Books like Eclipse by John Banville

Alexander Cleave, a celebrated actor whose career has spanned thirty years, reaches a point of almost total collapse. In an effort to stop performing and simply live, he withdraws to his abandoned childhood house, believing isolation from his wife and daughter will allow him to confront himself. As he lays down his stage persona, his memories surge to life: his mother’s boarding house, the rise and fall of his career, his strained marriage, his estranged daughter, and his father’s suicide. The house also hosts a caretaker with a wastrel air, a teenage housekeeper who embodies indolence, and various apparitions—a woman, a child, and a vague figure—whose presence seems intricately tied to his unraveling. Faced with these unsettling forces, Cleave slowly realizes that people and situations are not what they appear, and he must acknowledge the truth about himself and those around him.

First publish date: 2000