Synopses & Reviews
"Exquisitely detailed...A real talent." --Entertainment Weekly
It is the summer and Alec Valentine is returning to England to care for his ailing mother, Alice. In San Francisco, his older brother Larry prepares to come home as well, preoccupied with an acting career that is sliding toward sleaze and a marriage that is faltering. In Paris, on the other hand, the Hungarian playwright Lászlo Lázár seems to have it all--critical acclaim, a loving boyfriend, and a close circle of friends--yet even he is haunted by guilt and tragedy. For each of them the time has come to assess the turns taken, the opportunities missed, and the advent of one last chance to break free from the past and find redemption.
Intimate, compelling and evocative of an extraordinary range of emotions and insights, Oxygen lives and breathes beyond the final page.
A Whitbread Award finalist
"Elegantly written . . . an exhilarating journey through personal histories and a knowing glimpse at the ways we hold ourselves responsible for saving the people we love." --People
"Poignant, probing...grounded in a vivid sense of place and character, and enlivened by a sly, stoical wit that keeps cropping up where you least expect it. A bold, bracing book." --The Chicago Tribune
"Lovely, striking, strange, evocative. " --The Washington Post Book World
Born in England in 1960, Andrew Miller has lived in Spain, Japan, Ireland, and France. His first novel, Ingenious Pain, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the International IMPAC Award. He lives in London.
Review
PRAISE FOR
OXYGEN"Lovely, striking, strange, evocative . . . There is not a page of this book that does not offer the reader exquisite . . . prose."--The Washington Post Book World
"A writer of verve and talent . . . [Miller's] prose is fluent, lucid and at times radiant."--The New York Times Book Review
"Poignant, probing, brainy fiction . . . enlivened by a sly, stoical wit that keeps cropping up where you least expect it."--Chicago Tribune
Synopsis
It is the summer of 1997. Alec Valentine is returning to England to care for his ailing mother, Alice, a task that only reinforces his deep sense of inadequacy. In San Francisco, his older brother Larry prepares to come home as well, preoccupied with an acting career that is sliding toward sleaze and a marriage that is faltering. In Paris, on the other hand, the Hungarian playwright Lászlo Lázár seems to have it all--critical acclaim, a loving boyfriend, and a close circle of friends--yet even he is haunted by guilt and tragedy. For each of them the time has come to assess the turns taken, the opportunities missed. And for each there will be one last chance to break free from the past and find redemption in a moment of clarity and courage.
Andrew Miller has given us an intimate, compelling meditation that evokes an extraordinary range of emotions and insights--Oxygen lives and breathes beyond the final page.
Synopsis
It is the summer of 1997. Alec Valentine is returning to the home he grew up in England, to care for his ailing mother Alice, a task that only reinforces his deep sense of inadequacy. In San Francisco, his older brother Larry prepares to come home as well, knowing it will be hard to conceal that his acting career is sliding toward sleaze and his marriage is faltering. In Paris, on the other hand, the Hungarian exile Lászlo Lázár, whose play Alec is translating, seems to have it all-- a comfortable home, critical acclaim, a loving boyfriend and a close circle of friends. Yet he cannot shake off the memories of the 1956 uprising and the cry for help he left unanswered. As these characters soon learn, the moment has come to assess the turns taken and the opportunities missed. For each of them will soon take part in acts of liberation, even if they are not necessarily what they might have expected.
Celebrated author Andrew Miller has given us an intimate, compelling meditation that evokes an extraordinary range of emotions and insights--Oxygen lives and breathes beyond the final page.
About the Author
Born in England in 1960,
Andrew Miller has lived in Spain, Japan, Ireland, and France. His first novel,
Ingenious Pain, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the International IMPAC Award, and was a
New York Times Notable Book. He lives in London.