The author of Armadillo, The Blue Afternoon and Brazzaville Beach—the novelist who has been called a “master storyteller” (Chicago Tribune) and “a gutsy writer who is good company to keep” (Time)—now gives us his most entertaining, sly and compelling novel to date, a novel that evokes the tumult, events and iconic faces of our time, as it tells the story of Logan Mountstuart—writer, lover and man of the world—through his intimate journals.

Here is the “riotous and disorganized reality” of Mountstuart’s eighty-five years in all their extraordinary, tragic and humorous aspects. The journals begin with his boyhood in Montevideo, Uruguay; then move to Oxford in the 1920s and the publication of his first book; then on to Paris (where he meets Joyce, Picasso, Hemingway, et al.) and to Spain where he covers the civil war. During World War II, we see him as an agent for Naval Intelligence, becoming embroiled in a murder scandal that involves the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The postwar years bring him to New York as an art dealer in the world of 1950s abstract expressionism, then on to West Africa, to London (where he has a run-in with the Baader-Meinhof Gang) and, finally, to France where, in his old age, he acquires a measure of hard-won serenity.

A moving, ambitious and richly conceived novel that summons up the heroics and follies of twentieth-century life.

"Boyd has named his book Any Human Heart, but Mountstuart is not exactly Everyman: he is far more generous, forgiving, and free than most of us. He is also more amusing, and more amused by life; he makes an extremely attractive central character. Boyd is one of the most skillful and appealing writers at work today, endowed with both a great natural vitality and an increasingly sophisticated humanism." Brooke Allen, The Atlantic Monthly (read the entire Atlantic review)

"A work of astonishing ventriloquistic virtuosity....A brilliant evocation of a past era....One finds oneself almost reading the journals as genuine...which is quite a feat, because Boyd has skillfully mimicked the artless and random qualities of every diary." Caroline Moore, Sunday Telegraph

"A book full of delights....No one is better than William Boyd at drawing the reader into [a] tale from the very first sentence." Erica Wagner, The Times

"Astounding....The most sincere measure of praise one can attach to William Boyd's new novel is that it ranks alongside The New Confessions as one of his great achievements....It also resembles the earlier book in its ambition and spirit, being an account of tumultuous tragicomic life that lasts from one end of the twentieth century to the other. To pull off that trick once is considerable: to do it twice is astounding." Anthony Quinn, The Mail on Sunday

"Compelling....An addictively enjoyable read as well as a testament to the endurance of the human heart." Geordie Grieg, Literary Review

"Boyd's terrific powers of storytelling are given free rein here: this is a biography where you don't know the ending, and he keeps you glued and guessing....One of Boyd's most enjoyable novels to date: generous, witty and sneakily profound." Catherine Shoard, Evening Standard

"His humor and candor make him an agreeable companion....Along with the comedy, Boyd's empathy is everywhere evident, whether in describing his hero's soul-crushing loss of a family or the mundane melancholy of passport renewal." Village Voice

From the acclaimed author of Armadillo and The Blue Afternoon ("pitch-perfect" New York Times), a new novel that invokes the tumult, events, and iconic faces of our time as it tells the story of Logan Mountstuart ? writer; spy, and man of the world ? through his intimate journals.

Here is the "riotous and disorganized reality" of Mountstuart's 85 years in all their extraordinary, tragic, and humorous aspects. The journals begin with his boyhood in Montevideo, Uruguay; then move to Oxford in the 1920s and the publication of his first book; then on to Paris (where he meets Joyce, Picasso, Hemingway, et al.) and to Spain where he covers the civil wan World War II ? we see him as an agent for Naval Intelligence becoming embroiled in a murder scandal that involves the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The postwar years bring him to New York as an art dealer in the world of 1950s abstract expressionism, to West Africa, to London (where he has a run-in with the Baader-Meinhof Gang) and, finally, to France where, in his old age, he acquires a measure of hard-won serenity.

An ambitious and richly conceived novel that summons up the heroics and follies of 20th-century life.

William Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana, and attended university in Nice, Glasgow and Oxford. He is the author of seven novels and eleven screenplays and has been the recipient of several awards, including the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. William Boyd lives with his wife in London and southwest France.