Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Faber & Faber (2009), Edition: Main, 192 pages
Description
Seventy-two-year-old August Brill is recovering from a car accident in his daughter's house in Vermont. When sleep refuses to come, he lies in bed and tells himself stories, struggling to push back thoughts about things he would prefer to forget--his wife's recent death and the horrific murder of his granddaughter's boyfriend, Titus. The retired book critic imagines a parallel world in which America is not at war with Iraq but with itself. In this other America the twin towers did not fall and the 2000 election results led to secession, as state after state pulled away from the union and a bloody civil war ensued. As the night progresses, Brill's story grows increasingly intense, and what he is so desperately trying to avoid insists on being told. Joined in the early hours by his granddaughter, he gradually opens up to her and recounts the story of his marriage. After she falls asleep, he at last finds the courage to revisit the trauma of Titus's death.--From publisher description.… (more)
Media reviews
Auster reminds us that each of us looks at existence through story-colored lenses. The world we inhabit is literally shaped by Story. We all have our "life stories," and these govern how we see ourselves and others, how we interpret events and memories and expectations. When our saviors and
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teachers speak to us about the greatest truths, whether of religion or philosophy, they always speak to us in parables. When artists, or ordinary people, talk about what truly matters, they start and end by telling stories, wonderful, amazing stories—like those in the works of Paul Auster. Show Less
Kirkus Reviews
The “parallel worlds” visited and occupied by an aging intellectual’s troubled mind and heart assume intriguing metafictional form in [this] challenging novel. ... Auster’s lucid prose and masterly command of his tricky narrative’s twists, turns and mirrorings keep us riveted to the
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pages. ... Probably Auster’s best novel, and a plaintive summa of all [his] books that ... have gone into its making. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member sandpiper
I'm afraid I struggled with this a bit. I love most of Auster's work, but this one just didn't quite do it for me. It was rather self-referential; but then much of Auster's work is. I do wonder, however, how a newcomer to Auster would view this book. Often his self-references come across as
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something for those who know his work to enjoy, but not detracting from the story itself. I didn't feel that way about this book. I didn't feel much empathy for any of the characters, and, even though the book is very short, it took me several days to finish. I think it's worth reading if you're a fan of Auster, but certainly not one to start with for newcomers to the author. Show Less
LibraryThing member conehead
Maybe I'm just to accustomed to modern day formulaic plot lines in movies and books, but this novel just seemed lazy to me. I always enjoy his writing, so I read it through, but in the end, I thought: "what was the point?" If you're going to abruptly end a parallel story, end it after 5 pages, not
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50. If you removed the story the lead character was conjuring in his head while trying to sleep, you would be left with a great opening to a larger novel. When I finished the book, I felt cheated. Show Less
LibraryThing member erikschreppel
Paul Auster’s novel Man in the Dark is an enigma. His intricate plot has numerous overlapping stories. So many and so overlapping that in a lesser hand this would be a mess, especially given the very short length of the novel. But Auster is such a good writer, that he mostly succeeds in pulling
I recently read another novel (Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott) where the auther had too many stories to tell and the novel became boring and tedious because of it. In that instance the writer seemed to not know what story line they really wanted to follow, so she just threw them all in together. Auster however has intentionally chosen several stories to tell, and he has done it exceptionally well. He is a writer on top of his game, as he kept me well interested until the end. The only problem I had was that one story line abruptly ended too soon. But all in all this was a great read.
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it off. The plot revolves around August Brill, a 70 year old writer who has insomnia. To keep his mind off the events in his life he doesn’t want to think about, he tells himself a fantastic story about an alternate America. An America that never went to war in Iraq because after the 2000 elections the country split apart into a civil war. Within Brill’s story we meet Owen Brick, who has been somehow transported from his bed into the alternate America to perform a task for the rebelling army. But, as with most insomniacs, Brill can’t concentrate on the story without drifting back to his own life. So we also here the story of how he came to be living with his daughter and granddaughter. We learn slowly about his wife’s death, and about the tragic circumstances of his granddaughter’s arrival in the home. Auster writes the novel from Brill’s perspective, and the whole novel takes place from Brill’s mind as he lies in bed trying to get to sleep. We jump from one story line to another, as Brill’s mind jumps around. I recently read another novel (Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott) where the auther had too many stories to tell and the novel became boring and tedious because of it. In that instance the writer seemed to not know what story line they really wanted to follow, so she just threw them all in together. Auster however has intentionally chosen several stories to tell, and he has done it exceptionally well. He is a writer on top of his game, as he kept me well interested until the end. The only problem I had was that one story line abruptly ended too soon. But all in all this was a great read.
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LibraryThing member ChazzW
Paul Auster’s new volume is a slim one. But Auster is such a masterful story-teller that he packs a lotta ’story’ in this 190 odd pages. In fact, he almost packs in two. I say almost, because the second meta-fictional one is sort of cut short. Auster’s alter-ego is an aged man of letters -
In this story within a story which circles back on itself in good Auster style, magician (must have a magician!) Owen Brick finds himself plopped into this unfamiliar America with a mission thrust upon him. That mission? To assassinate the man responsible for the whole state of affairs. Right. The man responsible for imagining this alternate America.
The story is about a man who must kill the person who created him, and why pretend that I am not that person? By putting myself into the story, the story becomes real. Or else I become unreal, yet one more figment of my own imagination. Either way, the effect is more satisfying, more in harmony with my mood - which is dark, my little ones, as dark as the obsidian night that surrounds me. [pg. 102]
The power of storytelling, and the unstable nature of reality. Auster’s characters make their way through the dark in a tango of self-discovery and acceptance. As Auster (through Miriam) quotes Rose Hawthorne: “the weird world rolls on.”
Like a great athlete, Auster makes this whole effort look easy. You know, as if spun out of his head one night when he couldn’t sleep…Inventive and full of compassion, Auster’s novel may be his most widely accessible yet, while compromising none of his talents.
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a literary critic, book reviewer, and writer, August Brill is on the downside, having recently lost his wife of many (with a gap in the middle) years and been taken off his feet in a serious car accident. So it is that he’s come to live with his middle aged and divorced daughter, Miriam. Joinig them a bit later is his granddaughter who has lost her lover in Iraq in a kidnapping and brutal execution (posted on the Internet, no less). Here, Brill spends his days watching movies with his granddaughter, reviewing his life for her. Their discussions on movies (Tokyo Story, The Bicycle Thief) are a singular treat in themselves and make one wish for just such a companionable film partner. His insomniac nights are spent spinning a story in his head about an America that is not a “future” one, but an alternate one of the present: One where America has not been attacked from without by terrorists, but one which has begun to fall apart from within. Civil war, secession.In this story within a story which circles back on itself in good Auster style, magician (must have a magician!) Owen Brick finds himself plopped into this unfamiliar America with a mission thrust upon him. That mission? To assassinate the man responsible for the whole state of affairs. Right. The man responsible for imagining this alternate America.
The story is about a man who must kill the person who created him, and why pretend that I am not that person? By putting myself into the story, the story becomes real. Or else I become unreal, yet one more figment of my own imagination. Either way, the effect is more satisfying, more in harmony with my mood - which is dark, my little ones, as dark as the obsidian night that surrounds me. [pg. 102]
The power of storytelling, and the unstable nature of reality. Auster’s characters make their way through the dark in a tango of self-discovery and acceptance. As Auster (through Miriam) quotes Rose Hawthorne: “the weird world rolls on.”
Like a great athlete, Auster makes this whole effort look easy. You know, as if spun out of his head one night when he couldn’t sleep…Inventive and full of compassion, Auster’s novel may be his most widely accessible yet, while compromising none of his talents.
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LibraryThing member davedonelson
We all live and move in different circles of reality and imagination, it’s just that some of us—particularly writers—spend more time in our imaginary worlds. Seventy-two-year-old book reviewer August Brill is one of those people who creates alternative universes and then lives in them. Paul
The world can be a grotesque place, and August Brill has seen it at its worst. He has good reason to want to escape the real world and tries mightily to do so by telling himself stories about imaginary ones. But the horrible events that made Brill a bed-ridden insomniac keep intruding until he finally has to face them and deal with them not just for himself, but for his family’s sake as well. The stories Brill invents are wonderful tales on their own, but Auster weaves them into a masterful tapestry of meaning.
This is a short work that mustn’t be rushed. The narrative drive is strong and the temptation to hurry along to see what happens next is nearly irresistible, but pace yourself. Enjoy the stories within the story. Contemplate their bizarre settings and note the details while you drift from imagination to memory to the awful here-and-now of August Brill’s sleepless night. You may be especially tempted to rush through the ending when reality becomes too horrible to bear, but don’t. Like Brill, you’ll find there is redemption in the morning.
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Auster take us to visit him there during one long, sleepless night. It’s a fascinating journey. The world can be a grotesque place, and August Brill has seen it at its worst. He has good reason to want to escape the real world and tries mightily to do so by telling himself stories about imaginary ones. But the horrible events that made Brill a bed-ridden insomniac keep intruding until he finally has to face them and deal with them not just for himself, but for his family’s sake as well. The stories Brill invents are wonderful tales on their own, but Auster weaves them into a masterful tapestry of meaning.
This is a short work that mustn’t be rushed. The narrative drive is strong and the temptation to hurry along to see what happens next is nearly irresistible, but pace yourself. Enjoy the stories within the story. Contemplate their bizarre settings and note the details while you drift from imagination to memory to the awful here-and-now of August Brill’s sleepless night. You may be especially tempted to rush through the ending when reality becomes too horrible to bear, but don’t. Like Brill, you’ll find there is redemption in the morning.
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LibraryThing member RaulDuke
Left me going, "what the hell was that?". And not in a good way.
LibraryThing member Karlus
I was disappointed with this book, in exactly the same way that I was with another of Auster's that I have read. This one also begins with an interesting story for the first three-quarters of the book, which it then abandons in mid-stream in order to tack on a totally discontinuous and
I say nonsense! There is no 'confronts' nor is there any 'celebrates' and I would substitute 'gratuitous violence' for 'grotesque violence.' For a famous author whose name now sells books, this is a standard formulaic effort that deserves no more than two stars from my point of view.
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simple-minded ending. The front-cover inner-flap tells us it is "a book that forces us to confront the blackness of night even as it celebrates the existence of ordinary joys in a world capable of the most grotesque violence."I say nonsense! There is no 'confronts' nor is there any 'celebrates' and I would substitute 'gratuitous violence' for 'grotesque violence.' For a famous author whose name now sells books, this is a standard formulaic effort that deserves no more than two stars from my point of view.
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LibraryThing member aidanbyrne
This is a stunning return to form by one of my former favourites. Like Atwood, Carthy and Jeanette Winterson, he's taken themes and settings from science fiction without apparently being tarred with the snobbery habitually employed to discuss that genre's work. I thought the last couple of Auster's
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books were somewhat slight, but Man in the Dark retains his cool, dispassionate style while dealing, again, with the big issues: personal loss and national decline. It's also interesting to see Auster dealing with American history in similar ways to Roth (recently) and Gore Vidal, raising all those questions about dissent, cultural glue and the nature and direction of allegiance: to a state, an ideal or a smaller unit. Show Less
LibraryThing member RSCDoug
Anything Auster pumps out, I pick up...I was introduced to his literary genius in college when I read 'The New York Trilogy'...I was immediately swept up in the language and flow of his works.
This book, and Brooklyn follies are very similar in that they deal with a similar theme...Life goes on...I
This book, and Brooklyn follies are very similar in that they deal with a similar theme...Life goes on...I
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think it works a little better in Brooklyn, but I am a fan of story-within-a-story narratives...Quick, fun read, but not his best...Still, I would recommend it. Show Less
LibraryThing member apartmentcarpet
An old man can't sleep. He spends the night alternately reviewing his own history, and making up a story in his head of an alternate America. This novel is short and fractured with completely believable characters, and a realistic plot. Beautiful.
LibraryThing member BobNolin
Obviously very well-written, obviously a book with a lot going on, on deeper levels, but unless it's obvious, it sails right over my head. Why the alternative history story? No idea. Neat, but no idea what it was doing there. Reminds me of Peace, by Gene Wolfe. A very upsetting ending, but
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justifiably so. Show Less
LibraryThing member wandering_star
This book is dedicated to the family of David Grossman, whose son was killed in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. It covers one night in the life of 72-year-old August Brill. Unable to sleep, and trying to avoid thinking about his life's regrets, he passes the night making up a story about a man
I think in the right hands this could have been a profound and moving book. But as currently written, I can't quite believe how bad it is. The writing is incredibly clunky. I think the most annoying part was the way that every single thing is spelt out - for example, at the beginning, Brill explains "That's what I do when sleep refuses to come. I lie in bed and tell myself stories. They might not add up to much, but as long as I'm inside them, they prevent me from thinking about the things I would prefer to forget. Concentration can be a problem, however, and more often than not my mind eventually drifts away from the story I'm trying to tell to the things I don't want to think about." Well, I'm glad that's cleared up - readers might have got confused otherwise. The story-within-a-story, too, is full of holes, many of which are flagged up and then dismissed by Auster as "just the way things happen" in this parallel universe. My feeling is that if there are inconsistencies in the story, the author should either eliminate them or at least not draw attention to them.
Does all this matter? I think it does. It's very easy for a simple message to become banal if it's not well-handled - and for me, this is what happened here. War and brutality bad, love and human relationships good. Fair enough, but I didn't need to read this book to know that.
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being transported to a parallel universe, where the USA in 2007 under George W Bush is at war not with Iraq but with itself. The story interleaves with Brill's memories and regrets about his own life. I think in the right hands this could have been a profound and moving book. But as currently written, I can't quite believe how bad it is. The writing is incredibly clunky. I think the most annoying part was the way that every single thing is spelt out - for example, at the beginning, Brill explains "That's what I do when sleep refuses to come. I lie in bed and tell myself stories. They might not add up to much, but as long as I'm inside them, they prevent me from thinking about the things I would prefer to forget. Concentration can be a problem, however, and more often than not my mind eventually drifts away from the story I'm trying to tell to the things I don't want to think about." Well, I'm glad that's cleared up - readers might have got confused otherwise. The story-within-a-story, too, is full of holes, many of which are flagged up and then dismissed by Auster as "just the way things happen" in this parallel universe. My feeling is that if there are inconsistencies in the story, the author should either eliminate them or at least not draw attention to them.
Does all this matter? I think it does. It's very easy for a simple message to become banal if it's not well-handled - and for me, this is what happened here. War and brutality bad, love and human relationships good. Fair enough, but I didn't need to read this book to know that.
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LibraryThing member updraught
A gripping tale of loss, despair and escapes. Several lines of narration intertwine and despite this complexity the story seems to flow without effort. I was sucked in on the first page and gently let off some 180 pages later.
LibraryThing member Sixth
While I thought Auster's Invention of Solitude was wonderful, I became uninterested in this novel after the first sixty pages. There are some interesting narratives going on in the story, but at points I felt like I was just reading whatever film reviews Auster had recently read or some very vague
I was particularly bored with the later admission of a "flaw" in our main character as the description seemed trite. It just wasn't worth reading about.
The only part that really spoke to me was the circumstance of Titus's death. Auster forced me to consider a reality for many families that I have fortunately never had to face.
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fantasy of our country split apart.I was particularly bored with the later admission of a "flaw" in our main character as the description seemed trite. It just wasn't worth reading about.
The only part that really spoke to me was the circumstance of Titus's death. Auster forced me to consider a reality for many families that I have fortunately never had to face.
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LibraryThing member mccabio
Slightly looser than the typical Auster. The metafictional strand of the dystopic US Civil War story was not fully-developed, I was half expecting an Auster twist whereby the manin character's invented characters came to kill him. That didn't happen though the novel was no weaker for that. It was
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more an exploration of age and family - regrests and consolations - and so perhaps shows a more subtle shift in Auster's work. Show Less
LibraryThing member Ti99er
This is my first foray into the world of Paul Auster, and I must say it was a pleasant foray as foray’s go. Man in the Dark was written in that seemingly new wave popular “no quotation” style that takes a minute to get used to but then becomes somewhat pleasing to the eye as you go. I don’t
Man in the dark is an interesting story within a story within a story. Auster has a wonderful talent for building strong and believable characters. He has mastered the show; don’t tell technique of character development and action. This book of a mere 180 pages, is chalk full of interesting little stories; maybe tidbits is a better descriptor about seemingly ordinary people. The main character is a man in his early seventies who is living with his daughter and granddaughter after a car accident has left him crippled. Each night he finds sleep as a mere desire rather than an actuality, so to pass the time he tells himself stories; so real and some fictional. It is a kind of one act, one set play where the main character examines his life and the lives of those who have touched him most deeply; especially his family.
This is an excellent story; I can’t wait to read more of this author.
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know if there is a name for this style, because I am but a simpleton; must be the reason I am dwelling on the style of the book rather than its substance. Man in the dark is an interesting story within a story within a story. Auster has a wonderful talent for building strong and believable characters. He has mastered the show; don’t tell technique of character development and action. This book of a mere 180 pages, is chalk full of interesting little stories; maybe tidbits is a better descriptor about seemingly ordinary people. The main character is a man in his early seventies who is living with his daughter and granddaughter after a car accident has left him crippled. Each night he finds sleep as a mere desire rather than an actuality, so to pass the time he tells himself stories; so real and some fictional. It is a kind of one act, one set play where the main character examines his life and the lives of those who have touched him most deeply; especially his family.
This is an excellent story; I can’t wait to read more of this author.
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LibraryThing member bojanfurst
Paul Auster's Man in the Dark turned out to be quite an interesting read with an unexpected ending. I enjoyed clear style and clever story telling. This was my first Auster novel and I am actually looking forward to reading more.
LibraryThing member Eustrabirbeonne
I really enjoyed this book down to around page 130 (my edition has 180 pages) : the Owen Brick narrative, the film analyses, the strange family stories, all that sounds like real good Paul Auster. The abrupt ending of the Brick story is disappointing : I regretted that Auster did not imagine any
Moreover, this unfortunate last part piles up clichés that most romantic fiction writers carefully avoid : "a kiss for the ages", "I came to realize how much suffering she carried around inside her." (l'eusses-tu cru?), "our baby was like no other baby in the world" (oh weh!) "not the God of any religion, but God as the presence that animates all life" (you don't say)... not to mention Titus enlisting out of despair and world-weariness (Auster spares us unrequited love - a narrow escape). All right : GHOST OF BARBARA CARTLAND, GET OUT OF THIS BOOK!!!!!!! (actually I don't object to a good old Barbara Cartland book once in a while, when I fancy the guilty pleasure of reading something sweet, hopeful and self-avowedly idiotic. A bad habit from youth, like a Mars bar. I really enjoy a Mars bar twice a year, but I would hate to find chunks of it in my oysters or porcini mushroom risotto).
Well, I nevertheless read this lengthy ending through, hoping to find some unexpected twist that would cast some eerie, cruel or ironic light on it but that was first degree all over. I keep remembering the way the author, in "The music of chance" changes, of all tedious things, the building of a wall into fascinating, suspenseful fictional stuff.
Isn't it incredible that I should write a longer account of the fifty pages I disliked than of the 130 I really liked? Well, no wonder : these fifty felt so much longer to me...
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further implications to Brick's mission but all-in-all this ending had a pleasant humorous flavour about it. From page 130 on, the story lapses (to quote Katya's word) into what I must call stupidity - a rosy photo album with a ribbon about it : it is well known that such things may be interesting and moving to the persons directly involved (here, August and his granddaugher), but are a real bore to anyone else, and particularly a fiction reader who obviously did not open a Paul Auster book to view somebody else's old family slideshow.Moreover, this unfortunate last part piles up clichés that most romantic fiction writers carefully avoid : "a kiss for the ages", "I came to realize how much suffering she carried around inside her." (l'eusses-tu cru?), "our baby was like no other baby in the world" (oh weh!) "not the God of any religion, but God as the presence that animates all life" (you don't say)... not to mention Titus enlisting out of despair and world-weariness (Auster spares us unrequited love - a narrow escape). All right : GHOST OF BARBARA CARTLAND, GET OUT OF THIS BOOK!!!!!!! (actually I don't object to a good old Barbara Cartland book once in a while, when I fancy the guilty pleasure of reading something sweet, hopeful and self-avowedly idiotic. A bad habit from youth, like a Mars bar. I really enjoy a Mars bar twice a year, but I would hate to find chunks of it in my oysters or porcini mushroom risotto).
Well, I nevertheless read this lengthy ending through, hoping to find some unexpected twist that would cast some eerie, cruel or ironic light on it but that was first degree all over. I keep remembering the way the author, in "The music of chance" changes, of all tedious things, the building of a wall into fascinating, suspenseful fictional stuff.
Isn't it incredible that I should write a longer account of the fifty pages I disliked than of the 130 I really liked? Well, no wonder : these fifty felt so much longer to me...
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LibraryThing member Grabbag
Unable to summarize the book, I will simply say that its transitions from the elderly narrator to the younger narrator are seamless, culminating in the end in a beautiful ending. I thought this novel was interesting, albeit a little strange.
LibraryThing member rodrichards
I've read all of Auster's novels and love his sensibility. This particular one is not his best; the plot is a little rocky, more of the seams show through than usual, but it had enough of his reflective musings about the stories we tell ourselves to keep me with him. Don't start with this one, but
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definitely read Auster. Show Less
LibraryThing member rodrichards
I've read all of Auster's novels and love his sensibility. This particular one is not his best; the plot is a little rocky, more of the seams show through than usual, but it had enough of his reflective musings about the stories we tell ourselves to keep me with him. Don't start with this one, but
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definitely read Auster. Show Less
LibraryThing member rodrichards
I've read all of Auster's novels and love his sensibility. This particular one is not his best; the plot is a little rocky, more of the seams show through than usual, but it had enough of his reflective musings about the stories we tell ourselves to keep me with him. Don't start with this one, but
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definitely read Auster. Show Less
LibraryThing member GrazianoRonca
Man in the Dark
by Paul Auster
A book in one night and two parts.
August Brill (August is a bright month) is the main character of Man in the Dark. Affected by insomnia, he tells himself stories.
In the first part of this book August invented a war inside Usa and a character, Owen Brick, who has to
The second part: August recounts to his grandaughter, Katya, the story of his marriage and after he rethinks the kidnapping and murder of Katya's boyfriend in Iraq.
Auster, with August's help, wants to build a new world, a parallel world of bricks that lasts (Owen Brick = Oven brick). But this parallel world destroys itself because August falls in his world again, he needs to rethink his world first.
In the first part we find Auster's stereotypes from other books, while in the second part Auster introduces the History that hits the men; maybe he is following a new path in his books.
I prefer the first part, the Auster we all know; although 'As the weird world rolls on' (p. 180)' we could accept Auster's reflections about History.
by Paul Auster
A book in one night and two parts.
August Brill (August is a bright month) is the main character of Man in the Dark. Affected by insomnia, he tells himself stories.
In the first part of this book August invented a war inside Usa and a character, Owen Brick, who has to
Show More
kill someone. The second part: August recounts to his grandaughter, Katya, the story of his marriage and after he rethinks the kidnapping and murder of Katya's boyfriend in Iraq.
Auster, with August's help, wants to build a new world, a parallel world of bricks that lasts (Owen Brick = Oven brick). But this parallel world destroys itself because August falls in his world again, he needs to rethink his world first.
In the first part we find Auster's stereotypes from other books, while in the second part Auster introduces the History that hits the men; maybe he is following a new path in his books.
I prefer the first part, the Auster we all know; although 'As the weird world rolls on' (p. 180)' we could accept Auster's reflections about History.
Show Less
LibraryThing member petterw
Why was I so moved by this Paul Auster novel? I started out thinking this is a rather distanced and constructed story, but as I read on the story of an old man reluctantly looking back on his mistakes it touched me more and more. The last part of the book is basically a conversation between two
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wounded people, the granddaughter and the grandfather, a real page turner. That can be said about the fiction-within-fiction story that the old man concocts as well. Auster writes better than most contemporary writers, and he handles so many genres, he never seizes to surprise and delight me. He was among my favorite writers before Man in the Dark, he is even more so now. Show Less
LibraryThing member pdever
Great Author, good book. I haven't read Paul Auster in so many years that I had forgotten just how much I like his writing. "Man in the Dark" was a happy reintroduction, providing lovely prose, depth of thought, labyrinthine twining of stories within stories, and refreshing clarity about the simple
The story is about an old man who fights insomnia and invents stories to keep from thinking about his life and relationships. His latest story is about a civil war--things are so bad that he invents a character to kill the author, just to make it stop. As it turns out the old man's story doesn't keep him distracted at all--these things never do. Still, he makes it through the night. In the end it's all about his life and relationships.
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nature of the most complex feelings--one of the reviewers calls it clichéd another calls it boring. I think it's great.The story is about an old man who fights insomnia and invents stories to keep from thinking about his life and relationships. His latest story is about a civil war--things are so bad that he invents a character to kill the author, just to make it stop. As it turns out the old man's story doesn't keep him distracted at all--these things never do. Still, he makes it through the night. In the end it's all about his life and relationships.
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Subjects
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2010)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2008-03-14
Physical description
192 p.; 4.96 inches
ISBN
0571240771 / 9780571240777