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Powell's Q&A, Q&A | October 16, 2009

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[My new book] starts in 1960 with a woman named Lois Rabinowitz, who was evicted from Manhattan traffic court for attempting to pay a parking ticket while wearing slacks. This was... Continue »
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Athena

by John Banville

Athena Cover

Staff Pick

Banville really is a writer closer to Nabakov and Joyce than most of his contemporaries. It's easy to see in this novel of obsession, which follows a former felon turned art historian who is asked to verify the authenticity of a stack of suspicious paintings. Things get complicated, and the narrator falls deep under the spell of a mysterious woman. The language is erotic and sensual even outside of the sex scenes. Various interludes, in the form of brief art reviews written by the narrator, offset the action, provide pacing, and eventually weave themselves into the plot. Stylistically, Athena is masterful, and the detective-novel genre gets a good workout in the hands of a writer able to make every line beautiful, and every word count.
Recommended by jasonw, Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

From the internationally acclaimed author of The Book of Evidence and Ghosts comes a mesmerizing novel that is both a literary thriller and a love story as sumptuously perverse as Lolita. "A strange and dreamlike book . . . Banville has a breathtaking style."--Boston Globe.

Product Details

ISBN:
9780679736851
Author:
Banville, John
Publisher:
Vintage Books USA
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Painting
Subject:
Psychological
Subject:
Mystery & detective
Subject:
Contemporary
Subject:
Forgeries
Subject:
Romantic suspense novels
Subject:
Black humor (Literature)
Edition Number:
1
Edition Description:
Vintage Intl
Publication Date:
May 1996
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
240
Dimensions:
798x521x75 61

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