Darkness Visible

The destinies of three mysterious lost children entwine in this James Tait Black Memorial Prize-winning fable by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies. A figure had condensed out of the shuddering backdrop of the glare.

He is born in fire: a naked child in the blood-red flames of London's Blitz. Miraculously saved but grotesquely burned, this mysterious orphan is named Matty. Doomed to a life of torment, he becomes a wanderer, a spiritual seeker after unknown redemption.

They are also lost children: neglected twins, as exquisitely beautiful as they are loveless and sinful. Toni explores political terrorism; Sophy, sexual dominance and violent criminality.

But their destinies will soon collide in an apocalyptic climax – one that illuminates the inner and outer darkness of modern humanity. 'Exceptional …

Irresistibly transcendent …

Golding seduces us. He transfixes, bewitches and confounds us.' Nicola Barker 'Extraordinary … A hallucinatory, incantatory force … The most powerful, and strangest, of all Golding's novels, and one of the great masterpieces of the twentieth-century English novel.' Philip Hensher 'A master craftsman in his particular sort of magic … Golding's best book … Wonderfully creepy … A remarkable achievement.'

London Review of Books 'A vision of elemental reality so vivid we seem to hallucinate the scenes … Magic.'New York Times Book Review 'An intensity of vision without parallel.'TLS 'One of the most moving books I've ever read.'The Times 'Brilliantly spooky … Written with great insight and a surprising humour, it is a thorough pleasure.'

Atlantic Monthly