The Murderer
Roy Heath

Winner of the 1978 Guardian Fiction Prize

Galton Flood grows up under enormous psychological and cultural burdens. Overpowered by his mother, and too worshipful of his older brother and father, Galton struggles for independence. He leaves his hometown of Georgetown, Guyana, for remote townships to make a life of his own.
He meets Gemma, a woman who fascinates him, and whom he marries. Then secrets in her past emerge and Galton again feels trapped.
Impossible to put down, impossible to forget, The Murderer is at once a stunning portrait of a “character who might have been created by Dostoevsky” (Spectator) and an immersion into the unsettling world of colonial Guyana.

“A beautiful writer and an unforgettable book.”
—Salman Rushdie

“... a hauntingly powerful story.”
—The New York Times

“A picture of a lost soul emerges that is mysteriously authentic and unique as a work of art.”
—The Observer (London)

Roy Heath, originally from Guyana, emigrated to England at the age of twenty-four to study at London University. A teacher, attorney, and poet, and the author of nine novels, including The Armstrong Trilogy, and The Shadow Bride which was nominated for the Booker Prize. He died in 2008.

Paperback / $9.99 (Can $14.00) / ISBN 978-0-89255-169-9 / 190 pages / Fiction