In this dazzling philosophical novel, a successful screenwriter confronts mortality, addiction, and the nature of consciousness.
Charlie Fairburn, accomplished screenwriter, ex-husband, and absent father, has been given six months to live. He resolves to stake half his fortune on a couple of turns of the roulette wheel and, to his agent's disgust, to write a novel—about death. In the casino, he meets his muse. Charlie grows as addicted to writing fiction as she is to gambling.
His novel, set on a train stuck at Didcot, involves a group of characters locked in a debate about the nature of consciousness. As Charlie becomes more passionately entangled with the dangerous Angelique, A Clue to the Exit comes to its startling climax. Exquisitely crafted, witty, and thoughtful, Edward St. Aubyn's novel probes the very heart of being.