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A Landing on the Sun: A Novel Paperback – December 1, 2003

by Michael Frayn (Author)

3.7 104 ratings

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From the bestselling author of Headlong and Spies, "an unconditional triumph" (The Washington Post Book World)

For fifteen years, ever since the taciturn civil servant Summerchild fell to his death from a window in the Admiralty, there have been rumors.

So Brian Jessel, a young member of the Cabinet Office, is diverted from his routine work and asked to prepare an internal report. Slowly, from the archives in the Cabinet Office Registry, Jessel begins to reconstruct Summerchild's last months. It begins to emerge that, at a time when America had just put men on the moon, the British were involved in an even bolder project, and that Summerchild was investigating a phenomenon as common as sunlight, but as powerful and dangerous as any of the forces that modern science has known.

The secret world into which Brian Jessel stumbles turns out to be even more extraordinary than his department had feared.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publication date

December 1, 2003
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0312421907
ISBN-13

978-0312421908
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“An elegance and cunning reminiscent of Henry James, and Mr. Frayn's most artful creation so far.” ―The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Michael Frayn was born in London in 1933 and began his career as a journalist on the Guardian and the Observer. He has written seventeen plays, including Noises Off, Copenhagen, and Democracy, translated Chekhov's last four plays, and adapted his first as Wild Honey. His screenplays include Clockwise, starring John Cleese, and among his eleven novels are The Tin Men, Towards the End of the Morning, Headlong, Spies, and Skios. Collections of articles include Collected Columns, Stage Directions, and Travels with a Typewriter. He has also published two philosophical works, Constructions and The Human Touch, and a memoir, My Father's Fortune. His most recent publications are three collections of short entertainments, Matchbox Theatre, Pocket Playhouse, and Magic Mobile. He is married to the writer Claire Tomalin.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; First Edition (December 1, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312421907
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312421908
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,496,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,006 in Lawyers & Criminals Humor
- #5,314 in Metaphysical & Visionary Fiction (Books)
- #12,704 in Espionage Thrillers (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3.7 104 ratings

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Michael Frayn was born in London in 1933 and began his career as a journalist on the Guardian and the Observer. His novels include Towards the End of the Morning, The Trick of It and Landing on the Sun. Headlong (1999) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, while his most recent novel, Spies (2002), won the Whitbread Novel Award. His fifteen plays range from Noises Off to Copenhagen and most recently Afterlife.

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5

104 global ratings

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Cici

A Landing on the Sun

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2011

Verified Purchase

Totally ureal premise regarding the title; took slogging forever to get into. Best thing to say, "weird, but it is British, you know."

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Timothy J Hurst

Strange, but beautiful and absorbing

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2014

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It is a very odd story about the imaginary goings on in a government department near Whitehall. To tell the truth, the first time I read it I skimmed a few pages. The second time through I absolutely loved it.

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Gerald Dooher

funny and moving at turns

Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2017

Verified Purchase

remarkable book, funny and moving at turns, a fine read.

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2003

With its enticing blend of sex, death, Establishment politics and academic philosophy (in this case the theory of happiness), the setup for this intriguing novel sounds like something by Ian McEwan. But Frayn brings to it his trademark sense of humor, so it never quite gets into the same territory. The comic aspects of an unlikely love affair between a devious public servant and the Oxford academic who is also his boss are fully exploited, providing a nice counterpoint to the more intellectually engaging philosophical material. In that sense, this novel makes a nice companion piece to Frayn's two most recent efforts - "Headlong" and "Spies" - both of which similarly deploy comic plots as devices for discussing more serious concerns. In the right hands, this kind of thing can really work. Frayn consistently manages to pull it off because he makes clever narrative choices. Here, he uses the first-person narration of an investigator, the transcripts of meetings, and audio tapes of the lovers to tell a story which unfolds in two timeframes. He also sets up an intriguing mystery - Who killed Stephen Summerchild? - to pull you through. Highly original and engaging, this should appeal to readers who prefer literary fiction but also enjoy the intrigue and pacing of crime/mystery novels. It's a challenging fusion of the two.

9 people found this helpful

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Jonathan Bennett

A perfect masterpiece

Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2000

I cannot find that any reviewer has properly taken the measure of the virtuosity of this work, apart from any of its other merits. Frayn anchors Jessel in the very same place as Serafin and Summerchild, the two people whose history he is investigating, and from that conceptual base he goes out on forays into differences of time and of identity. Jessel plays and experiments with abolishing those differences, but the sameness of place is flatly literal. It's delicious. --As well as the interplays between his time frame and theirs, and between his identity and theirs, there is the interplay between his happiness and theirs; and, for good measure, Frayn explores the interplays amongst these other interplays. All of this finely interwoven, never tangled; so funny and so sad; and bound together with a terrific detective story. --Frayn makes a brilliant job of making us believe (in a way) Jessel's own representation of himself as a dry, grey, prosaic civil servant, while also showing us how lively and responsive a mind he has. --The philosophy tutorials are wonderful: a lot of mockery, but also some real philosophy. Frayn makes the unlikely love between Serafin and Summerchild seem almost inevitable: all it took was an exchange of truly personal reminiscences, their sheer intimacy being the magnet that pulls the two people towards one another. --This is the most complex thing Frayn has ever done; he ran fearful risks with it; and the upshot is a triumphant, dazzling success. `

20 people found this helpful

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Raymond J. Salmond

A special love story told through a subtle and lively imagination

Reviewed in Australia on April 18, 2022

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So many quiet and ingenious delights in Frayn's loving depiction of two people enmeshed in quiet bourgeois lives visited by romance's inane magic.

Eileen Shaw

"...that great white hall of bumbledom..."

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 29, 2013

Verified Purchase

A civil servant by the name of Summerchild, is found in a yard, apparently having commited suicide, or perhaps, accidentally fallen. It's one of those inexplicable things that happen from time to time. Summerchild was not in Defence or in any way connected to MI5 or 6. The Civil Service decides a full investigation is required and Jessop, an acquaintance of Summerchild's is given the job of figuring out what happened.

As Jessop's investigation proceeds he finds a cache of tape-recordings that details the original investigation that Summerchild and a noted Philosophy graduate, a Dr Elizabeth Serafin, (a Russian name, he notes) had been engaged upon. Jessop is fearfully embarrassed as he finds out that they were engaged on a study of "The Quality of Life". Their investigations seem to hinge on the notion of Happiness. "Happiness!" thinks Jessop, "This is the Government service, not a holiday camp! When even Summerchild isn't happy! The quiet man with the violin, who goes home to play trios with his quiet and loving wife and his quiet and loving daughter, in his quiet and well-loved house along that quiet and rural lane... Happiness! Who told them to start drivelling on about happiness? No one. They're blundering about like a ship in the fog with no terms of reference to steer by."

This is a delightful, wonderful book. Though there are quite long stretches of fugue that don't seem to move quickly enough, it's worth hanging on for the denouement as Jessop discerns what is happening with the help of the tapes Summerchild and Serafin have made of their deliberations. It will change Jessop's life, but the sadness at the heart of it brings no resolution. This is indeed, redolent of something by Chekhov despite none of it taking place in Russia. It is a story of existential angst, of quiet people who make discoveries about happiness that are unsupportable in an ordinary life.

3 people found this helpful

Woodenhouse

Surreal

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 25, 2022

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I have read a few Micheal Frayn books and each one has taken me on a journey I did not expect. This one is no different, an extraordinary storey that tells of the beauracacy within Whitehall and the extreme measures taken to achieve their goal. A great read and will not disappoint, well written and an unusual topic.

John Hope

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2015

Verified Purchase

It took a while to develop, and the climax wasn't much of a climax. Still, I did finish it.

Roberto

"On the desk in front of me lie two human hands."

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 19, 2015

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A wonderful evocation of life in the Civil Service (I've been there) and how Civil Service work can have its own internal logic and justification and yet be so totally out of touch with real life. I found it a remarkably skilful and delicate piece of writing. The atmosphere of the whole book reeks of things and people breaking down and of an existential emptiness. The opening line is memorable and sets the tone, "On the desk in front of me lie two human hands. They are alive but perfectly still".

One person found this helpful

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