But Frank isn’t interested in salvation, and the Spanish police don’t want their open and shut case corrupted by a meddling Brit. Certain the confession was coerced, Charles lances his own investigation. Frank is in jail, having confessed to setting an explosive fire that has taken five alive. Into the queasy beauty of this artificial environment steps Charles Prentice, a London travel writer who has come to visit his brother Frank, manager of Club Nautico tennis and swim club by day, coked up discotheque by night. The setting: the swank Spanish resort of Estrella de Mar, where young retirees from Europe’s chillier climes bask in a lifestyle of endless leisure. Ballard stretches the taught canvas of his transgressive vision over the framework of old fashioned mystery.

As the men begin to sicken while the women flourish, Neil is forced to question why he remains healthy, and will this change when a new man arrives? Brilliantly unsettling in classic ‘Ballardian’ style, this is a novel in which all expectations are upset and all roles reversed. However, as Dr Barbara isolates the residents more and more from the world outside it becomes clear that all on the island is not right. It becomes a remote paradise home for Neil, an odd team of eco enthusiasts and idealists and a growing collection of the world’s endangered species, sent there to find protection from extinction. The coverage that results allows Dr Barbara to turn the deserted island into a sanctuary. Veteran campaigner Dr Barbara Rafferty’s obsessive crusade to save the albatross on the Pacific atoll of Saint Esprit suddenly gains international support when millions of TV viewers witness the shooting of her young acolyte Neil Dempsey on a foolhardy rescue mission. Ballard author of ‘Crash’ and ‘Empire of the Sun’ explores the dangers of extremism in ecology and feminism in this highly acclaimed modern fable.

The Kindness of Women by J.G. Ballard