The Man Who Saw Everything: Deborah Levy - Hardcover

Levy, Deborah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241268028 ISBN 13: 9780241268025

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 2019

Synopsis

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019

'An utterly beguiling fever dream of a novel... Its sheer technical bravura places it head and shoulder above pretty much everything else on the [Booker] longlist' Daily Telegraph

'An ice-cold skewering of patriarchy, humanity and the darkness of the 20th century Europe' The Times

'The man who had nearly run me over had touched my hair, as if he were touching a statue or something without a heartbeat...'

In 1988 Saul Adler (a narcissistic, young historian) is hit by a car on the Abbey Road. He is apparently fine; he gets up and goes to see his art student girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau. They have sex then break up, but not before she has photographed Saul crossing the same Abbey Road.

Saul leaves to study in communist East Berlin, two months before the Wall comes down. There he will encounter - significantly - both his assigned translator and his translator's sister, who swears she has seen a jaguar prowling the city. He will fall in love and brood upon his difficult, authoritarian father. And he will befriend a hippy, Rainer, who may or may not be a Stasi agent, but will certainly return to haunt him in middle age.

Slipping slyly between time zones and leaving a spiralling trail, Deborah Levy's electrifying The Man Who Saw Everything examines what we see and what we fail to see, the grave crime of carelessness, the weight of history and our ruinous attempts to shrug it off.

'Levy writes on the high wire, unfalteringly' Marina Warner

'It's clever, raw and doesn't play by any rules' Evening Standard

'Intelligent and supple...a dizzying tale of life across time and borders' FT

About this title

Review

An utterly beguiling fever dream of a novel... Its sheer technical bravura places it head and shoulder above pretty much everything else on the [Booker] longlist (Daily Telegraph)

Superbly crafted, enigmatic, tantalizing... Levy defies gravity in a daring, time-bending new novel... Head-spinning and playful, her writing offers sophistication and delightful artistry (Kirkus (Starred review))

An ice-cold skewering of patriarchy, humanity and the darkness of the 20th century Europe (The Times)

It's clever, raw and doesn't play by any rules (Evening Standard)

Intelligent and supple...a dizzying tale of life across time and borders (FT)

a brilliant Booker nominee (Guardian)

One of the big stories in English fiction this decade has been the return and triumph of Deborah Levy...You would call her example inspiring if it weren't clearly impossible to emulate. (New Statesman)

From the Back Cover

Electrifying and audacious, an unmissable new novel about old and new Europe, old and new love, from the twice-Man Booker-shortlisted author of Hot Milk and Swimming Home

In 1989 Saul Adler ( a narcissistic, young historian) is hit by a car on the Abbey Road. He is apparently fine; he gets up and goes to see his art student girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau . They have sex then break up, but not before she has photographed Saul crossing the same Abbey Road. Saul leaves to study in communist East Berlin, two months before the Wall comes down. There he will encounter - significantly - both his assigned translator and his translator's sister, who swears she has seen a jaguar prowling the city. He will fall in love and brood upon his difficult, authoritarian father. And he will befriend a hippy, Rainer, who may or may not be a Stasi agent, but will certainly return to haunt him in middle age.

In 2016, Saul Adler is hit by a car on the Abbey Road. He is rushed to hospital, where he spends the following days slipping in and out of consciousness, and in and out of memories of the past. A number of people gather at his bedside. One of them is Jennifer Moreau. But someone important is missing.

Slipping slyly between time zones and leaving a spiralling trail, Deborah Levy's electrifying new novel examines what we see and what we fail to see, until we encounter the spectres of history - both the world's and our own.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0241268028
• ISBN 13: 9780241268025
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208