Awards
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2004
A Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2004
A Newsday Favorite Book of 2004
A Miami Herald Noteworthy Book of 2004
A Christian Science Monitor Noteworthy Book of 2004
A Bookmarks Magazine Favorite Book of 2004
A Newcity Chicago Top 5 Book of 2004
A Journal News Best Book of 2004
Synopses & Reviews
Max Tivoli is writing the story of his life. He is nearly seventy years old, but he looks as if he is only seven - for Max is ageing backwards. The tragedy of Max's life was to fall in love at seventeen with Alice, a girl his own age - but to her, Max looks like an unappealingly middle-aged man. However when Max reaches the age of thirty-five, with an appearance to match, he has his second chance at love. But tragedy befalls this star-crossed couple, and desperate measures are required.
Review
"Heartrending...beautifully written...this is a rich and mesmerizing fable. Time will not reverse its impact." People (4-star critic's choice)
Review
"The Confessions of Max Tivoli leaves its readers in much the same state as its narrator: bewildered by the sheer unlikely strangeness of life and feeling somehow both younger and wiser on that account." Chris Lehmann, The Washington Post
Review
"The Confessions of Max Tivoli is a wondrous novel, shimmering with simultaneous chords of sadness, loss and enchantment. The book also fascinates in its textured view of pre-quake San Francisco, a city of 'gilt-edged gas lamps and velvet walls.' [Greer has] arrived, brilliantly, with an unforgettable novel." Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"The Confessions of Max Tivoli is a mediation on the body as a stranger, as a betrayer: 'I was never going to be safe in my body again; I would be stumbling until I died. I was becoming a child.' This devastating, heartbreaking novel, written in the lush, velvet-tongued voice of the damned, is an astonishment." Adrienne Miller, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review)