The Untouchable By John Banville

Published: 12/02/2026

Genres: Fiction - Historical Fiction - Ireland - Espionage - Irish - Literature - Novels - Literary Fiction

WINNER OF THE LANNAN LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION • From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea comes the fascinating story of a former British spy who's been unmasked as a Russian agent—and "one of spy fiction's greatest characters" (People). • "Contemporary fiction gets no better than this." — The New York Times Book Review

One of the most dazzling and adventurous writers now working in English takes on the enigma of the Cambridge spies in a novel of exquisite menace, biting social comedy, and vertiginous moral complexity. The narrator is the elderly Victor Maskell, formerly of British intelligence, for many years art expert to the Queen. Now he has been unmasked as a Russian agent and subjected to a disgrace that is almost a kind of death. But at whose instigation?

As Maskell retraces his tortuous path from his recruitment at Cambridge to the airless upper regions of the establishment, we discover a figure of manifold Irishman and Englishman; husband, father, and lover of men; betrayer and dupe. Beautifully written, filled with convincing fictional portraits of Maskell's co-conspirators, and vibrant with the mysteries of loyalty and identity, The Untouchable places John Banville in the select company of both Conrad and le Carre.

"Victor Maskell is one of the great characters in recent fiction.... The Untouchable is the best work of art in any medium on [its] subject." — Washington Post Book World

"As remarkable a literary voice as any to come out of Ireland; Joyce and Beckett notwithstanding." — San Francisco Chronicle

Publisher information

Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9781035076802
Number of pages: 416
Dimensions: 201 x 131 x 25 mm
Weight: 286 g
Language: English