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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERVienna, 1913. Lysander Rief, a young English actor, sits in the waiting room of the city's preeminent psychiatrist as he anxiously ponders the particularly intimate nature of his neurosis. When the enigmatic, intensely beautiful Hettie Bull walks in, Lysander is immediately drawn to her, unaware of how destructive the consequences of their subsequent affair will be. One year later, home in London, Lysander finds himself entangled in the dangerous web of wartime intelligence - a world of sex, scandal and spies that is slowly, steadily, permeating every corner of his life...
"It is summer in 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. While the world is reeling our trio is involved in making a rackety Swingin' Sixties British movie in sunny Brighton. All are leading secret lives.As the film is shot, with its usual drastic ups and downs, so does our trio's private, secret world begin to take over their public one. Pressures build inexorably - someone's going to crack. Or maybe they all will"--Publisher description
The infamous literary prank that fooled a legion of art critics in the 1990s Artist Nathwell Tate was born in 1928 in Union Beach, New Jersey. On January 8 1960 he contrived to round up and burn almost his entire output of Abstract Expressionism. Four days later he killed himself. This book offers an account of Tate's life and work. --- When William Boyd published his biography of New York modern artist Nat Tate, a huge reception of critics and artists arrived for the launch party, hosted by David Bowie, to toast the late artist's life. Little did they know that the painter Nat Tate, a depressive genius who burned almost all his output before his suicide, never existed. The book was a hoax, and the art world had fallen for it. Nat Tate is a work of art unto itself - an investigation of the blurry line between the invented and the authentic, and a thoughtful tour through the spirited and occasionally ludicrous American art scene of the 1950s.
It is 1939. Eva Delectorskaya is a beautiful 28-year-old Russian émigrée living in Paris. As war breaks out she is recruited for the British Secret Service by Lucas Romer, a mysterious Englishman, and under his tutelage she learns to become the perfect spy, to mask her emotions and trust no one, including those she loves most. Since the war, Eva has carefully rebuilt her life as a typically English wife and mother. But once a spy, always a spy. Now she must complete one final assignment, and this time Eva can't do it alone: she needs her daughter's help.
'The ultimate in immersive fiction . . . magnificent' Sunday Times 'Highly readable, entirely engaging and frequently funny' Observer 'Perfectly pitched . . . A deft and resonant alchemy of fact and fiction, of literary myth and imagination' Guardian Book of the Week Around the turn of the twentieth century young pianist Brodie Moncur quits Edinburgh's slate skies for the lights of Paris, his preacher father's words of denunciation ringing in his ears. There he joins forces with the fiery Irish virtuoso John Kilbarron and together the pair take Europe by storm. But when he falls for Kilbarron's lover - the mesmerizing Russian soprano Lika Blum - Brodie quickly realizes that the tide has turned and he must flee across a continent, haunted by his love for Lika, and pursued by the vengeful wrath of his rival. 'A giddying read . . . his most immersive historical novel to date' Daily Telegraph 'Elegant and affecting. A racing fin-de-siècle romance' The Times 'Boyd's talents as a rollicking storytelling [are] full on display in this historical blockbuster' Metro
What is the devastating effect on your life when, through no fault of your own, you lose everything - home, family, friends, job, reputation, passport, money, credit cards, mobile phone - and you can never get them back? This is what happens to a young man called Adam Kindred, one May evening in Chelsea, London, when a freakish series of malign accidents and a split-second decision turns his life upside down for ever. The police are searching for him. There is a reward for his capture. A hired killer is stalking him. He is alone and anonymous in the huge, pitiless modern city. Adam has nowhere to go but down - underground. He decides to join that vast army of the disappeared and the missing ...
ANY HUMAN HEART is an ambitious, all-encompassing novel. Through the intimate journals of Logan Mounstuart we travel from Uruguay to Oxford, on to Paris, the Bahamas, New York and West Africa, and meet his three wives, his family, his friends and colleagues, his rivals, enemies and lovers, including notables such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Ernest Hemingway and Virginia Woolf.
***William Boyd's new novel, The Romantic, is available to pre-order now*** WINNER OF THE SUNDAY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 'Achingly memorable' The Times ________________________________ A quest for secrets in the blue afternoon . . . Los Angeles, 1936. Kay Fischer, a young and ambitious architect, is being followed by an old man. When confronted, he explains that his name is Salvador Carriscant - and that he is her father. In a matter of weeks Kay will join Salvador on an extraordinary journey as they delve back into his past to not only learn the truth behind her own birth, but also to discover the whereabouts of a woman long thought dead - and to uncover the identity of a killer. ________________________________ 'The finest storyteller of his generation' Daily Telegraph 'An extraordinary story' John Mortimer, Sunday Telegraph, Books of the Year 'Terrific' Jeremy Paxman, Independent, Books of the Year 'Richly entertaining' Independent 'A brilliant achievement' Time Out
***William Boyd's new novel, The Romantic, is available to pre-order now*** 'As ambitious as it is remarkable. Balances on seesaws of innocence and violence, sanity and lunacy, hilarity and horror' The Times _____________________________ 'We will all melt like ice-cream in the sun!' British soldier, East Africa, 1914 On the Western Front millions are being slaughtered. But in East Africa a ridiculous and utterly ignored campaign is being waged - one that continues after the Armistice because no one bothers to tell the participants to stop. As the conflict sweeps up Africans and colonials, so those left at home and those fighting abroad find themselves unable to escape the tide of history bearing down on them. _____________________________ 'A towering achievement' John Carey 'Compulsively readable' Blake Morrison, Observer 'Funny, assured, a seriocomic romp. A study of people caught in the side pockets of calamity that dramatizes their plights with humour, detail and grit' Harper's
That's why we shout and scream at each other. Clears the air. A kind of truth begins to emerge. We see clearer. Pip and Meredith have had a bust-up. It was only about their opinion of a film, but it's led to more significant differences coming to light. Pip has been having an affair for the past three months with a young colleague at work. Meredith's slate doesn't seem to be entirely clean either. As their families and friends become embroiled in Pip and Meredith's separation, past prejudices, harsh judgements and painful truths come to light. The arguments that ensue go beyond just being about Pip and Meredith, and what they should do about their marriage. In nine taut scenes, William Boyd explores what it is to argue with those we love - and those we should love. He looks at our propensity to judge others and our power to hurt. Alongside this, he shows how it can sometimes be the superficial problems in a relationship that keep it going. Both bleak and funny in its tone, The Argument offers a Strindberg-like take on human dynamics and received its world premiere at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs in March 2016.