An “almost flawless novel” (People) about a quiet scholar who is convinced that her life has been ruined by literature and that she must make a new start in life.
Since childhood, Ruth Weiss had been escaping from life into books, and from the attentions of her eccentric parents into the gentler warmth and company of friends and lovers. Now at forty years old, an academic devoted to the study of Balzac, she believes that literature has ruined her life and that she must once again, make a fresh start. “Lively, filled with gentle humor” (Miami Herald) this is an elegant and wry novel that will stay with you long after the final page is turned.
'Sly, detached humour has caused Brookner to be compared to Barbara Pym, but her vision is darker and more complex... Brookner's ambitions exceed those of Pym's genteel novels of manners and place her outside that genre, to which her writing, with its delicate shadings of character, otherwise seem suited.' - Philadelphia Inquirer
'Anita Brookner is a stunning writer.' - Edna O'Brien
'Elegant, bittersweet... and very, very funny. If you read one book a year, this had better be it.' - Fay Weldon
