Between Each Breath - Hardcover

Thorpe, Adam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224074989 ISBN 13: 9780224074988

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2008

Synopsis

Once 'England's most promising young composer' - now living comfortably in Hampstead with his wife Milly, an heiress - Jack Middleton is in mid-life decline, his career in free-fall. When he visits Estonia for a three-week search for inspiration, he falls for a young waitress called Kaja, deeply bound up in the suffering of her country and the joy and danger of its new freedom. They embark on a passionate affair on a lonely island in a time warp. Then it's over. But of course nothing is ever over. Still childless six years later, Jack and Milly's marriage shows the strain, but they battle on better than most - until the past returns with a vengeance. The crisis takes place over a month, against a precise calendar of background events, both minor and major. Set in London and Estonia between 1999 and 2005 in the aftermath of the London bombings, as a hot, despondent summer drags on unnaturally into the autumn, "Between Each Breath" is a rich and often hilarious critique of Blair's Britain: decadent, bewildered, shallow, greedy, but knowing all the right buttons to press; knowing the language of compassion and abusing it. A story of love and betrayal, of age and youth, of wealth and poverty, of the new Europe and the old Europe, of art and compromise, of youthful ideals and cynical weariness, Adam Thorpe's extraordinary new novel is a biting, timely satire and a powerfully moving examination of social and emotional disintegration.

About this title

About the Author

Adam Thorpe was born in Paris in 1956. His first novel, Ulverton, was published in 1992, and he has written five other novels - most recently The Rules of Perspective - two collections of stories and five books of poetry. His latest poetry collection, Birds With a Broken Wing, is also published in May. He lives in France with his wife and three children.

Review

"Adam Thorpe is brilliant. Utterly brilliant. I use the word advisedly, OED advisedly, the best a man can get... the book moved me so much that the denouement made me cry... Thorpe, I believe, may be so ambitious, so brilliant, he's actually trying to rewrite Flaubert" * Daily Telegraph * "Magnificent... A deftly plotted love story, full of startling disclosures, the novel draws one in irresistibly... Adam Thorpe is a marvel among contemporary British novelists, and we are lucky to have him" -- Ian Thomson * Independent * "This is recognisably a poet's book, stuffed with small luminous details and off-kilter observations and permanently alert to the strange texture of things...a hugely enjoyable book by a writer at the top of his game who's demonstrably still having great fun doing what he does. Long may that continue" -- Tim Martin * Independent on Sunday * "Brilliant... It is a rich book: sensuous, thoughtful and sad" * Time Out * "Thorpe demonstrates the foresight and guile of the seasoned storyteller, coupled with a poet's ability to knock the language for six... Between Each Breath is funny, well-observed and thought-provoking" -- Tibor Fischer * Guardian *

Edition details

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0224074989
• ISBN 13: 9780224074988
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432