Murdered? Nobody but the widow seemed to think so. Confusingly, Townrow had a half-memory of Elie's body being buried at sea. And what about Leah Strauss? Evidently, he was having an affair with her, but there were times when he wondered whether he would turn out to be her American husband. If he was her American husband, why did his memory seem to be Irish? And only an Englishman, surely, would take it for granted that the British behaved themselves. The arrival of invading British paratroops was the final perplexity.
For already, the weird disorientation of his world had been forcing Townrow towards a re-examination of the basic rules by which he had been living; and into a realization that he too had something personally to answer for. Brilliantly constructed, highly intelligent, superbly entertaining, Something to Answer For is perhaps Mr. Newby's finest achievement yet.