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Surveillance Jonathan Raban

Surveillance By Jonathan Raban

Surveillance by Jonathan Raban


$17.19
Condition - Very Good
Only 3 left

Summary

Long-awaited follow up to his last, critically acclaimed novel, Waxwings.

Surveillance Summary

Surveillance by Jonathan Raban

Lucy Bengstrom had always dreamed of living in Seattle. From her remote childhood home, it seemed an Oz - a city of possibilities and fantastic, distant pleasures. But now, in 2005, living alone with her eleven year old daughter Alida, things seem less clear-cut. Post 9/11, the promise of homeland security and the implication of severe vulnerability are closely bound together. When Lucy is asked to write about August Vanagas, a reclusive international bestselling author, Lucy becomes intrigued by his story. His memoir of his childhood as an orphaned boy adrift in Europe during the Second World War seems to reveal the most painful of truths - but the more she learns, the more questions she has . . .

To Alida's generation - plugged into iPods, used to having their lives watched and documented - the virtual world is as important (if not more so) than the real one. She and her schoolfriends defer to The Geek, giving him muffins and doughnuts in exchange for his knowledge of writing computer codes that promise make their websites ever cooler. Struggling to interpret her world, Alida gathers information about her family and friends in the hope she can develop a human algebra which will help make sense of the way people are.

Tad lives in the same apartment block as Lucy and Alida. He's an out-of-work actor and an activist, driven to earn money by taking part in government sponsored mock terrorist attacks staged in the city. Disenchanted by the US administration and all it stands for, he spends sleepless nights surfing the internet, tracking news stories around the world, trying to pin down a nugget of truth in a vast sea of propaganda.

Who can you trust when the lines between fact and fiction become so blurred?

Surveillance Reviews

" When the going gets tough, the tough get nosy. And so, in this well-realized novel, does everyone else . . . A coolly delivered portrait of the Wired Age, when paranoia rules and truth is at a premium."
- "Kirkus Reviews"
" An air of suspenseful dread hangs over every page of this intelligent, provocative book, and when the end finally rolls in, readers will be stunned and, in some cases, outraged."
- "Publishers Weekly "(starred review)
" "Surveillance" is arguably the finest, most human, most chilling novel to have emerged in response to these desperate times."
- Martyn Bedford, "Literary Review"
" Of all the 9/11 books so far, "Surveillance" is perhaps the most disturbing because it offers scant comfort and no certainties."
- Ian Sansom, "The Spectator"
" Post 9/11, everyone watches and is being watched . . . In Raban' s black and brilliant portrait of his adopted city, all kinds of sinister forces filter and manipulate the truth. A wonderfully ironic, disturbing take on the un-privacy of modern life."
- Kate Saunders, "The Times" (London)
" Raban is deadly serious in his portrayal of a country running scared, but he also has a taste for sly social comedy: His ear for idiom is well-nigh faultless, be it the ironic locutions of Seattle school kids or the braying tones of a haughty Englishwoman, and his character-sketching is precise and assured."
- Anthony Quinn, "The Daily Telegraph"
" "Surveillanc"e is never less than absorbing in its treatment of people attempting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happinessaccording to their very different lights.."
- Sean O' Brien, "The Times Literary Supplement"
" One of the best attempts so far to engage with the post-- 9/11 world . . . Having devoted his career mainly to nonfiction, Raban is becoming one of our most insightful novelists."
- William Skidelsky, "New Statesman"
" If someone were to come along and tell me I had half an hour to put together a 2006 time capsule, Jonathan Raban' s new novel is the first thing I' d grab . . . Nothing else would come as close to distilling the particular attitudes and anxieties of our time as "Surveillance,""
- Toby Litt, "The Guardian"

"From the Hardcover edition."


"When the going gets tough, the tough get nosy. And so, in this well-realized novel, does everyone else . . . A coolly delivered portrait of the Wired Age, when paranoia rules and truth is at a premium."
-"Kirkus Reviews"
"An air of suspenseful dread hangs over every page of this intelligent, provocative book, and when the end finally rolls in, readers will be stunned and, in some cases, outraged."
-"Publishers Weekly "(starred review)
""Surveillance" is arguably the finest, most human, most chilling novel to have emerged in response to these desperate times."
-Martyn Bedford, "Literary Review"
"Of all the 9/11 books so far, "Surveillance" is perhaps the most disturbing because it offers scant comfort and no certainties."
-Ian Sansom, "The Spectator"
"Post 9/11, everyone watches and is being watched . . . In Raban's black and brilliant portrait of his adopted city, all kinds of sinister forces filter and manipulate the truth. A wonderfully ironic, disturbing take on the un-privacy of modern life."
-Kate Saunders, "The Times" (London)
"Raban is deadly serious in his portrayal of a country running scared, but he also has a taste for sly social comedy: His ear for idiom is well-nigh faultless, be it the ironic locutions of Seattle school kids or the braying tones of a haughty Englishwoman, and his character-sketching is precise and assured."
-Anthony Quinn, "The Daily Telegraph"
""Surveillanc"e is never less than absorbing in its treatment of people attempting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness according to their very different lights.."
-Sean O'Brien, "The Times Literary Supplement"
"One of the best attempts so far to engage withthe post--9/11 world . . . Having devoted his career mainly to nonfiction, Raban is becoming one of our most insightful novelists."
-William Skidelsky, "New Statesman"
"If someone were to come along and tell me I had half an hour to put together a 2006 time capsule, Jonathan Raban's new novel is the first thing I'd grab . . . Nothing else would come as close to distilling the particular attitudes and anxieties of our time as "Surveillance,""
-Toby Litt, "The Guardian"

"From the Hardcover edition."


"As atmospheric with vague menace as a Hitchcock thriller." --Michael Dirda, "New York Review of Books"
"Scarily beautiful . . . . [Raban is] a gifted writer who explores the human condition with tenderness, empathy and rueful wit."
--"The Washington Post"
"A timely disquisition on the fragility of truth and identity in the information age." --Bloomberg News
"Raban is using fiction to explore the most important issues of our day and doing so at the highest artistic level." --"Oregonian"
"Heart-thumping dread permeates this creepy, stunning book." --"Tucson Citizen"
"Raban is a wonderful and cerebral stylist, a master of arresting syntactical inversions with an incisive view of our contemporary moment." --"Cleveland Plain Dealer"
"Mesmerizing. . . . Sharp and riveting. . . . A masterful job." --"Newsday"

About Jonathan Raban

Jonathan Raban is the author of over a dozen books, both fiction and non-fiction, including Passage to Juneau, Bad Land, Hunting Mister Heartbreak, Coasting, Old Glory, Arabia, Soft City, Waxwings and Surveillance. His awards include the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Royal Society of Literature's Heinemann Award, the Thomas Cook Award, the PEN West Creative Nonfiction Award, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers' Award, and the Governor's Award of the State of Washington. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Harpers, The New York Review of Books, Outside, Atlantic Monthly, New Republic, The London Review of Books, and other magazines. In 1990 Raban, a British citizen, moved from London to Seattle, where he now lives with his daughter.

Additional information

GOR002632236
9780330413381
0330413384
Surveillance by Jonathan Raban
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Pan Macmillan
2006-09-15
336
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Surveillance