Mark Polizzotti

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Piano

Mark Polizzotti; Jean Echenoz

Synopsis:
The Prix Goncourt winner brings Dante to today's Paris.
Max Delmarc, age 50, is a famous concert pianist with two problems: the first is a paralyzing stage fright for which the second, alcohol, is the only treatment. In this unparalleled comedy from the Prix Concourt-winning French novelist Jean Echenoz, we journey with Max, from the trials of his everyday life, through his untimely death, and on into the afterlife.
After a brief stay in purgatory—part luxury hotel, part minimum security prison, under the supervision of deceased celebrities—Max is cast into an alarmingly familiar partition of hell, "the urban zone," a dark and cloudy city much like his native Paris on an eternally bad day. Unable to play his beloved piano or stomach his needed drink, Max engages in a hapless struggle to piece his former life back together while searching in vain for the woman he once loved.
An acclaimed bestseller with 50,000 copies sold in France, Piano is a sly, sardonic evocation of Dante and Sartre for the present day, the playful, daring masterpiece of a novelist at the top of his form.

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Other editions: Softcover - 2009, Softcover - 2006, Softcover - 2006, Softcover - 2005, Softcover - 2004, Hardcover - 2004, Softcover - 2004, Softcover - 2003, Hardcover - 2003, Hardcover - 2003