“A career-best performance from one of England’s greatest (if most reluctant) novelists.” Sunday Telegraph
In Venice, with the Biennale in full swing, disillusioned hack writer Jeff Atman meets a beautiful woman and they embark on a passionate affair.
In Varanasi, a man searching amid the chaos of India for something lost joins thousands of pilgrims on the banks of the Holy Ganges. He intends to stay for a few days but ends up remaining for months, gradually letting go of everything he has known.
“Dyer delights in producing books that are unique, like keys… Original, affecting. [Full of] wonderful observations, pungent and funny.” James Wood, The New Yorker
“A haunting, if frequently hilarious, meditation on love and art, life and music, death and bananas, all reflected and refracted in the twinned mirror pools of Venice and Varanasi. I loved this book.” Joshua Ferris, author of Then We Came to the End
Winner of the 2009 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Best Comic Novel
A New York Times Notable Book
A Best Book of the Year: The Economist, The New Yorker, Time, San Francisco Chronicle, Slate.com
First published: UK, Canongate, 2009; US, Pantheon, 2009
Current paperback editions: UK, Canongate, US, Vintage
In the press:
The Asylum Blogtrotter Blomberg The Boston Globe Financial Times The Guardian The Hindu The Independent The Independent on Sunday The Metro The List The Los Angeles Time The National The New York Observer The New Yorker Open Letters Monthly The Oregonian The San Francisco Chronicle The Telegraph The Times Very Short List The Spectator