You Deserve Nothing - Softcover

Maksik, Alexander

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1609450485 ISBN 13: 9781609450489

Publisher: Europa Editions, 2011

Synopsis

Set in Paris, at an international high school catering to the sons and daughters of wealthy families, You Deserve Nothing is a gripping story of power, idealism, and morality.

William Silver is a talented and charismatic young teacher whose unconventional methods raise eyebrows among his colleagues and superiors. His students, however, are devoted to him. His teaching of Camus, Faulkner, Sartre, Keats and other kindred souls breathe life into their sense of social justice and their capacities for philosophical and ethical thought. But unbeknownst to his adoring pupils, Silver proves incapable of living up to the ideals he encourages in others. Emotionally scarred by failures in his personal life and driven to distraction by the City of Light's overpowering carnality and beauty, Silver succumbs to a temptation that will change the course of his life. His fall will render him a criminal in the eyes of some, and all too human in the eyes of others.

In Maksik's stylish prose, Paris is sensual, dazzling and dangerously seductive. It serves as a fitting backdrop for a dramatic tale about the tension between desire and action, and about the complex relationship that exists between our public and private selves.

About this title

Review

"Alexander Maksik's relentless engagement of ideas and literature and the depiction of his characters makes for one of the most engaged reads I've had in years."-Alice Sebold

"You Deserve Nothing is a bracing, challenging, enthralling debut. It is a novel that rings true from first page to last, refusing the false notion of easy choices, inhabiting, rather, the moral maze of lived life. Here is a gifted writer who understands why the artful telling of a difficult story is a brave and important thing to do. Read this book."-John Burnham Schwartz, author of "Reservation Road"

"A provocative, constantly surprising, and original novel written with precision and grace. Maksik is unflinching in his exploration of the sexual awakening of the young, and the moral complexity of adulthood. This is a thrilling debut."-Susanna Moore, author of "In the Cut" and "The Big Girls"
"One of the most engaged reads I''ve had in years."---Alice Sebold

"Alexander Maksik deftly evokes the beauty and pathos of Paris, and the story of Will, Gilad and Marie-each compelled towards moral and sexual awakening- is at once dark and luminous. This is a book to be read all at once with a glass of wine in a cafe or a cup of tea while tucked safely in bed."---A.M. Homes

""You Deserve Nothing" is a powerful, absorbing novel about a charismatic expatriate teacher and the students whose lives he transforms, for better and worse. Alexander Maksik is an unusually gifted writer."---Tom Perrotta

""You Deserve Nothing" rings true from first page to last. Here is a writer who understands why the artful telling of a difficult story is a brave and important thing to do. Read this book."---John Burnham Schwartz

"Alexander Maksik''s first novel, "You Deserve Nothing", is a thoroughly engaging, passionate, and challenging read that finely walks the line between morality and amorality. In a society, and at a time, when individual identity is so closely tied to collective narcissism, Maksik''s novel asks what are the true sources of selfworth? And how shall we live?"---Tom Jenks, editor, Narrative magazine

"A provocative, constantly surprising, and original novel. This is a thrilling debut."---Susanna Moore

"Maksik''s superb novel takes on the most fundamental question-how are we supposed to live?-with a freshness and urgency that are nothing short of masterful. This is a gorgeous book, as honest and rich a depiction of life''s contradictions as I''ve encountered in many years."---Ben Fountain

"Maksik's superb novel takes on the most fundamental question-how are we supposed to live?-with a freshness and urgency that are nothing short of masterful. This is a gorgeous book, as honest and rich a depiction of life's contradictions as I've encountered in many years."---Ben Fountain

"Alexander Maksik's first novel, "You Deserve Nothing", is a thoroughly engaging, passionate, and challenging read that finely walks the line between morality and amorality. In a society, and at a time, when individual identity is so closely tied to collective narcissism, Maksik's novel asks what are the true sources of selfworth? And how shall we live?"---Tom Jenks, editor, Narrative magazine

Book Description

Dark, compelling story of an illicit affair between a young teacher and his female student for fans of Donna Tartt

About this edition

• Publisher: Europa Editions
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1609450485
• ISBN 13: 9781609450489
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336