Synopses & Reviews
In Dark Diversions, acclaimed author John Ralston Saul stages a black comedy of international proportions that takes the reader from New York to Paris to Morocco to Haiti in the 1980s and 1990s. When he’s not encountering dictators in Third World hot spots, Saul’s narrator moves in privileged circles on both sides of the Atlantic, insinuating himself into the lives of wellto-do aristocrats. Through his exploits we experience a fascinating world of secret lovers, exiled princesses, death by veganism, and religious heresies. But as he becomes further enmeshed in these worlds, the outsider status of the narrator grows more ambiguous: Is he a documentarian of privileged foibles and fundamental inequity, or an embodiment of the very “dark diversions” he chronicles?
Review
Praise for John Ralston Saul: "With his sophisticated international perspective and blunt freedom from cant, he offers a promising persona for the future: the intellectual as man of the world."
--The Washington Post
"[Saul has] the most wide-ranging mind and [is] one of the greatest organizing and focusing teachers we have."
--Sydney Morning Herald
"Saul has a keen eye for hypocrisy and pungently dry wit."
--The Independent (UK)
Review
“Saul has the eye, the aloofness, the killer turn-of-phrase of a Truman Capote.”
– Le Figaro Littéraire
“A delightful novel, invigoratingly wicked.”
– Le Monde
“crisp dialogue and evocative descriptions...An ingenious read, Dark Diversions will be a solid end-of-summer choice for a wide and varied audience.”
--The Winnipeg Free Press
"clean and unadorned prose"
--The Toronto Star
Praise for John Ralston Saul:
"With his sophisticated international perspective and blunt freedom from cant, he offers a promising persona for the future: the intellectual as man of the world."
--The Washington Post
"[Saul has] the most wide-ranging mind and [is] one of the greatest organizing and focusing teachers we have."
--Sydney Morning Herald
"Saul has a keen eye for hypocrisy and pungently dry wit."
--The Independent (UK)
About the Author
Hailed as a prophet” by Time magazine, John Ralston Saul has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Premio Letterario Internazionale, and Chiles Pablo Neruda Medal. A globally renowned author of fiction, history, and philosophy, he is president of PEN International. His thirteen works have been translated into twenty-two languages in thirty countries.