Editions

The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth

  • Imprint: Penguin

  • ISBN: 9780241979761

  • Length: 272  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 17mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 191g

  • RRP: £8.99

The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth

A philandering art dealer tries to give up casual love affairs - seeking only passionate kisses as a substitute. A man recounts his personal history through the things he has stolen from others throughout his life. A couple chart the journey of their five year relationship backwards, from awkward reunion to lovelorn first encounter. And, at the heart of the book, a 24-year old young woman, Bethany Mellmoth, embarks on a year-long journey of wishful and tentative self-discovery.

The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth depicts the random encounters that bring the past bubbling to the surface; the impulsive decisions that irrevocably shape a life; and the endless hesitations and loss-of-nerve that wickedly complicate it. These funny, surprising and moving stories are a resounding confirmation of Boyd's powers as one of our most original and compelling storytellers.

  • Imprint: Penguin

  • ISBN: 9780241979761

  • Length: 272  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 17mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 191g

  • RRP: £8.99

Reviews

  • Boyd shows why he's so often compared to Graham Greene.... brilliant and bewitching collection of stories

    Financial Times

  • Like stealing badges, like shucking oysters, once you have one of these stories you can't stop. Lights out was after midnight

    Times

  • Clever and, yes, cinematic

    Observer

  • The stories, as is often the case with Boyd, are packed with characters whose lives are upended by random upheavals

    Sunday Times

  • Unfailingly amusing and clever

    Guardian

  • In a 2008 essay, Boyd explained that writing short stories gives him a welcome chance "to change habits, to experiment, to take risks, to try out different voices". And in the best stories here, it's a chance he takes full advantage of, serving up an impressive variety of settings and protagonists

    Daily Telegraph

  • Highly entertaining

    Mail on Sunday

  • Boyd is dependably a master of what's most true: an always elegant realist whose characters will get under your skin

    GQ

  • No one charts the highs and lows of the human condition like Boyd

    Red

  • A riveting short story collection from one of the best

    Woman & Home

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About the Author

William Boyd

William Boyd is the author of one work of non-fiction, three collections of short stories and thirteen novels, including the bestselling historical spy thriller Restless – winner of the Costa Novel of the Year – and Any Human Heart, in which the character of Ian Fleming features. Among his other awards are the Whitbread First Novel Prize, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Prix Jean Monnet. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2005, he was awarded the CBE. Born in Ghana in 1952, William Boyd spent much of his early life in West Africa. He now divides his time between the south-west of France and Chelsea, where he lives a stone’s throw from James Bond’s London address.

William Boyd

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