Bringing together leading international scholars, John Banville and His Precursors explores Booker and Franz Kafka prize-winning Irish author John Banville's most significant intellectual influences. The book explores how Banville's novels engage deeply with a wide range of sources, from literary figures such as Samuel Beckett, Heinrich von Kleist, Wallace Stevens, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Henry James, to thinkers such as Freud, Heidegger, and Blanchot. Reading the full range of Banville's writings - from his Booker Prize-winning novel The Sea to his latest book, Mrs Osmond - John Banville and His Precursors reveals the richness of the author's work. In this way, the book also raises questions about the contemporary moment's relationship to a variety of intellectual and cultural traditions - Romanticism, Modernism, existentialism - and how the significance of these can be appreciated in new and often surprising ways.

In mid-1944, a half-million German prisoners of war are working in U.S. factories and fields because military enlistments and the draft have caused labor shortages. Two hundred PWs are billeted in an old Civilian Conservation Corps camp on Muskrat Island in the Minnesota River at New Bonn. Twelve-year-olds, Frank Warner, Jack Steiner, and Skeeter Stark stake out the PW camp from an abandoned cabin along the river. Frank's and Jack's dads are serving with the 3rd Infantry Division in Italy. Skeeter's brother is an Army Ranger in France. Frank and Jack are Boy Scouts, and fluent in Morse Code; however, a series of mysterious radio messages intercepted in that format baffles them. The boys build a raft and land on the island. They encounter a PW who drops a matchbook cover, on the back of which are printed the following strange words and numbers: KAISER BRIGHTMAN 082314. Frank and Jack witness the shooting death of a PW in the camp. When news of the killing is not made public, Frank approaches a U.S. Army lieutenant from the camp. His name is William Brightman, and he was born on August 23, 1914. The boys decipher the Morse Code messages, which reveal a Nazi conspiracy of murder and sabotage that imperils many lives, including theirs. Other Novels by Michael Springer... The Bootlegger's Secret "A page- turning mystery that begs to be read in a day A fantastic 5-star read...all ages would enjoy " ---Readers Favorite "I give The Bootlegger's Secret a five-star rating...definitely a great book." ---Charlotte Ratcliff for RebeccasRead Mark Penn Goes to War, Sequel to The Bootlegger's Secret "If you love stories that take you back to the good old days, reminiscent of Mayberry or Tom Sawyer, you're going to love this book..." ---Brenda Casto, kittycrochettwo "Another home run; no, a grand slam." ---Mary James MICHAEL SPRINGER is a Minnesota native, graduate of Minnesota State University, former U.S. Navy line officer, and free-lance writer. He lives with his wife in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

It's March 1942, three months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to start World War II. Robert Matsui, his wife Rose, and twelve-year-old daughter Ann have moved from Bakersfield, California, to Middleton, Minnesota, during the two-month period when Japanese-Americans are allowed to voluntarily relocate from the west coast.
The Matsuis are refused a promised rental home by a bigoted landlord, but Joe and Fred Beck offer the family a vacant house on the Middleton Ridge near their residence. The reclusive brothers are under surveillance by the FBI as Nazis.
Twelve-year-old Mark Penn is playing war on the ridge when he happens upon the Matsuis, and sees Joe Beck give Mr. Matsui a Luger. Mark tells his pal Swede Larson, and they report their discovery to Police Chief Karl Morton, who is the local FBI liaison. Morton orders them to stay away from the Matsuis. The boys ignore him and soon become so enmeshed in the FBI's intrigue that their lives are endangered.
Mark is the batboy for the Middleton Aces. His best adult friend and former Aces' second baseman Red Collins is fighting the Japanese in the Pacific aboard the USS Yorktown. Mark is too young to join the real battle, but he hopes that he can aid the war effort by finding out who the Matsuis really are. He soon discovers that playing war can be a deadly game.

Bringing together leading international scholars, John Banville and His Precursors explores Booker and Franz Kafka prize-winning Irish author John Banville's most significant intellectual influences. The book explores how Banville's novels engage deeply with a wide range of sources, from literary figures such as Samuel Beckett, Heinrich von Kleist, Wallace Stevens, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Henry James, to thinkers such as Freud, Heidegger, and Blanchot. Reading the full range of Banville's writings - from his Booker Prize-winning novel The Sea to his latest book, Mrs Osmond - John Banville and His Precursors reveals the richness of the author's work. In this way, the book also raises questions about the contemporary moment's relationship to a variety of intellectual and cultural traditions - Romanticism, Modernism, existentialism - and how the significance of these can be appreciated in new and often surprising ways.