Jim Crace is one of the most imaginative of contemporary novelists. The author of nine novels, he has received great public and intellectual acclaim across the UK, Europe, Australia and the United States. He was awarded the National Book Critics' Circle Fiction prize (USA) for Being Dead in 2000. Philip Tew's study is the first extended critical examination of Crace's oeuvre and is based on extensive interviews with the novelist, including discussions of his work from his first worldwide bestseller Continent (1986) up to The Pesthouse (2007). Designed especially both for undergraduates of contemporary fiction, and for those who simply enjoy reading the author, Jim Crace is an excellent addition to the Contemporary British Novelists series. Tew's treatment of themes, contexts and narrative strategies illuminates the literary and critical contexts within which Crace operates, situating him as one of the most adventurous and challenging of Britain's twenty-first century authors.

Philip Tew is Professor of Post-1900 English Literature at Brunel University, West London

Prologue
1. Exploring Craceland
2. Changing communities: Continent (1986) & The Gift of Stones (1988)
3. Parables of distress: Arcadia (1992) & Signals of Distress (1994)
4. Death, belief and nature: Quarantine (1997) & Being Dead (1999)
5. Excess and the uncanny: The Devil's Larder (2001), & Six, [Genesis] (2003)
Addendum: The Pesthouse (2007)