The Search

The Search

A Scottish academic in Australia learns his long-lost brother may be alive — and begins a search that questions everything.

About the Ebook

Trevor Griersor, a Scottish university lecturer, is spending a term in Canberra, lecturing on Scottish authors. One day a stranger phones, with garbled news of Trevor's brother Norman who vanished in Australia many years before, and has since, according to the caller, become an alcoholic and been in trouble with the police. Trevor feels overwhelmed with guilt, for having neglected his brother for so long. He imagines him penniless now, a down-and-out, drunk in the gutter; or perhaps even lying in a pauper's grave. He resolves that he must trace him, and travels to Sydney to begin his search. The search takes him to government offices, police stations, the Salvation Army, a squalid doss-house; and his experiences drive him into a state of panic. But why does he feel so compelled to search?

As Douglas, that ambiguous Iago-like figure who first phoned him, now says, Norman won't be at all the younger brother of eighteen years ago; he'll be a stranger. If he's an alcoholic, he may be violent. He's unlikely to thank Trevor for seeking to patronise him by 'rescuing' him. Trevor has asked himself - and it's the basic question that faces the reader too - 'Am I my brothers' keeper?' Does he really care about his brother, or is he acting from a sense of duty? This is the novel's crux, and Trevor's cross, which he bears with him to a highly ironical conclusion. It's an absorbing study of conscience and responsibility, written with all of Crichton Smith's quiet authority.

Why You'll Love This Ebook

• An absorbing study of conscience, responsibility and the question of what we owe each other
• Takes the reader from government offices to squalid doss-houses across Sydney
• Written with all of Iain Crichton Smith's quiet authority and ironic intelligence
• Read another celebrated title from Polygon - an imprint of Birlinn Ltd

About the Author

Iain Crichton Smith (1928 – 1998) was born in Glasgow, brought up on Lewis, and attended university in Aberdeen. After working as a teacher in Clydebank and Dumbarton, he taught at the High School in Oban until he took early retirement in 1977. He was the recipient of many literary awards and received an OBE in 1980. His widow, Donalda, still lives in Taynuilt, where the couple moved after their marriage in 1977.

Publication Details

Publisher: Polygon (an imprint of Birlinn Ltd)

Publication Date: 15 April 2015

Print Length: 182 pages (Ebook edition)

ISBN (Ebook): 9780857907301

Format: Ebook

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