Under Major Domo Minor - Hardcover

Dewitt, Patrick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1770894144 ISBN 13: 9781770894143

Publisher: Anansi, 2015

Synopsis

From the bestselling, Man Booker-shortlisted author of The Sisters Brothers, comes a brilliant and boisterous novel that reimagines the folk tale.A love story, an adventure story, a fable without a moral, and an ink-black comedy of manners, Undermajordomo Minor is Patrick deWitt's long-awaited follow-up to the internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed novel The Sisters Brothers.Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the bucolic hamlet of Bury. Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, Lucy is a compulsive liar, a sickly weakling in a town famous for producing brutish giants. Then Lucy accepts employment assisting the majordomo of the remote, foreboding Castle Von Aux.While tending to his new post as undermajordomo, Lucy soon discovers the place harbors many dark secrets, not least of which is the whereabouts of the castle's master, Baron Von Aux. He also encounters the colorful people of the local village--thieves, madmen, aristocrats, and Klara, a delicate beauty whose love he must compete for with the exceptionally handsome soldier, Adolphus. Thus begins a tale of polite theft, bitter heartbreak, domestic mystery, and cold-blooded murder in which every aspect of human behavior is laid bare for our hero to observe.Undermajordomo Minor is an adventure, a mystery, and a searing portrayal of rural Alpine bad behavior, but above all it is a love story and Lucy must be careful, for love is a violent thing.

About this title

About the Author:

Patrick deWitt is the author of the critically acclaimed Ablutions: Notes for a Novel and The Sisters Brothers. He has also worked as a laborer, a clerk, a dishwasher, and a bartender. Born in British Columbia, he has lived in California, Washington, and Oregon, where he currently resides with his wife and son.

Review:

''Undermajordomo Minor wears a fairytale cloak, but at its wondrous and fantastical heart lies an unexpectedly moving story about love, home, and the difficulty of finding one's place in the world. Elegant, beautifully strange, and utterly superb.'' --Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven

''Patrick deWitt has an untrammelled and utterly original imagination. I cannot think of anyone else who could pull off so beautifully this controlled explosion of drollery, mischief, sly fun and tenderness.'' --Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of Others

''An electrifying adventure, both tender and profane. Nervy, hilarious and utterly unpredictable, Patrick deWitt has served up another dazzler.'' --Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

''DeWitt uses familiar tropes to lull the reader into a false sense of grounding, delivering with abundant good humor a fully realized, consistently surprising, and thoroughly amusing tale of longing, love, madness, and mirth.'' --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

''Undermajordomo Minor is brutal, brilliant, sly, absurd, and poignant. It's both gripping tale and hilarious subversion. Once again Patrick deWitt proves his wild, original talent, generous wit, and exquisite control.'' --Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask

''Undermajordomo Minor is a wonderfully wry and wise novel, and reading it is like coming across some twisted classic-Cervantes by way of Louis C.K. I marvel at all that Patrick deWitt is able to do on the page.'' --Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins

About this edition

• Publisher: Anansi
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1770894144
• ISBN 13: 9781770894143
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352