The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
This is the New York Times Top 10 Books of the Year. It is the Guardian Best Books of the Year. It is shortlisted for the National Book Awards. The year is 1977 and Reno - so called because of the place of her birth - has come to New York intent on turning her fascination with motorcycles and speed into art. Her arrival coincides with an explosion of activity in the art world - artists have colonised a deserted and industrial SoHo, are squatting in the East Village, and are blurring the line between life and art. Reno meets a group of dreamers and raconteurs who submit her to a sentimental education of sorts. She begins an affair with an artist named Sandro Valera, the semi-estranged heir of an Italian tyre and motorcycle empire. When they visit Sandro's family home in Italy, Reno falls in with members of the radical movement that overtook Italy in 1977. Betrayal sends her reeling into a clandestine undertow. The Flamethrowers is a fearless novel, an intensely engaging exploration of the mystique of the feminine, the fake the terrorist. In the centre of it all is Kushner's brilliantly realised protagonist, a young woman on the verge.
Scintillatingly alive.. It ripples with stories, anecdotes, set-piece monologues, crafty egotistical tall tales, and hapless adventures -- James Wood * New Yorker *
Kushner is rapidly emerging as a thrilling and prodigious novelist -- Jonathan Franzen
One of the most thrilling and high-octane literary experiences I have had in ages -- Colum McCann * Sunday Independent *
It's so good, it's a little frightening… it makes any fretting over the state of the novel look plain silly * Guardian *
An adrenalin-fuelled coming-of-age novel * Sunday Telegraph *
Unfolds on a bigger, brighter screen than nearly any recent American novel I can remember * New York Times *
An ambitious and serious American novel. The sentences are sharp and gorgeously made. The scope is wide. The political and the personal are locked in a deep and fascinating embrace * Colm Tóibín *
Dazzling... The Flamethrowers is a virtuoso performance; a ride of ache and pleasure, handled with pinpoint command * The Times *
This glittering novel is both carefully structured and exhilarating * Daily Telegraph *
Rachel Kushner’s fearless, blazing prose ignites the 70s New York art scene and Italian underground * Vanity Fair *
A bright burning flame of a novel * Spectator *
The Flamethrowers is a strange, fascinating beast of a novel, brimming with ideas, and sustained by the muscular propulsion of Kushner’s prose… Kushner emerges as a wildly gifted artist filling a sketchbook with thrilling, eye-catching scenes -- Robert Collins * Sunday Times *
There is an exhilarating freedom to Kushner’s writing… Taut, vividly intelligent prose -- David Wolf * Prospect *
Sparky and inventive...a riot of a novel * Daily Mail *
Ms Kushner’s kaleidoscopic prose carries the novel’s shifts in location and person, and the fast-paced rhythm harnesses the thrill of adventure * Economist *
Swells with a daunting bravado * Irish Times *
Oscillating between the hedonistic New York art world and Italy in the midst of the Years of Lead, The Flamethrowers is that rare thing, a novel that uses recent history not as a picturesque backdrop but as a way of interrogating the present. Kushner's urgent prose and psychological acuity make this one of the most compelling and enjoyable novels I've read this year * Hari Kunzru *
The controlled intensity and perception in Rachel Kushner's novels mark her as one of the most brilliant writers of the new century. She's going to be one we turn to for our serious pleasures and for the insight and wisdom we'll be needing in hard times to come. Rachel Kushner is a novelist of the very first order. The Flamethrowers follows Telex from Cuba as a masterful work * Robert Stone *
The Flamethrowers lives up to its incendiary title – it is a brilliant, startling truly revolutionary book about the New York art world of the seventies, Italian class warfare, and youth's blind acceleration into the unknown. Kushner is a genius prose stylist, and her Reno is one of the most fully realized protagonists I've ever encountered, moving fluidly from the fringe of the fringe movement to the center of the action. I want to recommend this stunning book to everyone I know * Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! *
Rachel Kushner writes dazzling, sexy, glorious prose. She is as brilliant on men and motorcycles as she is on art and film. The Flamethrowers is an ambitious and powerful novel. * Dana Spiotta, author of Eat the Document and Stone Arabia *
A high-wire performance worthy of Philippe Petit... Hang on: this is a trip you don’t want to miss -- Ron Charles * Washington Post *
Wow! What a book! I'm eager for everyone I know to read it. It's an example of the very best in contemporary fiction…a contemporary masterpiece, and it wants you all to read it -- Josh Ferris
A dazzlingly exciting novel... This is a deeply intelligent and engaging novel that uses all the virtues of old-fashioned storytelling to celebrate the triumphs and absurdities of new-fangled art -- Jake Kerridge * Sunday Express *
The Flamethrowers has gained praise from Jonathan Franzen and drawn comparisons with Patti Smith's Just Kids as it epically leaps between the New York art scene of the late 1970s and Italy in the midst of revolution... An essential summer read * Grazia *
Exhilirating, psychologically complex, and perfectly intense, this is a thrilling contemporary novel likely to become a cultural touchstone * Flavorwire *
A brilliant lightning bolt of a novel * Maud Newton, NPR *
In this extremely bold, swashbuckling novel, romantic and disillusioned at once, intellectually daring and even subversive, Rachel Kushner has created the most beguiling American ingénue abroad, well, maybe ever: Daisy Miller as a sharply observant yet vulnerable Reno-raised motorcycle racer and aspiring artist, set loose in gritty 70s New York and the Italy of the Red Brigades * Francisco Goldman, author of Say Her Name *
Riveting * Time *
Rachel Kushner's The Flamethrowers is remarkable for its expansiveness and for its exhilarating succession of ideas -- Mark West * The List *
National Book Award finalist Rachel Kushner brings NYC's art scene to life so well in The Flamethrowers you could get high off the paint * Entertainment Weekly *
Fast-paced, sexy and smart * Cosmopolitan *
Electric...addictive...smart and satisfying * Oprah Magazine *
Captivating and compelling * The Bookbag *
This is a work of ferocious energy and imaginative verve, straining at the seams with ideas, riffs, jokes, set-pieces, belly-laughs, horror and heartbreak * Booktrust *
Kushner writes with authority, passion and humour, her characters richly drawn and her story packed with delicious anecdotes and side lines from a wide array of memorable characters -- Tracy Eynon * We Love This Book *
Sexy and brilliant * Sunday Times Style *
Incandescent * Image *
Kushner's second novel comes loaded with recommendations and it's easy to see why…highly unusual and written with great seriousness and potency * Guardian *
It manages to relate the art scene in 1970s New York to the Red Brigades in Italy, with lots of motorbikes thrown in -- Nick Barley * Herald *
Kushner’s writing is a kind of marvel -- Richard Fitzpatrick * Irish Examiner *
Kushner is rapidly emerging as a thrilling and prodigious novelist -- Jonathan Franzen
One of the most thrilling and high-octane literary experiences I have had in ages -- Colum McCann * Sunday Independent *
It's so good, it's a little frightening… it makes any fretting over the state of the novel look plain silly * Guardian *
An adrenalin-fuelled coming-of-age novel * Sunday Telegraph *
Unfolds on a bigger, brighter screen than nearly any recent American novel I can remember * New York Times *
An ambitious and serious American novel. The sentences are sharp and gorgeously made. The scope is wide. The political and the personal are locked in a deep and fascinating embrace * Colm Tóibín *
Dazzling... The Flamethrowers is a virtuoso performance; a ride of ache and pleasure, handled with pinpoint command * The Times *
This glittering novel is both carefully structured and exhilarating * Daily Telegraph *
Rachel Kushner’s fearless, blazing prose ignites the 70s New York art scene and Italian underground * Vanity Fair *
A bright burning flame of a novel * Spectator *
The Flamethrowers is a strange, fascinating beast of a novel, brimming with ideas, and sustained by the muscular propulsion of Kushner’s prose… Kushner emerges as a wildly gifted artist filling a sketchbook with thrilling, eye-catching scenes -- Robert Collins * Sunday Times *
There is an exhilarating freedom to Kushner’s writing… Taut, vividly intelligent prose -- David Wolf * Prospect *
Sparky and inventive...a riot of a novel * Daily Mail *
Ms Kushner’s kaleidoscopic prose carries the novel’s shifts in location and person, and the fast-paced rhythm harnesses the thrill of adventure * Economist *
Swells with a daunting bravado * Irish Times *
Oscillating between the hedonistic New York art world and Italy in the midst of the Years of Lead, The Flamethrowers is that rare thing, a novel that uses recent history not as a picturesque backdrop but as a way of interrogating the present. Kushner's urgent prose and psychological acuity make this one of the most compelling and enjoyable novels I've read this year * Hari Kunzru *
The controlled intensity and perception in Rachel Kushner's novels mark her as one of the most brilliant writers of the new century. She's going to be one we turn to for our serious pleasures and for the insight and wisdom we'll be needing in hard times to come. Rachel Kushner is a novelist of the very first order. The Flamethrowers follows Telex from Cuba as a masterful work * Robert Stone *
The Flamethrowers lives up to its incendiary title – it is a brilliant, startling truly revolutionary book about the New York art world of the seventies, Italian class warfare, and youth's blind acceleration into the unknown. Kushner is a genius prose stylist, and her Reno is one of the most fully realized protagonists I've ever encountered, moving fluidly from the fringe of the fringe movement to the center of the action. I want to recommend this stunning book to everyone I know * Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! *
Rachel Kushner writes dazzling, sexy, glorious prose. She is as brilliant on men and motorcycles as she is on art and film. The Flamethrowers is an ambitious and powerful novel. * Dana Spiotta, author of Eat the Document and Stone Arabia *
A high-wire performance worthy of Philippe Petit... Hang on: this is a trip you don’t want to miss -- Ron Charles * Washington Post *
Wow! What a book! I'm eager for everyone I know to read it. It's an example of the very best in contemporary fiction…a contemporary masterpiece, and it wants you all to read it -- Josh Ferris
A dazzlingly exciting novel... This is a deeply intelligent and engaging novel that uses all the virtues of old-fashioned storytelling to celebrate the triumphs and absurdities of new-fangled art -- Jake Kerridge * Sunday Express *
The Flamethrowers has gained praise from Jonathan Franzen and drawn comparisons with Patti Smith's Just Kids as it epically leaps between the New York art scene of the late 1970s and Italy in the midst of revolution... An essential summer read * Grazia *
Exhilirating, psychologically complex, and perfectly intense, this is a thrilling contemporary novel likely to become a cultural touchstone * Flavorwire *
A brilliant lightning bolt of a novel * Maud Newton, NPR *
In this extremely bold, swashbuckling novel, romantic and disillusioned at once, intellectually daring and even subversive, Rachel Kushner has created the most beguiling American ingénue abroad, well, maybe ever: Daisy Miller as a sharply observant yet vulnerable Reno-raised motorcycle racer and aspiring artist, set loose in gritty 70s New York and the Italy of the Red Brigades * Francisco Goldman, author of Say Her Name *
Riveting * Time *
Rachel Kushner's The Flamethrowers is remarkable for its expansiveness and for its exhilarating succession of ideas -- Mark West * The List *
National Book Award finalist Rachel Kushner brings NYC's art scene to life so well in The Flamethrowers you could get high off the paint * Entertainment Weekly *
Fast-paced, sexy and smart * Cosmopolitan *
Electric...addictive...smart and satisfying * Oprah Magazine *
Captivating and compelling * The Bookbag *
This is a work of ferocious energy and imaginative verve, straining at the seams with ideas, riffs, jokes, set-pieces, belly-laughs, horror and heartbreak * Booktrust *
Kushner writes with authority, passion and humour, her characters richly drawn and her story packed with delicious anecdotes and side lines from a wide array of memorable characters -- Tracy Eynon * We Love This Book *
Sexy and brilliant * Sunday Times Style *
Incandescent * Image *
Kushner's second novel comes loaded with recommendations and it's easy to see why…highly unusual and written with great seriousness and potency * Guardian *
It manages to relate the art scene in 1970s New York to the Red Brigades in Italy, with lots of motorbikes thrown in -- Nick Barley * Herald *
Kushner’s writing is a kind of marvel -- Richard Fitzpatrick * Irish Examiner *
Rachel Kushner is the author of The Mars Room, which was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. Her previous novels, Telex from Cuba and The Flamethrowers, were both New York Times bestsellers and finalists for the National Book Award. Her fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s and the Paris Review. She lives in Los Angeles.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781846557910 |
| ISBN 10 | 1846557917 |
| Title | The Flamethrowers |
| Author | Rachel Kushner |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Vintage Publishing |
| Year published | 2013-06-06 |
| Number of pages | 400 |
| Prizes | Short-listed for James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2014 (UK), Long-listed for The Folio Prize 2014 (UK), Long-listed for Womens Prize for Fiction 2014 (UK), Long-listed for I.M.P.A.C. Dublin Award 2015 (UK) |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |