Overview

From the author of the international bestsellerSilk(“A riveting, lyrical love story” —Alan Cheuse, NPR) and the acclaimedOcean Sea(“Astonishing . . . vividly erotic”—Richard Eder,Los Angeles Times) comes an entirely new species of fiction: a panoramic Cartesian comic book of a novel—with superheroes, boxers, cowboys, and one bed-wetting prodigy expected to win the Nobel Prize. Baricco’s wildly inventive story, set in the United States, describes the improbable relationship between two untethered souls: Gould, a thirteen-year-old genius, and Shatzy Shell, his thirtysomething governess. Except for each other, they abide beyond human connection, each in a private world of serial imagination: in Shatzy’s case, the violent Wild West show she has been improvising into a tape recorder since the age of six; in Gould’s, the mock-heroic tale of an underdog boxer, which the boy tells to his imaginary friends, a giant and a mute. With the narrative logic of a comic strip,City’squicksilver prose flows unpredictably between the whimsy of childhood conjuring and the serpentine realm of metaphysics, cunningly reminding us how the imaginings of children can harbor the stuff of tragedy, while the grandest ideas of adults are often strictly for kids. By turns hilarious and deeply sad,Cityis an American original, penned by a brilliant Italian.
ISBN-13

9780375411427

ISBN-10

0375411429

Weight

1.10 Pounds

Dimensions

5.75 x 1.25 x 8.25 In

List Price

$25.00

Format

Hardcover

Pages

336 pages

Publisher

Knopf

Published On

2002-06-04


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