
The Great Night by Chris Adrian
On Midsummer's Eve three heartsick lovers are trapped in San Francisco's Buena Vista Park. Ill met by moonlight, they are stalked by a psychopathic Puck, in thrall to a beautiful Titania, and ambushed by a homeless musical theatre troupe. Together they must survive a night that might just repair their hearts, if it doesn't destroy them first. Selected by the New Yorker as one of the best young writers in America, Adrian has created a singularly playful, moving and humorous novel - a story that effortlessly crosses the borders between reality and dreams, suffering and magic, and mortality and immortality.
Chris Adrian is the most extraordinary novelist you've never heard ofThe book is surprisingly, very funny. And moving. And quite unlike anything I've read so far this century...If you're willing to enter something magical, something dazzling and heartbreaking, then Adrian is a writer for you. -- Patrick Ness * Guardian *
Bewitching... This magical and fearless work is a near-blueprint of what a novel ought to be -- Olivia Laing * Observer *
A work of sustained imagination. Interweaving stories and situations that are in turn kitsch, camp, wry and heartbreaking ... a profoundly humane and moving work -- Adam O’Riordan * Sunday Telegraph *
A fabulous, crazy, imaginative journey -- Viv Groskop * Daily Telegraph *
A beguiling, troubling and undeniably potent brand of fiction ... His writing is evocative and unsettling in equal measure ... Adrian gets under your skin and stays there -- Jake Wallis Simons * Independent on Sunday *
This wonderful novel is much more than a simple adaptation ... In Adrian's hands this is a play about grief. The saddest and most lovely scenes of this sad and lovely book are those in which the fairy queen waits in a San Francisco hospital. Her child is sick, and her magic cannot save him ...Heartbreak too waits behind the experiences of the young lovers Henry, Molly and Will. "I cannot straighten the paths you make crooked with your dreams," one of the fairies tells one of the mortals, and this is what Adrian has taken most powerfully from the play: the sad knowledge that heartbreak and love are necessary transformations, ones we need but cannot control -- Daniel Swift * Financial Times *
Adrian has an extraordinary imagination as well as talent to burn ... It's spellbinding to see Adrian reshaping Shakespeare's narrative to his own ends -- Alastair Mabbott * Herald *
Bewitching... This magical and fearless work is a near-blueprint of what a novel ought to be -- Olivia Laing * Observer *
A work of sustained imagination. Interweaving stories and situations that are in turn kitsch, camp, wry and heartbreaking ... a profoundly humane and moving work -- Adam O’Riordan * Sunday Telegraph *
A fabulous, crazy, imaginative journey -- Viv Groskop * Daily Telegraph *
A beguiling, troubling and undeniably potent brand of fiction ... His writing is evocative and unsettling in equal measure ... Adrian gets under your skin and stays there -- Jake Wallis Simons * Independent on Sunday *
This wonderful novel is much more than a simple adaptation ... In Adrian's hands this is a play about grief. The saddest and most lovely scenes of this sad and lovely book are those in which the fairy queen waits in a San Francisco hospital. Her child is sick, and her magic cannot save him ...Heartbreak too waits behind the experiences of the young lovers Henry, Molly and Will. "I cannot straighten the paths you make crooked with your dreams," one of the fairies tells one of the mortals, and this is what Adrian has taken most powerfully from the play: the sad knowledge that heartbreak and love are necessary transformations, ones we need but cannot control -- Daniel Swift * Financial Times *
Adrian has an extraordinary imagination as well as talent to burn ... It's spellbinding to see Adrian reshaping Shakespeare's narrative to his own ends -- Alastair Mabbott * Herald *
Selected by the New Yorker as one of the '20 Under 40', CHRIS ADRIAN is the author of Gob's Grief, The Children's Hospital, A Better Angel and The Great Night. He is a Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist at Columbia University. He was awarded a New York Public Library Fellowship in 2011.
SKU | Unavailable |
ISBN 13 | 9781847083210 |
ISBN 10 | 1847083218 |
Title | The Great Night |
Author | Chris Adrian |
Condition | Unavailable |
Binding Type | Paperback |
Publisher | Granta Books |
Year published | 2012-06-07 |
Number of pages | 304 |
Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
Note | Unavailable |