Author:Malcolm Jack,William Beckford
Beckford's Gothic novel Vathek, an Arabian tale, was originally written in French when the author was twenty-one. Published in English in 1786, it was one of the most successful of the oriental tales then in fashion. This edition makes available to a new generation of scholars and general readers, the originality of Beckford's ideas, and the excellence of his prose.
Marvellous... Muscular, idiomatic and shot with unexpected humour, each is a portrait of flummoxed masculinity
—— ObserverI don't know of another writer who can walk Thomas McGuane's literary high wire... He can describe the sky, a bird, a rock, the dawn, with such grace that you want to go see for your self; then he can zip to a scene so funny that it makes you laugh out loud
—— New York TimesIt is the skill with which McGuane zeros huge cultural movements down to small flights of character that makes him one of the funniest and most acute American novelists
—— GuardianOne of America's most important literary writers, whose prose style has been compared to such American sensibilities as Hemingway and Faulkner
—— Los Angeles Herald ExaminerOne of the most original American novelists on either side of the Mississippi
—— TimeA rich insight in to Dublin
—— Lonely Planet TravellerKeret's surreal conceits are couched in a wry, downbeat language...The effect is something like a sorrowful hybrid of Kafka and Donald Barthelme: deadpan on the surface, with a bassnote of discomfort and emotional alienation that makes even the briefest tales snag in the mind...Each piece is at once universal and particular...world-class gems. The translation is brilliant, too
—— Tim Martin , Daily TelegraphEtgar Keret is the voice of young Israel
—— IndependentOne of the greatest short story writers alive
—— Ben RiceOne of the most important writers alive... enchantingly witty
—— Clive JamesEtgar Keret's extraordinary imagination sets the reader free from slogans and headlines
—— Linda Grant