Description

Peter Owen 1st 1994
F/F 252 gms
(Order reference 2384).

Paul Bowles's first novel for 25 years is a stunning interplay of light and darkness.
Anita, newly divorced and world-weary, has escaped her routine in New York to join her brother in the African desert.

As the heat and light bear down on her, the boundaries of her world disintegrate, and she becomes aware of her racial and geographical alienation. She is drawn deep into the dark underworld of her subconscious, until finally the only course of action left is to return to what she knows, leaving behind
her a legacy of secrets.

The still, nihilistic tone of this novel is vintage Bowles.

`There is about Paul's writing, at its best, a palpable darkness, like underexposed film, that fills the narrow North African streets, always darker and darkening. His writing is equally distinguished and special' – William S. Burroughs

`Bowles is the real article: a man who translates deadly nightshade into sweet, nourishing literature. He is subversive and dangerous, a true fictioneer' – Geoffrey Wolff, Life

`His stories are among the best ever written by an American' – Gore Vidal

"Pages From Cold Point", a seduction of a father by a son, is one of the best stories ever written by anyone' – Norman Mailer

`Paul Bowles engages the reader with prose of flat honesty, while leading him into dark alleys where he may not want to go. This scene is a truthful and unflattering as is fate and death' – Patricia Highsmith

`Extraordinary, highly literary, evocative, romantic' – Kathy Acker, The Guardian