Nominee for the Booker Prize in 1989. “Clues,” a novel by one of the brightest representatives of modern Irish literature, John Banville, is born as a result of deep understanding and development of the best traditions of European confessional and philosophical prose. The crime of the protagonist is considered by the author as a dead end in the evolution of the egocentric consciousness of the individual, and the punishment of the killer consists of a tragic revaluation of his own spiritual experience. The book is read as a confession of a restless intellect and sums up his self-identification at the end of the 20th century. For all those interested in modern foreign prose. “...In “Evidence” there is a murder and there is the theft of a painting; but God forbid you buy this novel as an evening detective story or airplane reading. You will be wildly disappointed. “Evidence” is an antique, valuable, rarity, an exhibit of the Kunstkamera, a novel as thin as tissue paper. The game is not about the plot or even the style, but about transforming paper into canvas, a novel into a painting. It is written from the perspective of a murderer who, in broad daylight, pulled out “Portrait of a Lady with Gloves” (17th century, Rembrandt, Vermeer or Hals) from a private art gallery, took the first woman he came across as a hostage, and then killed her and threw away the painting. Pretty soon he is arrested; in conclusion, he begins to write something like a confession. His manner of describing what happened is the main event of the novel; and the detective is fake; It’s not about murder..."