From the author of the bestseller and Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Hours, a beautiful novel about the uses of beauty and the place of love in our lives. Peter Harris is forty-four, prosperous, the owner of a big New York apartment and a player in the contemporary art scene. He has been married to Rebecca for close to twenty years. Their marriage is sound, in the way marriages are. Peter might even describe himself as happy. But then Rebecca's much younger brother Mizzy shows up for a visit. Beautiful, twenty-three years old, with a history of drug problems, Mizzy is looking for direction. And in his presence, Peter finds himself questioning his marriage, his desires, his career -- the entire world he has so carefully constructed for himself. Making us think deeply about the uses of beauty and the place of love in our lives, By Nightfall is heartbreaking look at the way we live now.
'A page-turning novel that lingers eloquently in the mind' The Times 'Constantly surprising ! a love letter to New York, a hymn to youth and a meditation on the way art and literature alter our perception of the world' Evening Standard 'This is a book about art, love, marriage and mortality! One of the intriguing and peculiar qualities of "By Nightfall" is that it makes you live with a character who seems never quite at ease with his own identity! One of Cunningham's gifts is to be able to shift gears when he wants, out of banal everydayness into an intense rhapsodic meditation on the meaning and purpose of life.' Hermione Lee, Guardian 'Michael Cunningham is embarked on one of the more satisfying career trajectories of contemporary American novelists!"By Nightfall" offers the reader an abundance of exquisite, enriching thumbnail sketches' TLS 'Beauty manifests itself in many ways: in the poise and elegance of Michael Cunningham's prose, and in his perceptions of human behaviour!he writes of the mounting horrors of middle age with skewering precision; his reflections of modern art are wittily involving' Michael Arditti, Sunday Telegraph 'By Nightfall is probably unfairly having its cake and eating it: living within the aesthetic realm, and allowing the reader to conclude how limited that existence can be. But rather good novels are always unfair in that respect.' Philip Hensher, Spectator 'Cunningham encourages his reader to wrestle with things that interest him by sketching his plots delicately over classic lines. In this case, the arrival of the guest who will change everything is reworked into a discussion about art and decay by a writer who can write a page-turning novel that lingers eloquently in the mind' The Times 'This is a book about art, love, marriage and mortality ! One of Cunningham's gifts is to be able to shift gears when he wants, out of banal everydayness into an intense rhapsodic meditation on the meaning and purpose of life.' Hermione Lee, Guardian 'This novel is a love letter to New York, a hymn to youth and a meditation of the way art and literature alter our perception of the world' Mark Sanderson, Evening Standard 'Michael Cunningham is embarked on one of the more satisfying career trajectories of contemporary American novelists!By Nightfall offers the reader an abundance of exquisite, enriching thumbnail sketches' TLS
Title: By Nightfall
Subtitle:
Contributors:
By (author)
Michael Cunningham
ISBN 13: 9780007437849
ISBN 10: 0007437846
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Imprint: Fourth Estate Ltd
Publication Date: 4/05/2012
Place of Publication:
London,
United Kingdom
Edition:
BIC Subjects:
Modern fiction
NBS Classification: General & Literary Fiction
Dewey Classification:
813.6
(DC23)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Height: 197mm
Width: 130mm
Weight: 181g