Famous Last Words by Timothy Findley is a historical novel that intricately weaves together figures like Ezra Pound, the Duke of Windsor, Wallace Simpson, Charles Lindbergh, and Sir Harry Oakes amidst a backdrop of WWII fascism and conspiracy. The novel delves into themes of ambition, love, loyalty, and the sinister interplay between egotism and fascism, all set within a web of international intrigue and historical events.
The plot of Famous Last Words unfolds as a blend of thriller, horror, and meditation on history and the human soul. The writing style captures the essence of corruption, faded glamour, and murder, while presenting a richly crafted plot that constantly surprises and astounds the reader.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
The novel contains high content warnings due to its themes of war, murder, and the moral ambiguities surrounding historical events.
From The Publisher:
In the final days of the Second World War, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley scrawls his desperate account on the walls and ceilings of his ice-cold prison high in the Austrian Alps. Officers of the liberating army discover his frozen, disfigured corpse and his astonishing testament - the sordid truth that he alone possessed. Fascinated but horrified, they learn of a dazzling array of characters caught up in a scandal and political corruption.Famous Last Words is part-thriller, part-horror story; it is also a meditation on history and the human soul and it is Findley's fine achievement that he has combined these elements into a web that constantly surprises and astounds the reader.
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About the Author:
Timothy Findley was born in Toronto in 1930. His first career was in the theatre; he was a charter company member of Ontario's Stratford Shakespearean Festival in 1953, and toured several European capitals.$$$In 1963, Findley turned to writing full-time and in 1977 his third novel, The Wars, won a Governor General's Award. It is now considered a Canadian classic. Following his bestsellers such as Famous Last Words, he won an Edgar Award for The Telling of Lies, while his collection of short stories, Stones, won Ontario's Trillium Award.$$$Findley's first work of non-fiction, Inside Memory: Pages from a Writer's Workbook, made him the first two-time winner of a Canadian Authors Association Award; he had earlier won its fiction counterpart for his novel, Not Wanted on the Voyage. He has also written plays, and his third, The Stillborn Lover (1993), won the CAA Drama Award, as well as winning an Arthur Ellis Award and Chalmers Award. His later novels include Headhunter (1993) and The Piano Man's Daughter (1995). His most recent play, Elizabeth Rex, was produced at the 2000 Stratford Festival in Canada.$$$Along with the likes of Michael Ondaatje and Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findley has become one of Canada's most acclaimed and best-selling authors. In 2000, Faber published Pilgrim and reissued The Wars and Famous Last Words. His last novel, Spadework, was published in 2002, the year in which Timothy Findley died.
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