Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include companion materials, may have some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, may not include CDs or access codes. 100% money back guarantee.

Monopolies of loss

Adam Mars-Jones

Literature & Fiction

Faber Publishing

Cedilla

"Cedilla" continues the history of John Cromer begun by "Pilcrow", described by "The London Review of Books" as 'peculiar, original, utterly idiosyncratic' and by "The Sunday Times" as 'truly exhilarating'. These huge and sparkling books are particularly surprising coming from a writer of previously (let's be tactful) modest productivity, who had seemed stubbornly attached to small forms. Now the alleged miniaturist has rumbled into the literary traffic in his monster truck, and seems determined to overtake Proust's cork-lined limousine while it's stopped at the lights. John Cromer is the weakest hero in literature - unless he's one of the strongest. In "Cedilla" he launches himself into the wider world of mainstream education, and comes upon deeper joys, subtler setbacks. The tone and texture of the two books is similar, but their emotional worlds are very different. The slow unfolding of themes is perhaps closer to Indian classical music than the Western tradition - raga/saga, anyone? This isn't an epic novel as such things are normally understood, to be sure. It contains no physical battles and the bare minimum of travel, yet surely it qualifies. None of the reviews of "Pilcrow" explicitly compared it to a coral reef made of a billion tiny Crunchie bars, but that was the drift of opinion. Page by page, "Cedilla" too provides unfailing pleasure. It's the book you can read between meals without ruining your appetite.

Faber&Faber

Cedilla continues the story of John Cromer; one of the most memorable and delightful characters in contemporary literature. In Cedilla our physically-challenged hero launches himself into the worlds of international travel, spiritual enlightenment and higher education, tackling friendships and sex and railing against institutional regulations and flights of stairs along the way. Cedilla is a wholly original and exhilarating novel by one of our brightest literary talents.

Genre Fiction

'We make lazy assumptions about the centre of things and its location. Who's to say that the centre of things isn't in a corner, way over there?'\n'People in authority are always saying you should know your rights, though I've noticed they don't much enjoy it when you do.'\n'Nobody can be a person twenty-fours hours a day - it just can't be done. At night the sets dissolve and the performance falls away. We're off the books.'\nThat's John Cromer talking, in this fresh instalment of his lifelong saga. For John, embarking on a new stage of life in 1970s Cambridge, charm and wit aren't just assets, they are survival skills. It may be a case of John against the world. If so, don't be in too much of a hurry to bet on the world.\nConjuring a remarkable voice and mind, Caret is a feast of a novel, served on a succession of small plates, each portion providing an adult's daily intake of literary nourishment. Reading it - like any encounter with John Cromer -- is guaranteed to help you work, rest and play.\n'Thank god for John Cromer and his creator Adam Mars-Jones, one of the funniest, most self-aware characters in English fiction, whose minute observations on everything from constipation to lust are a source of unexpected delight.' Linda Grant

Caret

'Late Spring, directed and co-written by Yasujiro Ozu, was released in 1949, which makes it an old film, or a film that has been new for a long time...' So begins this remarkable essay in narrative reconstruction, which elicits a world of meanings from the reticences of one classic Japanese movie, and reserves to the very end a resolution of its mystery. Adam Mars-Jones gives a virtuoso comeback performance as that lost figure from the earl days of cinema: the film explainer. There has never been a film book like this one.

Noriko Smiling

Notting Hill Editions

Box Hill

Scribe Publications

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Adam Mars-Jones. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Adam Mars-Jones

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Adam Mars-Jones. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Monopolies of loss

Cedilla

Cedilla

Caret

Noriko Smiling

Box Hill