But the Dead are Many by Frank Hardy

But the Dead are Many

A Novel in Fugue Form

by Frank Hardy

The Bodley Head, 1976, ISBN 0370105702, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions, dustjacket shows some edge and shelf wear with some rubbing, bumping, chipping, and small tears (see photographs)

“John Morel, a leading figure in the Australian Communist party, disappears and dies in a remote country hotel in suspicious circumstances.  It looks like suicide, but why?  Deeply puzzled, his friend Jack sets out to trace that last fateful journey, consulting John’s family and friends and discovering unexpected facets of his character.  In the end he comes on John’s last testimony.  Jack’s narrative of his search is interspersed with quotations from this and from John’s earlier writings.
By this skilful alternation of reporting and autobiography, we are shown John Morel’s divisive upbringing with his Catholic mother, atheist father and resentful half-sisters, his period in a Roman Catholic seminary, his conversion to Communism in the 30s, his ambivalent marriage and his uneasy friendships with other members of the Party.”