PAST CARING is worth all the careful attention a reader can pay it. It is a long book and not to be rushed and so good that every detail is important. It is at this point that one's patient reading pays off. However, nothing is quite as it seems and there are people who, even decades later, want to prevent the truth from ever coming out. It only takes one day for his life to be forever destroyed, leading to a series of repercussions that affects Radford in ways he could never imagine.

As a young politician, Stafford wanted to put his mark on the world and make a difference. It is a story of love and shattered dreams. Most of the first half of the book is spent on Stafford's story and it is engrossing. Radford reads the story of Stafford, the second first-person narrator, in order to come to an understanding as to what really happened to a once promising politician. Sellitt wants to hire Radford in order to find out the truth and Radford, having nothing to lose, accepts. Stafford left a journal behind that might shed light on his life. Out of the blue, unemployed, down-on-his-luck historian. He has bought an estate that used to belong to Edwin Stafford, appointed Home Secretary in 1908, who disappeared from politics under mysterious circumstances. DISCOVER ONE OF THE MOST GRIPPING THRILLERS OF ALL TIME, FROM MASTER STORYTELLER ROBERT GODDARD. He is given the opportunity of lifetime when he is asked to come to the island of Madeira, off the Portuguese coast, to listen to a proposal by a man named Leo Sellitt. The first speaker is Martin Radford, an unemployed teacher and historian, who does not know what he wants to do with his life. One does not know which direction the story is going to go to so all you can do is go with the flow and make a decision whether to trust the narrator's interpretation or not. The novel is told through two first-person narratives, something that always raises questions. It is still a great book and new readers, always hoping for a good mystery, will be pleased to discover it. Now with the book's latest printing, nothing has changed.

Robert Goddard's first novel, PAST CARING, made an impression when it came out almost twenty years ago, receiving great praise from critics and a Booker Award nomination for Best First Novel.

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