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Andrew Miller (1) (1960–)

Author of Pure

For other authors named Andrew Miller, see the disambiguation page.

11+ Works 3,296 Members 113 Reviews 8 Favorited

About the Author

Image credit: Photo by Rul Xavier

Works by Andrew Miller

Pure (2011) 1,150 copies
Ingenious Pain (1997) 648 copies
Oxygen (2001) 520 copies
Casanova (1998) 235 copies
The Optimists (2005) 216 copies
The Crossing (2015) 118 copies
One Morning Like a Bird (2008) 78 copies
The Slowworm's Song (2022) 71 copies
Graduation 1 copy

Associated Works

The Beginning of Spring (1988) — Introduction, some editions — 822 copies
More Short Trips (1999) — Author "Dead Time" — 137 copies
Granta 149: Europe: Strangers in the Land (2019) — Contributor — 40 copies
Doctor Who: Tales from the TARDIS, Volume Two (2004) — Contributor — 12 copies
Doctor Who: Earth and Beyond (1998) — Contributor — 5 copies

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Reviews

Fun reading about the previous life of an area of Paris I know well!
 
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jemisonreads | 63 other reviews | Jan 22, 2024 |
I was disappointed in this book as I expected it to be more about the Troubles of Northern Ireland. Instead, the Troubles act as a backstory. Stephen Rose, son of a Quaker, enlisted in the Army and finds himself as a British soldier in Belfast. He has an encounter with a young man and shoots him killing him. Apparently the young man was not holding a gun and was not a threat; however, being a British soldier, he is not charged with any crime. Now, years later, he is a recovered alcoholic working in a nursery. He receives a notice that he is asked to appear at an inquiry in Belfast regarding the killing. Although he is assured this is a truth-finding mission, he will not be charged of any wrong doing. The sister of the young boy is to also make a statement.

At the same time, Stephen is attempting to build a relationship with Maggie, a daughter who has never been a part of his life. The story unfolds as a writing that Stephen is making for Maggie explaining his life. The backstory of his relationship with Evie, Maggie's mother unfolds.

It's not a bad story, just not what I expected. More of a character study thann a plot-driven book.
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maryreinert | 3 other reviews | May 6, 2023 |
The Slowworm's Song shares similar preoccupations with Andrew Miller's previous novel Now We Are Entirely Free. Once again he interrogates the issue of atrocities in warfare, this time from the perspective of a former soldier who made a terrible mistake in the heat of the moment in Northern Ireland and has never recovered from the guilt. Over the course of his life he took a partner and had a child but his alcoholism destroyed that relationship. When the story opens in 2011, Stephen Rose is in middle age, living on his dead father's farm in Somerset, working halfheartedly at a garden centre and alone except for the companionship of the local Quaker group. He is sober because he has a counsellor and medication from the Bristol Liver Institute, but he knows his sobriety is always tentative.

Into this half-life comes a summons to attend an inquiry into that long-ago event. For the benefit of readers not familiar with the exhumation of events from the Troubles era in Northern Ireland, Miller alludes to the controversial Saville Inquiry, set up in 1998 to investigate Bloody Sunday. At vast expense, it reported 12 years later, overturning the findings of a previous inquiry, said to be a whitewash. Stephen is not reassured by the bland tone of the letter.
In the last paragraph I am informed, by way of reassurance, that the Commission is not a court of law, that its sessions are private, that it is not their intention anyone's evidence should form the basis of a prosecution. Am I reassured? Not very. The Saville Inquiry reported last year. You must have seen something about it on TV. Perhaps you were curious as to why so much time and money had been spent trying to make sense of fifteen minutes of mayhem in an Irish city forty years ago. (Someone in Parliament, a Tory MP, worked out how many Apache attack helicopters you could buy with the millions spent on the inquiry.) Anyway, the soldiers — those men of the Parachute Regiment involved in the shootings — were offered anonymity and told they could not incriminate themselves, but it already looks like that won't stop prosecutions. It's possible some of those soldiers, men in their sixties and seventies, will go to prison. (p.5-6)

On the brink of a tentative relationship with his now adult daughter Maggie, Stephen decides not to go, and explains why in what becomes a long confessional letter, written with the promise of truth because part of being sober is being honest.
And it's not — I hope — only selfishness, not just what I would lose. I don't believe you've given up on having a father, I think you need me to make the effort. I've failed in so much! I don't intend to fail in this, not for them, not so they can keep raking over the sorry history of that place. How about raking over some of what their own did? That should give them ten years' work. Why poke a stick in the best? I was sent there, Maggie, and younger than you are now. That makes me a criminal? And what if you came to look at me like that? If one day you were to look at me as some of the people in that room in Belfast would look at me? Could I survive it?

At last, an easy question!

I could not. (p.11)


To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/02/18/the-slowworms-song-2022-by-andrew-miller/
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anzlitlovers | 3 other reviews | Feb 18, 2023 |
I'm not entirely sure what to make of this book. Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young engineer, is tasked with demolishing an old cemetery in Paris, but the whole experience does not turn out the way his rational engineering mind expects.
 
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mari_reads | 63 other reviews | Feb 4, 2023 |

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