Award-winning Bernard Beckett opens this dazzling philosophical novel with a near fatal car crash. Trapped in a wrecked car, Tristan and Grace, almost strangers who have been thrown together by fate, tell each other their stories. Brought up under the rule of St Augustine, Tristan’s training has revolved around the meaning of free will; Grace has only known a life of hardship and little hope with no room in it for ideas and theories. When their paths first cross both question the strict rules of the society they live in and find a new meaning and world outlook through their love for each other. A thoughtful novel which probes readers’ understanding of why individuals behave as they do. From the author of Genesis.
Trapped in a car wreck, upside down, bleeding and in pain, Tristan and Grace are staring at death. When dawn breaks they might be seen from the road and rescued, or not. They wait desperately holding onto life, unravelling the sequence of events that brought them together. Tristan is a philosopher struggling with the question of free will. Grace's life of hardship allows no place for such ideas. But a brief encounter changes their lives, setting them on a collision course with love and death - and each other.
Bernard Beckett has a degree in Economics, and has taught in the Wellington region for several years. He has published nine novels, and has won many awards for his fiction.
In 2006 Bernard was awarded a New Zealand Science, Mathematics and Technology Teacher Fellowship where he worked on a project examining DNA mutations. This new direction led to the publication of Genesis in 2006, which won the Young Adult Category in the 2007 NZ Post Book Awards. In 2008 the book made publishing history when UK publisher Quercus Books offered the largest advance ever put forward for a young adult novel in New Zealand. The novel, also published in Australia, is to be released in the UK as two separate editions: adult and young adult, and is to be published – at this date – in over 20 countries
Bernard’s fascination for science also led to Falling for Science: Asking the Big Questions (2007), his non-fiction exploration of the relationship between story-telling and science.
Bernard currently lives in Wellington with his wife, Clare Knighton (and co-author of Deep Fried.)
