Bruno's Dream

Obsessed with spiders and preoccupied with death, an old man lies at the centre of Iris Murdoch’s intricate web of relationships and passions.

"She is incapable of writing without fascinating and beautiful colour."   -  The Times

Against an atmospheric London backdrop, Bruno is dying. As the end draws near, remorse, reconciliation and redemption fill his thoughts. The flooding Thames brings about the climax. Miles, Bruno’s estranged and grieving son; Danby, his widowed son-in-law, consoling himself with Adelaide the maid; creepy nurse Nigel and his besotted twin Will, fighter of duels - all are left changed by love and forgiveness before the old man’s final passing.

Author Iris Murdoch’s examination of “the subjects of death and love [is] beautifully articulated in the dramatic action,” making Bruno’s Dream one of the most entertaining and profound novels in the Man Booker Prize winner’s towering body of work (The New York Times).

Iris Murdoch made her writing debut with Under the Net in 1954. She wrote 26 novels and several books of philosophy which include the Booker prize-winning The Sea, The Sea (1978), the James Tait Black Memorial prize-winning The Black Prince (1973) and the Whitbread prize-winning The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (1974). Iris Murdoch had a number of other novels on the long and shortlists for the Booker Prize over the years, including A Fairly Honourable Defeat which was longlisted for The Lost Man Booker Prize.