Review of John Banville’s Mefisto

John Banville is one of the great contemporary authors and his books are always fascinating and beautiful things to read, albeit that it is not always immediately clear what is really going on or with what freight of meaning the author has loaded the text. Mefisto is his adaptation of the Faustus legend to modern Ireland. A boy, Gabriel Swan, is a talented mathematician far beyond anything his small town parents and neighbourhood can understand or indeed accommodate.

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