Muriel Spark

Loitering with Intent

217 pages

From Publisher's Weekly: "Art, reality and the strange ways the two imitate one another are at the core of Muriel Spark's delightful Loitering with Intent, first published in 1981. Would-be novelist Fleur Talbot works for the snooty, irascible Sir Quentin Oliver at the Autobiographical Association, whose members are all at work on their memoirs. When her employer gets his hands on Fleur's novel-in-progress, mayhem ensues when its scenes begin coming true.

The Driver's Seat

117 pages

Lise is thin, neither good-looking nor bad-looking. One day she walks out of her office, acquires a gaudy new outfit, adopts a girlier tone of voice, and heads to the airport to fly south. On the plane she takes a seat between two men. One is delighted with her company, the other is deeply perturbed. So begins an unnerving journey into the darker recesses of human nature.

The Mandelbaum Gate

Published 1965

When a young English woman, a half-Jewish Catholic convert, insists upon crossing over from Israel into Jordan, she sets off a series of bizarre situations.

The Public Image

Annabel Christopher, a talented actress jealous of her image, is on indifferent terms with her disturbed husband, Frederick. When Frederick apparently commits suicide, his death releases leters accusing Annabel of complicity in an orgy and other immoralities, of which she knows nothing.