A Stranger in Corfu
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Canongate Books
Published:12th Feb '26
Should be back in stock very soon
'Suspenseful, vivid and impossible to put down' TOM HOLLAND
'Laced with thrills' EVIE WYLD
'Utterly gripping' ADAM RUTHERFORD
On the Greek island of Vidos the past lingers like salt in the air. The inhabitants - former members of MI6 - are sent here to be forgotten. Exiled. Either too damaged or too compromised to be allowed to live freely.
For years, residents make the best of their fate - old enemies reconcile, long-lost friends swim together in the warm sea and estranged lovers share a bed once more. But secrets bind tightly. And when one of their own washes up dead, alliances fracture and a tide of suspicion begins to rise.
A vivid reimagining of a real, hidden slice of the British Intelligence Service's history, A Stranger in Corfu is an exquisitely tense and masterfully spun novel about shadowy morality, unravelled secrets and the futility of trying to outrun the past.
Imagine the Slow Horses had parents who were also spies. Imagine those parents were on a small island, just off Corfu. Imagine that their chequered pasts might be catching up with them. And then realise you don't need to imagine it because Alex Preston has done it for you with this beautifully taut, clever, classy thriller -- NATALIE HAYNES
Le Carré meets The Durrells - A Stranger is Corfu is a brilliantly atmospheric thriller. Suspenseful, vivid and impossible to put down -- TOM HOLLAND
A cracker from Alex Preston: a lovely, sun-drenched conceit, deftly executed * * The Times * *
Taut, tense and utterly gripping: Preston evokes a wonderfully thrilling story from the dreamy Ioanian. Nothing short of brilliant -- ADAM RUTHERFORD
A sunlit version of the purgatory of Mick Herron's Slough House . . . This story of betrayal, disillusionment and the terrible cost of adherence to ideology is both compelling and humane * * Guardian * *
A beautiful, taut novel laced with the thrills of lives half-lived and never escaped; of friendship, love and relentless betrayal beneath Corfu's blazing sun and the restless, dark sea - where secrets threaten to drown them all. A story that haunts long after the last page -- EVIE WYLD
A gripping thriller that explores the lives shaped - and shattered - by Cold War politics in Europe's southern fringe. Preston captures the fractured legacy of British intelligence and the ghosts it leaves behind with haunting precision. I was captivated from start to finish -- PETER FRANKOPAN
A stylish literary spy novel in which Agatha Christie meets the Cambridge Five, set on a sun-soaked island off Corfu. Sophisticated and stylishly self-aware, it weaves political intrigue with lyrical prose in an artful reimagining of the classic spy story -- SARAH CHURCHWELL
Tantalising . . . a striking - and strikingly ironic - location for a kind of Slough-House-on-Sea . . . A Stranger In Corfu defies easy categorisation * * Observer * *
Beautifully crafted . . . brings new layers of accomplishment to the growing genre of 'sidelined spy lit' . . . Preston adds plenty of danger and intrigue to make an electrifying, original read that asks profound questions about the human cost of patriotic service * * Financial Times * *
ISBN: 9781837263936
Dimensions: 220mm x 141mm x 25mm
Weight: 410g
304 pages
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