Up Above the World - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0880010088 ISBN 13: 9780880010085

Synopsis

On the terrace of an elaborate hilltop apartment overlooking a Central American capital, four people sit making polite coversation. The American couple - an elderly physician and his young wife - are tourists. Their host, whom they have just met, is a young man of striking good looks and charm. The girl, who is his mistress, is very young and very beatufiul. Sitting there, with drinks in their hands, watching the sunset, the Slades seem to be experienced in the sort of fortunate chance encounter that travelers cherish. But amidst the civilities and small talk, one remark proves prophetic. The host says to the American woman: "It's not exactly what you think." Masterfully - with the poetic control that has always characterized his work - Paul Bowles leads the reader beneath the surface of hospitality and luxury into a tortuous maze of human relationships and shifting moods, until what seems at first a merely casual encounter is seen to be one rooted in viciousness and horror.

About this title

Review:

'A superb storyteller.' -- Life

'An absorbing, tremendously written novel.' -- Vogue

'An elaborate atmospheric build-up . . . Paul Bowles writes powerfully.' - -- The Times

'At his best, Bowles has no peer.' -- Time

'Few writers have Paul Bowles's skill in evocation while making of the familiar something new and extraordinary.' -- The Times

'Sex, drugs, fantasies and the machinery of derangement . . . Bowles' overpowering void descends on the mind and heart like a hypnotic spell.' -- New York Times Book Review

'The extreme beauty of Bowles's writing, his vibrant response to colour and sound, make [him] a "must" to anyone on the watch for outstanding talent.' -- Sunday Times

'Very, very good.' -- The Listener

About the Author:

Paul Bowles was born in 1910 and studied music with composer Aaron Copland before moving to Tangier, Morocco. A devastatingly imaginative observer of the West's encounter with the East, he is the author of four highly acclaimed novels: The Sheltering Sky, Let It Come Down, The Spider's House, and Up Above the World. In addition to being one of the most powerful postwar American novelists, Bowles was an acclaimed composer, a travel writer, a poet, a translator, and a short story writer. He died in Morocco in 1999.

About this edition

• ISBN 10: 0880010088
• ISBN 13: 9780880010085
• Binding: Paperback