October 1959
‘The hiding place of Mr. Shaw’s first novel is a cellar in Bonn. In this cellar two British airmen, Wilson and Connolly, have been incarcerated ever since their aircraft was bought down in a raid. Their gaoler, Hans Frick, originally hid them to save them from the Gestapo, but he has not yet released them. This is partly because he has come to depend upon them for companionship, and partly for another reason …’
This is a straight quote from the publishers’ admirable blurb of this book, which cannot be improved upon, as this is a novel made out of a really good idea - interesting, unusual and simple - containing elements of surprise and suspense which it would be a pity to explain here and thereby take the edge off a very good book. It is not only good because of its idea and situation, but also because Mr. Shaw, in addition in his natural ability for writing and his sharp eye and ear for character, has also an understanding far more active and informed than most novelists present in their first work. Wilson and Connolly, chained for years to the pillar in Frick’s cellar, have both had to come to some kind of terms with this existence - with themselves, each other, and their gaoler. Wilson has discovered the need to write - each day he is writing about his childhood: Connolly finds it much harder, and spends his time desperately recollecting the brief memories of his marriage, imagining his wife in London, and trying to think of ways to escape.
Their careful, obsessive, devoted little gaoler is also clinging to a past. The relationship of the two prisoners - their thorough, tireless knowledge of each other which makes their conversations able to run smoothly on a kind of dual track of subject matters - their affection, their dependence and their differences are all most beautiful conveyed, while beside this, the solitary, hard-working, anxious life of Hans Frick is proceeding methodically to its crisis, which changes the whole situation. The resolution of the story seems, when one has finished it, to be inevitable and implicit in the beginning of the book. As one has come to expect interesting matter or talented manner with first novels, it is a lovely shock to discover a new novelist with both.