







The Man Who Saw Everything (Paperback)
Deborah Levy (author)- 10+ in stock

British author and playwright Deborah Levy’s first fictional outing since 2016’s Hot Milk, The Man Who Saw Everything is a bewitching novel of fractured time, memory and experience. Pin-wheeling through one man’s life, from late 1980’s Abbey Road to communist East Berlin and beyond, Levy’s deft, playful and sharply honed novel is a masterpiece of narrative invention. A book that asks bold questions about how our love, allegiance and comprehension might change – subtly, shatteringly - in the face of the merciless march of unfolding history.
Longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2020
Electrifying and audacious, an unmissable new novel about old and new Europe, old and new love, from the twice-Man Booker-shortlisted author of Hot Milk and Swimming Home
In 1989 Saul Adler ( a narcissistic, young historian) is hit by a car on the Abbey Road. He is apparently fine; he gets up and goes to see his art student girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau. They have sex then break up, but not before she has photographed Saul crossing the same Abbey Road.
Saul leaves to study in communist East Berlin, two months before the Wall comes down. There he will encounter - significantly - both his assigned translator and his translator's sister, who swears she has seen a jaguar prowling the city.
He will fall in love and brood upon his difficult, authoritarian father. And he will befriend a hippy, Rainer, who may or may not be a Stasi agent, but will certainly return to haunt him in middle age.
In 2016, Saul Adler is hit by a car on the Abbey Road. He is rushed to hospital, where he spends the following days slipping in and out of consciousness, and in and out of memories of the past. A number of people gather at his bedside. One of them is Jennifer Moreau. But someone important is missing.
Slipping slyly between time zones and leaving a spiralling trail, Deborah Levy's electrifying new novel examines what we see and what we fail to see, until we encounter the spectres of history - both the world's and our own.
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241977606
Number of pages: 208
Weight: 149 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 13 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'An utterly beguiling fever dream of a novel... Its sheer technical bravura places it head and shoulder above pretty much everything else on the [Booker] longlist.' - The Daily Telegraph
'Superbly crafted, enigmatic, tantalizing... Levy defies gravity in a daring, time-bending new novel... Head-spinning and playful, her writing offers sophistication and delightful artistry.' - Kirkus
'An ice-cold skewering of patriarchy, humanity and the darkness of the 20th century Europe.' - The Times
'It's clever, raw and doesn't play by any rules.' - Evening Standard
'Intelligent and supple...a dizzying tale of life across time and borders.' - The Financial Times
'A brilliant Booker nominee.' - The Guardian
'One of the big stories in English fiction this decade has been the return and triumph of Deborah Levy...You would call her example inspiring if it weren't clearly impossible to emulate.' - New Statesman
'Levy handles her weighty themes in this slim volume with a lightness of touch and a painfully sharp sense of what it means to look back on a life…' - The Observer
'Levy's exquisite new novel both unmasks and confronts the denial of individual culpability.' - The Guardian
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“Compelling!”
Moving from one place to another this story begins with historian Saul Alder crossing the road. Being hit by a car can alter everything.
Another life changing moment is him proposing to his girlfriend. Quite...
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“Imaginative and clever....”
The twice Booker shortlisted Deborah levy is one of the most creative writers of our generation. This is such an intriguing story. Saul Adler is a vain almost narcissistic historian twice hit by a car; on London’s... More
“Really got me thinking!”
For me, this is one of those books that I've flown through, got to the end and thought I have to read this again immediately. It's so imaginative and thought-provoking, really cleverly written.
I found some...
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