Author | Muriel Spark |
---|---|
Cover artist | Susan Sluglett |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Publisher | Constable (UK) Houghton Mifflin (US) |
Publication date | 1990 |
Media type | Print & Audio |
Pages | 192 |
ISBN | 0-09-469660-8 |
Symposium is a novel by Scottish author Muriel Spark, published in 1990. It was regarded by John Mortimer writing in The Sunday Times as one of the best novels of that year.[1]
It is the story of a dinner party and the events leading up to it involving the lives of the five couples attending:
The story includes many flashbacks into the lives of the guests including a convent of Marxist nuns, a burglary ring preying on the guests, a mad Scottish uncle and several unexplained deaths. The dinner party itself ends with the murder of the mother of one of the guests.