The Murderer (novel)

1978 novel by Guyanese writer Roy A

The Murderer

First edition paperback (UK)

Author| Roy Heath
Language| English
Published| 1978
Publisher| Allison and Busby (UK)
Persea (US)
Publication place| UK
Awards| The Guardian Fiction Prize
Preceded by| A Man Come Home
Followed by| From the Heat of the Day

The Murderer is a 1978 novel by Guyanese writer Roy A. K. Heath. The author's second novel, it was first published in London by Allison and Busby, with Margaret Busby as editor, and was the winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize.[1][2]

## Reception

[edit]

The Murderer was well reviewed on first publication and in its later reissues, being described by The Observer as "mysteriously authentic, and unique as a work of art" and by Publishers Weekly as "an impressive study of a man's descent into paranoia and madness".[3]

Wilson Harris, reviewing the novel in World Literature Written in English, wrote: "What is impressive about The Murderer is the execution of a style that truncates emotion...."[4]

In 2008, David Katz appraised Roy Heath's writing career in Caribbean Beat, noting: "His 1978 book The Murderer, which won the Guardian Fiction prize, was a haunting account of the paranoid protagonist’s descent into madness and the inevitable outcome that gives the book its title; this, and the compelling Armstrong Family trilogy that followed (From the Heat of the Day (1979), One Generation (1980) and Genetha (1981)), helped establish his reputation, drawing comparisons to Joseph Conrad, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky."[5]

The Murderer was listed in 1999's The Modern Library: 200 Best Novels in English since 1950 by Carmen Callil and Colm Tóibín.[1]

On the novel's 2022 re-issue, Colin Grant described it in The New York Review of Books as "a literary thriller that sheds light on the societal divisions and the undercurrent of political violence that beset Guyana in the 1950s and continued beyond independence in 1966. ...The Murderer is a strange, luminous, and beguiling work by a writer with a mysterious and captivating Caribbean voice."[6]

Heath's son Rohan has recalled that his father wrote The Murderer in six weeks.[7]

## Editions

[edit]

* 1978: London: Allison and Busby
* 1984: Fontana Paperbacks
* 1986: New York: Persea Books
* 2022: Penguin Books (Penguin Modern Classics), ISBN 9780241552728.[8] US: McNally Editions, ISBN 9781946022295 (distributed by Simon & Schuster).[9]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Busby, Margaret (20 May 2008). "Roy AK Heath (obituary)". The Guardian.
2. ^ "Roy Heath (1926 – 2008)". Elise Dillsworth Literary Agency. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
3. ^ "The Murderer | Roy Heath, Author Persea Books", Publishers Weekly, 3 March 1993.
4. ^ Harris, Wilson (1978). "Roy Heath.The murderer. London: Allison and Busby, 1978". World Literature Written in English. 17 (2): 656–658\. doi:10.1080/17449857808588571.
5. ^ Katz, David (September–October 2008). "Roy Heath: a man goes home". Caribbean Beat. No. 93. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
6. ^ Grant, Colin (21 July 2022). "The Enigma of Nonarrival". The New York Review of Books.
7. ^ "Close Up | Roy Heath's sons remember their father". Writers Mosaic. 13 July 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2023. (Rohan Heath, "Memories of my father: The Guyanese writer, Roy Heath".)
8. ^ "The Murderer". Penguin.co.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
9. ^ "The Murderer". Simon & Schuster.

* v
* t
* e

The Guardian's Guardian Fiction Prize

1965–1970|

* Crumb Borne by Clive Barry (1965)
* The Dear Green Place by Archie Hind (1966)
* Winter Journey by Eva Figes (1967)
* A Song and a Dance by P. J. Kavanagh (1968)
* Poor Lazarus by Maurice Leitch (1969)
* When Did You Last See your Father? by Margaret Blount (1970)

1971–1980|

* The Big Chapel by Thomas Kilroy (1971)
* G by John Berger (1972)
* In the Country of the Skin by Peter Redgrove (1973)
* The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge (1974)
* Friends and Romans by Sylvia Clayton (1975)
* Falstaff by Robert Nye (1976)
* The Condition of Muzak by Michael Moorcock (1977)
* The Murderer by Roy Heath (1978)
* Night in Tunisia by Neil Jordan and The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera (1979)
* A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr (1980)

1981–1990|

* Kepler by John Banville (1981)
* Where I Used to Play on the Green by Glyn Hughes (1982)
* Waterland by Graham Swift (1983)
* Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard (1984)
* Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd (1985)
* Continent by Jim Crace (1986)
* The Levels by Peter Benson (1987)
* Sweet Desserts by Lucy Ellmann (1988)
* Rosehill: Portrait from a Midlands City by Carol Lake (1989)
* Shape-Shifter by Pauline Melville (1990)

1991–1998|

* The Devil's Own Work by Alan Judd (1991)
* Poor Things by Alasdair Gray (1992)
* The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker (1993)
* Debatable Land by Candia McWilliam (1994)
* Heart's Journey in Winter by James Buchan (1995)
* Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane (1996)
* Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels (1997)
* Trumpet by Jackie Kay (1998)

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template