Bradley Pearson, an unsuccessful novelist in his late fifties, has finally left his dull office job as an Inspector of Taxes. Bradley hopes to retire to the country, but predatory friends and relations dash his hopes of a peaceful retirement. He is tormented by his melancholic sister, who has decided to come live with him; his ex-wife, who has infuriating hopes of redeeming the past; her delinquent brother, who wants money and emotional confrontations;...

An enthralling story of love and betrayal, faith and doubt, and the bewildered striving of men and women confronted with the mystery of being human "Full of the rough-and-tumble, the real life, the spirit. . . I was at all times firmly in its grip. " —Anatole Broyard, The New York Times Book Review "Murdoch works with an intellectual daring most writers only dream of. " —The Philadelphia Inquirer Charismatic thinker and healer Marcus Vallar

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A sparklingly profound novel about the conflict between love and loyalty
The quiet life of schoolmaster Bill Mor and his wife Nan is disturbed when a young woman, Rain Carter, arrives at the school to paint the portrait of the headmaster. Mor, hoping to enter politics, becomes aware of new desires. A complex battle develops, involving love, guilt, magic, art, and political ambition. Mor’s teenage children and their mother fight discreetly...

A motley assortment of characters seek peace and salvation in this early masterpiece by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea, The Sea 
A lay community of thoroughly mixed-up people is encamped outside Imber Abbey, home of an order of sequestered nuns. A new bell is being installed when suddenly the old bell, a legendary symbol of religion and magic, is rediscovered. And then things begin to change. Meanwhile the wise old...

A group of idealistic men and women, who met as students [at Oxford], later formed a society to support one of their number, a brilliant radical named David Crimond, in his efforts to write a major work tackling the big questions of history, politics, philosophy, art, and ethics. As the story opens, the group members, now middle-aged, are having qualms about Crimond and the enterprise they agreed to fund.

A brilliant mythical drama about well-meaning people trapped in a war of spiritual forces
Marian Taylor, who has come as a “companion” to a lovely woman in a remote castle, becomes aware that her employer is a prisoner, not only of her obsessions, but of an unforgiving husband.
Hannah, the Unicorn, seemingly an image of persecuted virtue, fascinates those who surround her, some of whom plan to rescue her from her dream of...

John Ducane, a respected Whitehall civil servant, is asked to investigate the suicide of a colleague. As he pursues his inquiry he uncovers a shabby, evil world of murder, blackmail, and black magic.
In contrast to stagnant summer London, Octavian and Kate Gray’s adoring community on the Dorset coast seems to offer Ducane refuge, but even here the aftereffects of violence poison an atmosphere already electric with adolescent quarrels and...

An enigmatic publisher's sway on a circle of friends drives each to confront their most dangerous obsessions   Businessman Mischa Fox has wealth, charisma, and an uncanny ability to influence those around him. When he moves to buy a small feminist magazine in London called the Artemis, Mischa becomes entangled in the lives of the Artemis's editor, Hunter, his sister, Rosa, and her boarder, Annette, as well as their circle of friends.   As Mischa...

Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor both professionally and personally, and to amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years. None of his plans work out, and his memoir evolves into a riveting chronicle of the strange events and unexpected visitors -...