The Only Problem

Landscapes in Stone

by Muriel Spark

The Only Problem

£9.99

Wealthy Canadian scholar Harvey Gotham lives in splendid isolation in France and is working on a book about Job. He loves his wife, Effie, dearly but she has taken to planting bombs in supermarkets and has joined an anarchist group. Here, Spark returns to the Book of Job, which had always fascinated her, and ‘the only problem’ – the problem of suffering. Why does God allow it? A despairing and exhilarating read, The Only Problem is a masterwork.

This is one of the 22 novels written by Muriel Spark in her lifetime. All are being published by Polygon in hardback Centenary Editions between November 2017 and September 2018.

Muriel Spark was born in Edinburgh in 1918. A poet, essayist, biographer and novelist, she won much international praise, including being twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The Times placed her eighth in its list of the Fifty Greatest British Writers Since 1945. She died in Tuscany in 2006.

Richard Holloway is a writer and broadcaster who was Bishop of Edinburgh from 1986 to 2000 and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church from 1992 to 2000. He has written extensively on complex ethical issues such as sexuality, drugs and bioethics and is the author of more than twenty books, including his critically acclaimed memoir Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt.

The Publishers acknowledge investment from Creative Scotland towards the publication of this book.

Supported by the Muriel Spark Society.