Utz: As Seen on BBC Between the Covers - Softcover

Chatwin, Bruce

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099770016 ISBN 13: 9780099770015

Publisher: Vintage Classics, 1998

Synopsis

Bruce Chatwin's bestselling novel traces the fortunes of the enigmatic and unconventional hero, Kaspar Utz. Despite the restrictions of Cold War Czechoslovakia, Utz asserts his individuality through his devotion to his precious collection of Meissen porcelain. Although Utz is permitted to leave the country each year, and considers defecting each time, he is not allowed to take his porcelain with him and so he always returns to his Czech home, a prisoner both of the Communist state and of his collection.

About this title

Review:

"Not a word is wasted in the telling of this tale. Each sentence is fashioned, polished, and put into place with microscopic care" (Daily Telegraph)

"This shiny little novel is not just about pretty porcelain figurines but about dirty great issues of life and creativity" (The Times)

"With Chatwin, the real excitement derives from an intellectual drama, in dialogues about art as a surrogate creation, a robbery of divine power, and art collecting as idolatry...For Chatwin, ideas are the supreme fictions" (Observer)

"Bruce Chatwin at his most erudite and evocative" (New York Times)

Book Description:

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE Bruce Chatwin's final, bestselling novel

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Classics
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0099770016
• ISBN 13: 9780099770015
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144