Absolution is at times gripping and at others frustrating. Moving between the present and past lives of South African author, Clare, and that of Sam, the orphaned son of anti-apartheid activists, the book examines the damaging effects of the apartheid regime on the lives of the characters – their responses to living under it and to each other. At the core is the guilt that Clare feels about her damaged relationship with her daughter who is lost to her, alongside Clare's and Sam's relationship as Sam tries to write her biography, despite her evasion and dancing around the truth. Flannery's descriptions of tense moments, struggles with telling the truth and of a parent's longing to reconnect with their child hit deep and his description of life in South Africa seems authentic. When reading those elements I could not put the book down. At other times I had to make myself keep going, to finish this book and plough through the complicated structure. I found the constantly shifting perspectives between characters initially confusing and then annoying, with the shifting both between the characters speaking for themselves and when they were observed by the author. The philosophical interjections did not add to the book, for me either as I felt the issues were well elucidated through the people in the book.

I did not enjoy this read and found it a confusing and cold book which I abandoned halfway through.

Although I quite enjoyed this book, I found the multiple voices confusing at first. I never quite warmed to the the character of Clare, so found it difficult to empathise with her. Set in South Africa, the dark shadow of Apartheid hovers over the lives of all involved. Secrets abound, both personal and political. Sam Leroux has been contracted to write the biography of author Clare Wald; both harbour secrets, neither sure if the other is aware of the fact. Binding the two is Clare's daughter, Laura, an activist; missing for many years, but with no proof of her death. Her ghost becomes stronger as the story progresses, its grip over Clare tightening. We witness Clare's struggle to free herself from her feelings of guilt; was she in any way to blame for the path Laura chose in life, and, therefore responsible for whatever happened to her? Although the narrative is fairly straightforward, the story becomes complicated as voices are added. We have Clare's own recollections, plus those of Sam; Sam's being two separate entities, one being the voice of his childhood from 1989, the other from the present day. We also have Clare's second voice, as heard in the book that she is writing. Each chapter heading clearly signals the voice that is speaking. After a while the reader becomes aware that some parts are written in the first person, some in the third, making it easier to differentiate between Sam's two voices, also between Clare's own voice and that of her fictionalised self in her book. As Clare begins to open up to Sam, it becomes more and more difficult to separate her genuine memories from the fictional version in her book. Differing versions of Laura's disappearance challenge the reader's perception of what happened. Although Clare was aware that the lives of Sam and Laura had, for a while, become interwoven, it is only on the completion of their writings that Sam reveals his true identity, shattering Clare's previous misconception, and opening up a whole new series of memories for each of them.

Flanery's background is in film and it shows in this first novel. The speech is razor sharp but the descriptions leave much to be desired. The main character in Absolution is a South African novelist, Clare, with a severe guilt complex and a faulty memory. Sam has been invited to write a biography of Clare and to aid his work, conducts several interviews with Clare. However, Clare is keen to put across the idea that she does not wish the biography to be written and her reasons for choosing Sam are not revealed to the end. Clare's family has been deeply scarred by the Apartheid with the deaths of her sister and brother-in-law and her only daughter. Exactly what happened in the case of her daughter is never made clear and it seems that Clare continually re-imagines what might have happened to her By the end of the book, assuming you have stuck it out that far, the characters have been reasonably well drawn but this is principally done by speech rather than description. His descriptions, when they do come, sound more like stage directions though. Flanery shows promise and I am prepared to read his future work but this work aspires to be “great” and so must be judged by others in that category. If you want a plot which is non-linear, Ian McEwan's Atonement is far better. If you want an unresolved ending, read Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White.