______________________SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARDWINNER OF THE BETTY TRASK AWARD______________________'A first novel of formidable accomplishment ... a debut of the highest promise' - Sunday Times'No new writer can make a more stunning entrance than Candia McWilliam' - Daily Mail'An incisive debut, intelligent, scrupulously planned and full of echoes ... fascinating' - Spectator______________________Lucas Salik is a heart surgeon, renowned for performing bold experiments on other people's hearts. Ostensibly chilly, he harbours a secret obsession for his reckless and charismatic friend Hal. When Hal announces his intention to find a wife, Lucas is forced to carry out his most complex operation yet: to engineer the marriage, setting it on a perilous path to failure. But just as things appear to be working out, Lucas starts receiving ominous letters that threaten to jeopardize his intentions, his career - and his life. ______________________'Poised, startling and innovative, A Case of Knives marks the debut of an astonishingly accomplished new writer' - Anita Brookner