An academic is accused of fraud in this novel set in 1950s England by “an extremely shrewd observer of men and society” (Commentary).
At Lewis Eliot’s Cambridge college, Dr. Donald Howard is not well liked. Some believe his research to be subpar, and his far-left politics off-putting. So no one much mourns when Howard is fired for committing academic fraud. Eliot, though, is disturbed when new information seems to throw doubt on the don’s guilt, dividing the fellows against each other and compelling Eliot to prevent a possible miscarriage of justice.
This suspenseful story is by the Booker Prize finalist and winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Award for Fiction.
“Lionel Trilling has spoken of the job the contemporary novelist does of ‘telling us the way things are’: The Affair is only the latest evidence to confirm that this is a job at which C. P. Snow excels.” —Commentary
“A master craftsman.” —The New York Times