Imprint: Penguin
Published: 04/06/2015
ISBN: 9780241969373
Length: 368 Pages
Dimensions: 198mm x 22mm x 129mm
Weight: 255g
RRP: £9.99
Mr Bones is a sparkling and darkly humorous collection of short stories by bestselling novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux.
A family watches, horrified, as their patriarch transforms into the wise-cracking lead of an old-timey minstrel show. An art collector gleefully destroys his most valuable pieces. A young artist devotes himself to a wealthy, malicious gossip, knowing that it's just a matter of time before she turns on him.
In this new collection of short stories, Paul Theroux explores the tenuous leadership of the elite and the surprising revenge of the overlooked. He shows us humanity possessed, consumed by its own desires, always with his carefully honed eye and the subtle idiosyncrasies that bring his characters to life.
'As cool as Somerset Maugham . . . as observant, intuitive, wry, inventive and eloquent as Graham Greene' Sunday Times
'Theroux is fluent, witty and almost faultlessly able to deliver a satisfying story' Melvyn Bragg
'One of the most accomplished and worldly-wise writers of his generation' The Times
Imprint: Penguin
Published: 04/06/2015
ISBN: 9780241969373
Length: 368 Pages
Dimensions: 198mm x 22mm x 129mm
Weight: 255g
RRP: £9.99
Plumbing the depths of eccentricity and violence swilling beneath the surface of ordinary American life, Theroux understands, often with devastating effect, how dramas both big and small can produce catastrophic and lasting psychological consequences
Skilful and unsettling
Twenty delicious tales . . . from the off, this collection had me grinning. Scattered with gems infused with Theroux's international knowledge
Quirky, unpredictable fun and pure literary entertainment
As cool as Somerset Maugham . . . as observant, intuitive, wry, inventive and eloquent as Graham Greene
Theroux is fluent, witty and almost faultlessly able to deliver a satisfying story
One of the most accomplished and worldly-wise writers of his generation
Always a terrific teller of tales and conjurer of exotic locales, he writes lean prose that lopes along at a compelling pace
With its unsettling strangeness, precisely drawn characters and geographical sweep, Mr Bones is a psychologically complex, vastly enjoyable and nuanced collection by a writer in complete control of his art
There's more than a whiff of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness about these tales, by turns savage, funny, unsettling