num_pages: 304
description: The sudden trace of a disturbing, forgotten aroma compels Stephen Wheatley to return to the site of a dimly remembered but troubling childhood summer in wartime London. As he pieces together his scattered memories, we are brought back to a quiet, suburban street where two boys--Keith and his sidekick, Stephen--are engaged in their own version of the war spying on the neighbors, recording their movements, and ferreting out their secrets. But when Keith utters six shocking words, the boy''s game of espionage takes a sinister and unintended turn, transforming a wife''s simple errands and the ordinary rituals of family life into the elements of adult catastrophe. Childhood and innocence, secrecy, lies and repressed violence are all gently laid bare as once again Michael Frayn powerfully demonstrates that what appears to be happening in front of our eyes often turns out to be something we cannot see at all.
language: English
title: Spies
titlecomplete: Spies
genres: Fiction, Historical, War, Mystery, British Literature, School, Novels, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, World War II
ratings_count: 5892
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Booker Prize
category: Longlist, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Whitbread Award
category: Novel, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize
category: Comic Fiction, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Commonwealth Writers' Prize
category: Best Book in South Asia and Europe
publisher: Faber and Faber