Анна Каван: Guilty

Set in an unspecified but eerily familiar time and landscape, this is the story of Mark, a protagonist who struggles against the machinations of a hostile society and bureaucracy. Suffering at first from the persecution of his father as a conscientious objector, his life quickly comes under the control of the Machiavellian Mr. Spector, an influential government minister who arranges Mark s education, later employment, and even accommodation. It is when Mark tries to break free from Spector s influence that his life begins to unravel.