1996 nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction

Proud, traditional, and impeccably organized, Albert Schmidt is a button-down lawyer of the old school. But now, after years of careful management, his life is slowly unraveling. His beloved wife has recently died. He stumbles — or is he being pushed? — into early retirement. And his daughter, his only child, is planning to marry a man Schmidt cannot approve of, for reasons he can scarcely admit, even to himself. As Schmidt gropes for resolutions, he finds unexpected hope in an intense passion that comes out of the blue.

Set in the Hamptons and Manhattan, infused with black humor and startling eroticism, About Schmidt is both a meditation on loneliness and on the power of romance to unlock the most impenetrable recesses of the heart.

"In About Schmidt, Louis Begley offers a masterful examination of an individual life, that of Albert Schmidt.'Schmidtie,' as he is known to his friends, has just been pushed into early retirement from his law firm shortly after the death of his wife. His only daughter is about to marry one of the aggressive younger lawyers who helped remove him. His future son-in-law also happens to be a Jew, and Schmidt cannot get beyond a tinge of anti-Semitism, though his oldest and closest friend is himself Jewish. Begley offers a warts-and-all look at this man who now finds himself a misfit in the more open egalitarian present. While Schmidt has his unattractive features, Begley makes sure that we understand his vulnerabilities and illusions. This, ultimately, makes one sympathetic to Schmidt. In this novel we see a man reviewing his past and trying to figure out how to make sense of his future, but having little success. As he tries to come to grips with his life as a single retired man, Schmidt puts himself into various untenable situations—making a pass at his future son-in-law's mother, beginning a relationship with a Hispanic waitress younger than his daughter, trying to shelter himself from an objective understanding of himself. But in his fallibility is his humanity.About Schmidt shows us again that Louis Begley is one of our very best writers. He writes with a clarity and fluidity that are rarely matched. He creates characters who are subtle and three dimensional. And he shies away from no subject matter at all." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)

"A fine new novel....The great pleasure of reading Louis Begley [is] his exceptional literary intelligence." The New York Times Book Review

"Begley again demonstrates that he can reveal the complexities of society and personality with a clear eye and graceful style....More than meets the requirements of graceful fiction." Time

"Stunning." Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A powerful story of a man's fall from grace....The Remains of the Day come[s] to mind." Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Louis Begley is the author of four novels. Wartime Lies, which was written when he was in his mid-fifties, was followed by The Man Who Was Late, As Max Saw It, and About Schmidt. He is currently finishing a fifth novel. Begley has another life, that of a lawyer. He is a senior partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, one of America's most prestigious firms, and is the head of its international practice.

Wartime Lies was the winner of the PEN Hemingway Award, The Irish Times Aer Lingus International Prize, and the Prix Medicis Etranger, France's most coveted prize for fiction in translation. It was a National Book Award, Los Angeles Times Book Award, and National Book Critics' Circle Award finalist. About Schmidt was likewise a National Book Critics' Circle Award and Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist. Begley has received the American Academy of Letters prize for literature and numerous other awards.