The State of Michael - Merle Esson

Synopsis

Things can turn in an instant; some apparently random event occurs that has the potential to alter everything."
Michael Vitch’s life is secretive and repetitious. He prefers it that way, no challenge, no change. Then he catches a glimpse of something that appears at first to be insignificant, yet enduringly unforgettable: an old man appeared briefly at a window before stepping back into the shadow of his lonely room. Some time later he hanged himself. A stranger’s suicide and then the arrival of May, a young Bosnian refugee who becomes infatuated with him, stir up uncomfortable emotions Michael thought he had buried long ago.

“It’s out there, that black hole with my name on it.” Michael’s slow but steady implosion is measured out compellingly in Merle Esson’s cunningly wrought, densely textured narrative of personal and political disintegration. The respective destinies of Michael and Mitteleuropa serve as mutually sustaining symbols in a novel whose symmetries never, however, seem laboured.”
Michael Kerrigan, The Scotsman

To read a sample chapter from The State of Michael, follow this link