French Exit: A Novel - Hardcover

DeWitt, Patrick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062846922 ISBN 13: 9780062846921

Publisher: Ecco, 2018

Synopsis

National Bestseller

NAMED A RECOMMENDED BOOK OF THE SEASON BY:
Vanity Fair • Entertainment Weekly • Vulture • The Millions • Publishers Weekly • Esquire • San Francisco Chronicle • USA Today • Parade • The Washington Post • Buzzfeed 

From bestselling author Patrick deWitt, a brilliant and darkly comic novel about a wealthy widow and her adult son who flee New York for Paris in the wake of scandal and financial disintegration.

Frances Price – tart widow, possessive mother, and Upper East Side force of nature – is in dire straits, beset by scandal and impending bankruptcy. Her adult son Malcolm is no help, mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then there’s the Price’s aging cat, Small Frank, who Frances believes houses the spirit of her late husband, an infamously immoral litigator and world-class cad whose gruesome tabloid death rendered Frances and Malcolm social outcasts.

Putting penury and pariahdom behind them, the family decides to cut their losses and head for the exit. One ocean voyage later, the curious trio land in their beloved Paris, the City of Light serving as a backdrop not for love or romance, but self destruction and economical ruin – to riotous effect. A number of singular characters serve to round out the cast: a bashful private investigator, an aimless psychic proposing a seance, and a doctor who makes house calls with his wine merchant in tow, to name a few.  

Brimming with pathos, French Exit is a one-of-a-kind 'tragedy of manners,' a send-up of high society, as well as a moving mother/son caper which only Patrick deWitt could conceive and execute. 

About this title

About the Author

Patrick deWitt is the author of The Librarianist and French Exit (both national bestsellers); The Sisters Brothers (a New York Times bestseller short-listed for the Booker Prize); and the critically acclaimed Undermajordomo Minor and Ablutions. Born in British Columbia, Canada, he now resides in Portland, Oregon.

From the Back Cover

Frances Price—tart widow, possessive mother, and Upper East Side force of nature—is in dire straits, beset by scandal and impending bankruptcy. Her adult son, Malcolm, is no help, mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then there’s the Prices’ aging cat, Small Frank, who Frances believes houses the spirit of her late husband, an infamously immoral litigator and world-class cad whose gruesome tabloid death rendered Frances and Malcolm social outcasts.

Putting penury and pariahdom behind them, the family decides to cut their losses and head for the exit. One ocean voyage later, the curious trio land in their beloved Paris, the City of Lights serving as a backdrop not for love or romance, but self-destruction and economic ruin—to riotous effect. A number of singular characters serve to round out the cast: a bashful private investigator, an aimless psychic proposing a séance, a doctor who makes house calls with his wine merchant in tow, and the inimitable Mme Reynard, aggressive houseguest and dementedly friendly American expat. 

Bestselling author Patrick deWitt has returned with a darkly comic novel, a one-of-a-kind “tragedy of manners.” Brimming with pathos, French Exit is a brilliant send-up of high society, as well as a moving mother-son caper that only deWitt could conceive and execute. 

Edition details

• Publisher: Ecco
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062846922
• ISBN 13: 9780062846921
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256