Set internationally and spanning three decades, Daniel Martin is, in the author’s own words, 'intended as a defence and illustration of an unfashionable philosophy, humanism, and also as an exploration of what it is to be English’. It is the richly evoked narrative of a contemporary Englishman’s attempt to see himself and his time in the mirrors of his past and present.

          The eponymous hero of John Fowles’s largest and richest novel is an English playwright turned Hollywood screenwriter who has begun to question his own values. Summoned home to England to visit an ailing friend, Daniel Martin finds himself back in the company of people who once knew him well, forced to confront his buried past, and propelled toward a journey of self-discovery through which he ultimately creates for himself a more satisfying existence. A brilliantly imagined novel infused with a profound understanding of human nature, "Daniel Martin" is John Fowles at the height of his literary powers.