A Case of Knives

by Candia McWilliam

First published by Bloomsbury in 1987, a contemporary novel from the author of DEBATABLE LAND. An eminent, aloof heart surgeon is distraught when one of his male colleague's announces his intention to marry, thus ruining the surgeon's hopes of romance with his colleague, and he embarks on an exploitative experiment with severe consequences.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Candia McWilliam was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1955 and educated at Girton College, Cambridge. She won a Vogue writing competition in 1971 and worked for the magazine between 1976 and 1979.

Her first novel, the macabre A Case of Knives (1988), was joint winner of the Betty Trask Prize. It was followed by A Little Stranger, a disturbing tale of domestic life, in 1989. Both books won Scottish Arts Council Book Awards. Debatable Land (1994) won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Italian Premio Grinzane Cavour for the best foreign novel of the year. The book follows the adventures of the crew of a yacht sailing from Tahiti to New Zealand, exploring each character's differing experience of loneliness and exile.

Her book, Wait till I Tell You (1997), is a collection of short stories. She is a regular reviewer for a number of newspapers.

Her latest book is What to Look for in Winter (2009).

Reviews

[Eliza Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astonishing book with some descriptions in it that I actually wanted to write down and study again and again, and I am not usually prone to such actions. Just when you think you're securely inside a head and securely in possession of the facts, the point of view changes and you see things very differently.

[Rob Fabra · Rating 5 out of 5]

i was so surprised when reading this book. Never had read anything like that!

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never read anything like this before, Why is she not more known? Haunting. In more ways than one.

[Ewan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great writing with contemptible characters, like with some Iris Murdochs I struggle to love a book about these selfish, complicated people. That said, I enjoy Seinfeld so feel free to disregard this review as an ignorant outlier. I read it as I really enjoyed McWilliams's memoir and thought I'd try her fiction. Full of genius but I wouldn't hurry to pick this up again.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope. Not for me. Gave it a very generous day, but after half a dozen self-indulgent, boring chapters I found I really didn't care to find out what happened next.

"Life's too short to read bad books"

[Lawrence Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this over 25 years ago and have lost my copy of it but I remember many descriptive passages so powerful that they caused me to stop reading, absorb them, and reread them. The plot was great too.

[Paul Maunder · Rating 5 out of 5]

The woman is a genius.

[Alex Ankarr · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's a weird one. pretty good though.

[James M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surgeon and friend emotionally torture a young female victim.