High Dive

In September 1984, a bomb was planted at the Grand Hotel in the seaside town of Brighton, England, set to explode in twenty-four days when the British prime minister and her entire cabinet would be staying there. "High Dive" not only takes us inside this audacious assassination attempt a decisive act of violence on the world stage but also imagines its way into a group of unforgettable characters. Nimblyweaving together fact and fiction, comedy and tragedy, the story switches among the perspectives of Dan, a young IRA explosives expert; Moose, a former star athlete gone to seed, who is now the deputy hotel manager; and Freya, his teenage daughter, trying to decide what comes after high school. Over the course of a mere four weeks, as the prime minister s arrival draws closer, each of their lives will be transformed forever.
A bold, astonishingly intimate novel of laughter and heartbreak, "High Dive" is a moving portrait of clashing loyalties, guilt and regret, and how individuals become the grist of history."

JONATHAN LEEis a British writer whose recent fiction has appeared in "Tin House, Granta, " and "A Public Space, " among other magazines. "High Dive" is his first novel to be published in the United States. He lives in Brooklyn, where he is a contributing editor for "Guernica" and a regular contributor to "The Paris Review Daily."
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