The Rules of Engagement: A Novel - Hardcover

Brookner, Anita

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1400061652 ISBN 13: 9781400061655

Publisher: Random House, 2003

Synopsis

In this masterly new novel, the Booker Prize–winning author of Hotel du Lac and Making Things Better gives us an exquisite story about the changes in relationships over time, and how our life choices can both reflect the past and direct the future. Hailed as “one of the finest novelists of her generation” (The New York Times), Anita Brookner here weaves an impeccably crafted tale of two women, friends from youth, and the decisions and men that define their destinies.

Elizabeth and Betsy knew each other as schoolchildren. When they meet again later in life, one is safely married, the other most unsafely partnered. Together, they discover that despite their very disparate lives, they still have in common the capacity for making dangerous choices. Ultimately, their inclination to implement these decisions reveals the fate that was spelled out in their characters from the start.

About this title

From the Back Cover

“If Henry James were around, the only writer he’d be reading with complete approval would be Anita Brookner.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Anita Brookner works a spell on the reader; being under it is both an education and a delight.”
—The Washington Post Book World

“Brookner is a writer of great skill and precision. Passages of brilliant writing abound, hard-won insights
that startle us with Brookner’s clarity and succinct intelligence.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Few contemporary novelists can match Ms. Brookner’s consistently high level of achievement: the penetration of her vision, the sense of conviction in what she is doing, and the unforced elegance of her writing.”
—The Wall Street Journal

About the Author

Anita Brookner was born in London and, apart from several years spent in Paris, has lived there ever since. She trained as an art historian and taught at the Courtauld Institute of Art until 1988. The Rules of Engagement is her twenty-second novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1400061652
• ISBN 13: 9781400061655
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288