Between Each Breath - Hardcover

Thorpe, Adam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224074989 ISBN 13: 9780224074988

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 2007

Synopsis

Once 'England's most promising young composer' - now living comfortably in Hampstead with his wife Milly, an heiress - Jack Middleton is in mid-life decline, his career in free-fall. When he visits Estonia for a three-week search for inspiration, he falls for a young waitress called Kaja, deeply bound up in the suffering of her country and the joy and danger of its new freedom. They embark on a passionate affair on a lonely island in a time warp. Then it's over. But of course nothing is ever over. Still childless six years later, Jack and Milly's marriage shows the strain, but they battle on better than most - until the past returns with a vengeance. The crisis takes place over a month, against a precise calendar of background events, both minor and major. Set in London and Estonia between 1999 and 2005 in the aftermath of the London bombings, as a hot, despondent summer drags on unnaturally into the autumn, "Between Each Breath" is a rich and often hilarious critique of Blair's Britain: decadent, bewildered, shallow, greedy, but knowing all the right buttons to press; knowing the language of compassion and abusing it. A story of love and betrayal, of age and youth, of wealth and poverty, of the new Europe and the old Europe, of art and compromise, of youthful ideals and cynical weariness, Adam Thorpe's extraordinary new novel is a biting, timely satire and a powerfully moving examination of social and emotional disintegration.

About this title

Review:

'...demonstrates the foresight and guile of the seasoned
storyteller, coupled with a poet's ability to knock the language for six' -- Guardian - Rev'd Tibor Fischer

'Adam Thorpe is brilliant. Utterly brilliant... the book moved me
so much that the denouement made me cry...' -- Telegraph - Rev'd Ian Samson

'Adam's Top 10 Satires' -- Guardian Unlimited

'Classy prose...warmly purring narrative...Thorpe [is] one of our
most fiercly intelligent and intellectual writers'
-- The Times

'The Vanity Fair of the 21st Century' -- Sunday Herald - Rev'd John Linklater

'a stylish, sophisticated exploration of male neediness and
frailty.' -- Sunday Telegraph - Rev'd David Robson

'an extraordinary performance, and already, with seven months left
to go, a prime candidate for my Novel of the Year'
-- Spectator - Rev'd DJ Taylor

'brilliant...The novel's greatest strength is its intricate
treatment of that which is deeply personal: the politics of adultery, the
pain of childlessness and the misery of growing old unfulfilled. It is a
rich yet realist book: sensuous, thoughtful and sad'
-- Time Out rev'd Mark Smith

'magnificent... A deftly plotted love story, full of startling
disclosures, the novel draws one in irresistibly...' -- Independent - Rev'd Ian Thomson

`Thorpe writes beautifully' -- Daily Mail - Rev'd Michael Arditti

From the Publisher:

A powerful, timely new novel from the highly acclaimed author of Ulverton and The Rules of Perspective.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0224074989
• ISBN 13: 9780224074988
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432