A collection of short stories from the early years of the Man Booker Prize-winning author's career that explores the passionate emotions—fear, jealousy, desire—that course beneath the surface of everyday life.
From a couple at risk of being torn apart by the allure of wealth to an old man’s descent into nature, the tales in this collection showcase the talents that launched Banville onto the literary scene. Offering a unique insight into the mind of “one of the great living masters of English-language prose” (Los Angeles Times), these nine haunting sketches stand alone as canny observations on the turbulence of the human condition.
Praise for John Banville and Long Lankin:
“Banville is that rare writer who can pack all five senses into a declarative sentence.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Banville is the most intelligent and stylish novelist currently at work.” —The Observer (London)
“The stories move unerringly with a nervous, almost aggressive speed, creating taut emotional situations. . . . Thoroughly Irish and thoroughly individual.” —Sunday Telegraph (London)
“Banville has the skill, ambition and learning to stand at the end of the great tradition of modernist writers.” —Times Literary Supplement (London)
“If Banville is capable of writing an unmemorable sentence, he has successfully concealed the evidence.” —The Washington Post
“Banville is a master at capturing the most fleeting memory or excruciating twinge of self-awareness with riveting accuracy.” —People
“Prodigiously gifted. He cannot write an unpolished phrase, so we read him slowly, relishing the stream of pleasures he affords. Everything in Banville’s books is alive. Bleakly elegant, he is a writer’s writer . . . who can conjure with the poetry of people and places.” —The Independent (London)
“Banville is the heir to Proust, via Nabokov.” —The Daily Beast
“A glorious stylist whose prose holds sustaining pleasures, both large and small.” —Newsday
“Banville’s mastery of language is an intense delight.” —Evening Standard (London)
A collection of short stories from the early years of the Man Booker Prize-winning author's career that explores the passionate emotions—fear, jealousy, desire—that course beneath the surface of everyday life.
From a couple at risk of being torn apart by the allure of wealth to an old man’s descent into nature, the tales in this collection showcase the talents that launched Banville onto the literary scene. Offering a unique insight into the mind of “one of the great living masters of English-language prose” (Los Angeles Times), these nine haunting sketches stand alone as canny observations on the turbulence of the human condition.
Praise
Praise for John Banville and Long Lankin:
“Banville is that rare writer who can pack all five senses into a declarative sentence.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Banville is the most intelligent and stylish novelist currently at work.” —The Observer (London)
“The stories move unerringly with a nervous, almost aggressive speed, creating taut emotional situations. . . . Thoroughly Irish and thoroughly individual.” —Sunday Telegraph (London)
“Banville has the skill, ambition and learning to stand at the end of the great tradition of modernist writers.” —Times Literary Supplement (London)
“If Banville is capable of writing an unmemorable sentence, he has successfully concealed the evidence.” —The Washington Post
“Banville is a master at capturing the most fleeting memory or excruciating twinge of self-awareness with riveting accuracy.” —People
“Prodigiously gifted. He cannot write an unpolished phrase, so we read him slowly, relishing the stream of pleasures he affords. Everything in Banville’s books is alive. Bleakly elegant, he is a writer’s writer . . . who can conjure with the poetry of people and places.” —The Independent (London)
“Banville is the heir to Proust, via Nabokov.” —The Daily Beast
“A glorious stylist whose prose holds sustaining pleasures, both large and small.” —Newsday
“Banville’s mastery of language is an intense delight.” —Evening Standard (London)
