"John Banville is one of my favorite writers alive, and I pick up his books whenever I need a reminder how to write a good sentence.”— R.F. Kuang   ‘He had seen drowned people. A sight not to be forgotten.’   1950s, rural Ireland. A loner comes across a mysteriously empty car in a field. Knowing he shouldn’t approach, but unable to hold back, he soon finds himself embroiled in a troubling missing person’s case, as a husband claims his wife may have thrown herself into the sea.   Called in from Dublin to investigate is Detective Inspector Strafford, who soon turns to his old ally—the flawed but brilliant pathologist Quirke—a man he is linked to in increasingly complicated ways. But as the case unfolds, events from the past resurface that may have life-altering ramifications for all involved.   At once a searing mystery and a profound meditation on the hidden worlds we all in