Cirrus@Austlit

'A witty, seductive and moving novel of a famous writer and his protégé Roddy Parr takes us into the luminous circle of a literary giant. It is a world of family intrigues, importunate fans -- and dark secrets. Roddy Parr is an outsider, an ambitious young man who has just completed his PhD on the legendary David Anthem - a writer regularly tipped to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature. Through his friendship with Anthem′s publisher, the dazzling svengali Julia Collis, Roddy joins the Anthem household as David′s secretary. Julia′s not-so-secret agenda is for him to become David′s biographer. Soon Roddy is indispensable, and finds his new status as insider increasingly addictive. Yet Anthem′s world is steeped in tragedy and its truths are not simple ones' (Publisher website).