{"product_id":"books-desperate-characters-by-paula-fox","title":"Desperate Characters","description":"\u003cp\u003eOtto and Sophie Bentwood live in a changing neighborhood in Brooklyn. Their stainless-steel kitchen is newly installed, and their Mercedes is parked curbside. After Sophie is bitten on the hand while trying to feed a stray, perhaps rabies-infected cat, a series of small and ominous disasters begin to plague the Bentwoods' lives, revealing the fault lines and fractures in a marriage--and a society--wrenching itself apart.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1970 to wide acclaim, \u003cem\u003eDesperate Characters\u003c\/em\u003e stands as one of the most dazzling and rigorous examples of the storyteller's craft in postwar American literature -- a novel that, according to Irving Howe, ranks with \u003cem\u003eBilly Budd, The Great Gatsby, Miss Lonelyhearts\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eSeize the Day\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"World of Books ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53480347009297,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780393318944.jpg?v=1777546389","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/products\/books-desperate-characters-by-paula-fox","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}