Xerxes by Jonathan Buckley
A rich and unsettling novel about storytelling, evil and fakery. On the heels of Jonathan Buckley’s marvellously assured debut – ‘multilayered and captivating,’ Daily Telegraph; ‘A spontaneous and searching picture of a life,’ IoS – comes his dazzling second novel. Set in Germany in the 1820s, Ettlinger, a young scholar who has been commissioned to design and build a chapel, finds himself increasingly swept up in a circle of friends who regularly meet to joust and outwit each other with stories. At the same time he receives from Wolgast, a local collector of antiques, an invitation to use his library to assist him in his research. But over the coming weeks, Wolgast’s hand of friendship seems increasingly sinister and poisonous, his house more an anteroom in Hell. Threaded with the story of the kingdom of Xerxes, a cautionary tale about a paradise lost, Xerxes is a tense and frightening read, a brilliant examination of manipulative men and the shadow they cast.‘A captivating baroque fantasy’ The Times
‘This is writing to savour for its craft and quality’ Daily Telegraph
‘The claustrophobic salon world which the characters inhabit, their strange anecdotes and play-acting, bring to the mind writers of the period such as Goethe and Hoffman.’ Scotland on Sunday
‘Beautifully mannered narrative, full of pleasing imagery of nature and art.’ Sunday Tribune
Jonathan Buckley is a director of Rough Guides. The Biography of Thomas Lang, his first novel, was published in 1997.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781857029970 |
| ISBN 10 | 1857029976 |
| Title | Xerxes |
| Author | Jonathan Buckley |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Year published | 2000-01-06 |
| Number of pages | 368 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |