Ancient light
Record details
- ISBN: 9780307960832 (electronic bk.)
- ISBN: 0307960838 (electronic bk.)
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Physical Description:
electronic resource
remote
1 online resource (287 p.) - Edition: 1st American ed.
- Publisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2012.
Content descriptions
General Note: | "This is a Borzoi book"--T.p. verso. "Originally published in Great Britain by Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan Ltd., London, in 2012"--T.p. verso. |
Source of Description Note: | Description based on print version record. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Older men -- Fiction Actors -- Fiction Reminiscing in old age -- Fiction Loss (Psychology) -- Fiction Memory -- Fiction |
Genre: | Psychological fiction. Electronic books. |
Other Formats and Editions
Electronic resources
- Baker & Taylor
An actor in the twilight of his career reflects on a poignant first love affair at the age of 15 with his best friend's mother and inexplicably lands a role opposite a famous but fragile actress who helps him come to an astonishing realization. By the Man Booker Prize-winning author ofThe Sea . 60,000 first printing. - Random House, Inc.
The Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea gives us a brilliant, profoundly moving new novel about an actor in the twilight of his life and his career: a meditation on love and loss, and on the inscrutable immediacy of the past in our present lives.
Is there any difference between memory and invention? That is the question that fuels this stunning novel, written with the depth of character, the clarifying lyricism and the sly humor that have marked all of John Banville's extraordinary works. And it is the question that haunts Alexander Cleave, an actor in the twilight of his career and of his life, as he plumbs the memories of his first'and perhaps only'love (he, fifteen years old, the woman more than twice his age, the mother of his best friend; the situation impossible, thrilling, devouring and finally devastating) . . . and of his daughter, lost to a kind of madness of mind and heart that Cleave can only fail to understand. When his dormant acting career is suddenly, inexplicably revived with a movie role portraying a man who may not be who he says he is, his young leading lady'famous and fragile'unwittingly gives him the opportunity to see with aching clarity the 'chasm that yawns between the doing of a thing and the recollection of what was done.'
Ancient Light is a profoundly moving meditation on love and loss, on the inscrutable immediacy of the past in our present lives, on how invention shapes memory and memory shapes the man. It is a book of spellbinding power and pathos from one of the greatest masters of prose at work today.
This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide. - Random House, Inc.
The Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea gives us a brilliant novel about an actor in the twilight of his life and his career: âa devastating account of a boyâs sexual awakening and the loss of his childhood…. Seamless [and] profound ... An unsettling and beautiful work.â âWall Street Journal
Is there a difference between memory and invention? That is the question that haunts Alexander Cleave as he reflects on his first, and perhaps only, loveâan underage affair with his best friendâs mother. When his stunted acting career is suddenly, inexplicably revived with a movie role playing a man who may not be who he claims, his young leading ladyâfamous and fragileâunwittingly gives him the opportunity to see, with startling clarity, the gap between the things he has done and the way he recalls them. Profoundly moving, Ancient Light is written with the depth of character, clarifying lyricism, and heart-wrenching humor that mark all of Man Booker Prize-winning author John Banvilleâs extraordinary works.