The passing of Britain’s well-known playwright Tom Stoppard late last month prompted many to recall his enduring body of work. Most tributes rightly recalled his theatre plays and screenplays. There was, however, less mention of his little-known novel Lord Malquist and Mr Moon, published in 1966, quite early in his career. It was the only novel he wrote, marking a brief foray into a different genre. Almost six decades after its publication, a sentence from the novel lingers with particular force, striking a chord even today.
