Golden House - Softcover

Salman Rushdie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1784707090 ISBN 13: 9781784707095

Publisher: VINTAGE ARROW - MASS MARKET, 2018

Synopsis

**New York Times bestseller** A Guardian / Observer Book of the Year When powerful real-estate tycoon Nero Golden immigrates to the States under mysterious circumstances, he and his three adult children assume new identities, taking 'Roman' names, and move into a grand mansion in downtown Manhattan. Arriving shortly after the inauguration of Barack Obama, he and his sons, each extraordinary in his own right, quickly establish themselves at the apex of New York society. The story of the Golden family is told from the point of view of their Manhattanite neighbour and confidant, Rene, an aspiring filmmaker who finds in the Goldens the perfect subject. Rene chronicles the undoing of the house of Golden: the high life of money, of art and fashion, a sibling quarrel, an unexpected metamorphosis, the arrival of a beautiful woman, betrayal and murder, and far away, in their abandoned homeland, some decent intelligence work. Invoking literature, pop culture, and the cinema, Rushdie spins the story of the American zeitgeist over the last eight years, hitting every beat: the rise of the birther movement, the Tea Party, Gamergate and identity politics; the backlash against political correctness; the ascendency of the superhero movie, and, of course, the insurgence of a ruthlessly ambitious, narcissistic, media-savvy villain wearing make-up and with coloured hair. In a new world order of alternative truths, Salman Rushdie has written the ultimate novel about identity, truth, terror and lies. A brilliant, heartbreaking realist novel that is not only uncannily prescient but shows one of the world's greatest storytellers working at the height of his powers.

About this title

About the Author

Sir Salman Rushdie has received many awards for his writing, including the European Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1993 Midnight's Children was judged to be the `Booker of Bookers', the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. In June 2007 he received a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

Review

"It's one of the most vivid and convincing portraits of contemporary America I've read." -- Alex Preston * Observer, Book of the Year * "[A] complex and witty fable ... Rushdie has always been an impish myth-manipulator, refusing to accept, as in this novel, that the lives of the emperors can't be blended with film noir, popular culture and crime caper. On the evidence of The Golden House, he is quite right." -- Alex Clark * Observer * "Unruly but exuberant... Much of the success of The Golden House, in fact, lies in its humour and in the vigour of its storytelling... There is a glowing energy to the prose that makes this Rushdie's most enjoyable, mischievous and American of novels." -- Arifa Akbar * Financial Times * "Intelligent and darkly funny...with a raw political edge." -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst * The Times * "Rushdie writes with a Dickensian exuberance, always full of humour as well as striking scornful, tragic notes. Often he plays the role of satirist. His caricatures and outsize figures are full of life, wickedness and human energy: again, as in Dickens, grounded in a precise social and political scene." -- Jereme Boyd Maunsell * Evening Standard *

About this edition

• Publisher: VINTAGE ARROW - MASS MARKET
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1784707090
• ISBN 13: 9781784707095
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384