Michael Dillon, a self-described "poet in a business suit," is a once-aspiring writer in Belfast whose dreams have been consumed by a stultifying career as a hotel manager and a hateful marriage to his unstable wife, Moira. But on the day he decides to leave Moira for his younger lover and take off for London, IRA terrorists break into the Dillon home. Their plan is simple: They'll hold Moira hostage while Michael plants a bomb designed to kill a rabble-rousing Protestant and his flock convening for a political rally. If Michael goes to the police, Moira dies. It's only the first choice of many--because in Brian Moore's "breathtakingly constructed" nightmare, the day has just begun (Los Angeles Times).

"The plot [is] one that only a spoiler would reveal--and risk ruining the surprises that detonate throughout the novel like cleverly hidden and elegantly designed incendiary devices. The notion of 'unbearable suspense' is, of course, a cliché, but I found that I kept briefly putting down the novel to postpone the moment when I had to face what might happen next." --Francine Prose, The New York Times