Winner of the Whitbread Novel Award
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize

‘Dazzling, gritty brilliance’ – Sunday Times
‘Completely captivating’ – Literary Review

Jim Crace's provocative retelling of Jesus' forty day fast in the desert is a classic that tampers with tradition. Moving and fascinating in equal measure, Quarantine is a stunningly realized novel from one of the great writers of our time.

Under an endless and unforgiving sky, five travellers venture into the Judean wilderness in search of redemption. Instead, amidst the barren rocks, they are met by a dangerous man, Musa, and fall under his dark influence. As the unforgiving days and bitter nights erode their resolve, it becomes clear that one among them will go further than the rest: a fervent, solitary figure, he denies the temptations of his neighbours, and, ultimately, the needs of his own body.

‘One of the finest novels I’ve read in years’ – The Times
‘Crace’s desert shimmers with a sense of the miraculous’– Express on Sunday
‘Stunning. A writer of hallucinatory skill’ – John Updike

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

Prizes

Winner of Whitbread Novel Award 1998 (UK)

One of the finest novels I’ve read in years * The Times *
Completely captivating * Literary Review *
Absolutely compelling * Observer *
‘Dazzling, gritty brilliance. This is a novel of scorching distinction’ * Sunday Times *
Stunning. A writer of hallucinatory skill * John Updike *

Jim Crace is the prize-winning author of a dozen books, including Continent (winner of the 1986 Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize), Quarantine (1998 Whitbread Novel of the Year and shortlisted for the Booker Prize), Being Dead (winner of the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award), Harvest (shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize and winner of the International Dublin Literary Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize) and The Melody. He lives in Worcestershire.