Louis Begley

«Lo único que poseo son ciertas facultades que, a una profundidad casi inalcanzable, consiguen adquirir forma de literatura.» Franz Kafka No hace falta haber leído a Kafka para saber lo que significa

Les années de jeunesse de Lucy De Bourgh, l’héritière d’une des familles les plus en vue de Rhode Island, se partagent entre un New York huppé et un Paris bohème où elle côtoie intellectuels et artis

Les années de jeunesse de Lucy De Bourgh, l’héritière d’une des familles les plus en vue de Rhode Island, se partagent entre un New York huppé et un Paris bohème où elle côtoie intellectuels et artis

Poland, 1939. The comfortable, secure world of assimilated Jews is blown away by the invasion of the Third Reich. Maciek's father disappears into the war's vortex, leaving the orphaned child with his acerbic and beautiful Aunt Tania. It is her cool inventiveness, in their dramatic flight through a landscape of oppression, that will ensure their fragile survival.

Un homme dune cinquantaine dannées se penche sur son passé. Il évoque « sa propre honte dêtre en vie ». Il vit avec la blessure dune enfance polonaise passée dans la peur, le mensonge, le secret, au

"Begley writes with a contemplative wisdom that permeates his work....[He] has captured some of the wispy melancholy of midcentury fiction, and this feat in itself is mellifluous to both ear and spirit."THE BOSTON GLOBEA man without a country or family, a Holocaust survivor, Ben long ago left the wreckage of Europe and recreated himself as a brilliant financier. He rejects the comforts of love and is shocked to discover Veronique--beautiful, unwisely married, and all that Ben suddenly knows he has always needed. In their stolen hours and weekends, their deep commitment to one another fills their lives as nothing ever has. But the question remains: Can Ben finally take what he has always denied himself...? BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Louis Begleys Memories of a Marriage.

By the author of the beloved Schmidt series, Memories of a Marriage is a penetrating look at class and privilege, shifting from Paris to Manhattan, Long Island to Newport. Mourning his wife and daughter, and on the edge of old age, Philip reencounters an astonishing woman from his past: Lucy De Bourgh, an heiress who was once a passionate debutante and the intimate of many men, including Philip himself. As she reveals the startling details of her failed marriage to Thomas Snowa townie turned powerful international banker, liked by many but to her a loathsome monsterPhilip discovers a story that will challenge his assumptions about those he has known, admired, and desired. A triumph by an author expert in revealing the good breeding and bad behavior of the moneyed elite, Memories of a Marriage is an eloquent and irresistible book that explores all the varieties of love and the very concept of truth. Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Readers Circle for author chats and more. Praise for Memories of a Marriage Among contemporary novelists, [Begley] may be the wryest, most devastating critic of class in American society.The Washington Post Engrossing . . . Louis Begley gives us a chance to see into . . . the most private recesses of another couples marriage.The New York Times Book Review This delicious, dazzling novel about the rise and fall of a great American debutante kept me up all night.Susan Cheever A consummately constructed monument to human imperfection.San Francisco Chronicle [Begley is] an elegant stylist with a dry wit and a merciless eye.The Wall Street Journal A fiendishly clever, Fitzgeraldesque tale about marriage, friendship, gossip, and self-justification.Booklist

A mesmerizing novel of deception and betrayal from the acclaimed author of Wartime Liesand About Schmidt.John North, a prize-winning American writer, is suddenly beset by dark suspicions about the real value of his work. Over endless hours and bottles of whiskey consumed in a mysterious cafe called LEntre Deux Mondes, he recounts, in counterpoint to his doubts, the one story he has never told before, perhaps the only important one he will ever tell. Norths chosen interlocutorwho could be his doppelgangeris transfixed by the revelations and becomes the narrator of Norths tale. North has always been faithful to his wife, Lydia, but when one of his novels achieves a special success, he allows himself a dalliance with Lea, a starstruck young journalist. Coolly planning to make sure that his life with Lydia will not be disturbed, North is taken off guard when Lea becomes obsessed with him and he with her elaborate erotic games. As the hypnotic and serpentine confession unfurls, we gradually discover the extraordinary lengths to which North has gone to indulge a powerful desire for self-destruction. Shipwreck is a daring parable of the contradictory impulses that can rend a single soulnarcissism and self-loathing, refinement and lust.BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Louis Begleys Memories of a Marriage.

Master stylist Louis Begley continues the story of Jack Dana, the Marine Corps officer turned novelist whose quest to avenge his murdered uncle now takes a new, more dangerous turn. Fans of Lee Childs Jack Reacher should enjoy Jack Danas adventures.Publishers Weekly Uncle Harrys killer is dead. Jack finds refuge on Torcello, a small island in the Venetian lagoon, and resumes his writing career. He hopes to win back Kerry, the beautiful lawyer who, repelled by Jacks violence, threw him over. But events beyond Jacks control intervene: Kerry loses her life in circumstances that contradict everything Jack thinks he knew about her. Soon death begins to stalk Jack himself, and in its drumbeat he recognizes the machinations of Abner Brown, the man who orchestrated Harrys demise. Driven by cold rage, Jack fights back. At his side is Kerrys best friend, the glamorous and enigmatic Heidi Krohn. Their quest will force Jack to plumb the abyss of depravity into which Kerry had sunk and face a fellow marine with a grudge of his own. Reprising memorable characters from Killer, Come Hither, and introducing sinister new ones, Begley concludes Jacks harrowing vendetta with one last shocking twist. Look for all of Louis Begleys gripping Jack Dana thrillers:KILLER, COME HITHER KILL AND BE KILLED KILLERS CHOICE

A taut thriller that takes readers from the office suites of Manhattan to the tidy elegance of Sag Harbor and the rough-and-tumble western plains of Brazil. Fans of Lee Childs Jack Reacher should enjoy Jack Danas adventures.Publishers Weekly Jack Dana, a star student at Yale, joins the military after 9/11only to have sniper fire cut short his career as a Marine Corps infantry officer. While recovering at Walter Reed Hospital, he begins to write a novel about his wartime experience. Jacks uncle Harry, a surrogate father to him, as well as a partner at a leading New York law firm, helps Jack secure a publisher. Jack is thrilled when his book becomes a huge success, but after a celebratory trip to South America, Jack returns home to shocking news: Uncle Harry is dead, found hanged in his summer home. Horrified and incredulous, Jack digs into the facts surrounding the tragedy and comes to believe that his uncles death was no suicide. Delays of law are not for Jack, so he takes matters into his own handsembarking on a dangerous journey of justice and revenge. Look for all of Louis Begleys gripping Jack Dana thrillers:KILLER, COME HITHER KILL AND BE KILLED KILLERS CHOICE

Tragic and redemptive . . . Updike had Rabbit, Roth has Zuckerman, Richard Ford has Bascombe and Begley has Schmidt. . . . [Schmidt Steps Back] isthe most ambitious novel [yet] in the Schmidt cycle.Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Full of dark humor, compassion, and heart, Schmidt Steps Back is the most romantic installment yet of the drama that began with the acclaimed About Schmidt. Now seventy-eight, and just as passionate, sharp, and endearingly prickly as ever, Albert Schmidt faces a life alone, with only the crumbs of grandfatherly status and a less-than-demanding position at an international organization to sustain him. His only hope is Alice Verplanck, the French widow of a former partner, as elusive as she is beautiful. Whether his rusty seduction skills can lure her from Paris to the Hamptons wont be known, though, until Schmidt endures one more ordeal by fire. Hilarious, engrossing, and deeply poignant, Schmidt Steps Back is Louis Begleys finest novel yet. Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Readers Circle for author chats and more.BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Louis Begleys Memories of a Marriage.Praise for Schmidt Steps Back Engaging . . . Begley gets as close to Schmidt as a diarist, inhabiting this man who has been seasoned by a long life.The New York Times Book Review Begley gets inside Schmidts fertile WASP brain . . . with subtlety, intelligence, and wit.The Philadelphia Inquirer The novel grows in Begleys excellent intricacy . . . to the level of art rather than manners. . . . One cannot read one of the Schmidt novels without laughing.San Francisco Chronicle Thoroughly absorbing . . . [a] cause for celebration.Salon [A] superb tragicomedy . . . seductive, subversive, and commanding.Booklist (starred review)

Marine-turned-novelist Jack Dana is back in Louis Begleys most intense, suspenseful, and deadly adventure yet.With the death of his nemesis, corrupt business mogul Abner Brown, retired Marine infantry officer Jack Dana thought he could finally return to his peaceful career as a novelist. And after falling hard for Heidi Krohn, the glamorous high-powered lawyer who helped avenge his best friends death, Jack is beginning to dream of starting a family of his own. But dark forces intervene to upend Jacks comfortable new life when two of his uncle Harrys closest friends are brutally murdered in their own home. Quickly it becomes clear that these murders are a message, sent by a shadowy criminal Jack comes to call "the Monster." His warning to Jack: a fate even more cruel awaits you. Indeed, despite the best-laid precautions, there seems to be no escape when Heidi and her nephew are kidnapped. With their lives in the balance, Jack must take the only step honor will allow and face the Monster alone, whatever the consequences. In Killers Choice, master stylist Louis Begley returns to Jacks Upper East Side and Sag Harbor settings and concludes Jacks chilling saga with his most powerful crescendo to date.

"[A] perfectly constructed novel.... The time is 1974, and Max, who is fleeing from the wreckage of his first marriage, is a summer-house guest on Lake Como, where he encounters the two characters who will shape his life over the next 20 years: Charlie Swan, a Harvard classmate from the 1950s turned famous architect...and Toby, a poised and polymorphous teenager who is soon to become Charlies protege and lover." --Time BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Louis Begleys Memories of a Marriage.

Beloved author Louis Begley returns to the monied halls of the Upper East Side with a sharp new comedy of manners. Divorced after decades of comfortable marriage, retired journalist Hugo Gardner sets out to explore paths not travelled.After four decades of what he believes to be a happy, healthy partnership, Hugo Gardners world is overturned when he learns that his wife, Valerie, is not only requesting a divorce but has left him for a younger, more vital man. Hugo, an octogenarian political writer and retired journalist for Time, must rethink the way hes lived, and reassess how hed like to spend his remaining years. Reconsidering past relationships in his mind, with years of distance, Hugo begins to see things in a new light: Valerie, whose youth and ambition eventually came between them; his children, whose support might be more financially than emotionally motivated; and his friends, who, like him are rapidly aging before his very eyes. With an ominous oncologists report hanging over his head, Hugo decides to get away for a bit, to a conference in Paris. There, a new romance blooms and Hugo finds himself wondering if growing old in Paris might be the perfect antidote to the drama he left behind in New York. Unflinching, witty, and urbane as ever, Louis Begley delivers a spot-on satire of the world of New Yorks aging elite, and uncovers the unexpected delights a late-in-life change can offer.

Thomas Mistler has always thought himself "a happy man, as the world goes." A scion of old money, he made his own fortune in advertising and is now poised to sell the company he founded for a fabulous price. But when a medical examination reveals the presence in his liver of a fatal intruder, "preposterously, unmistakably, he begins to rejoice," with a feeling of having been set free. But free from what?He will seek the answer surreptitiously, without revealing his illness to his family, during a last reprieve, a moment of grace in "the one place on earth where nothing irritates him." But amidst the surreal beauties of Venice, he finds bitterness and chaos as he allows himself to drift for the first time. His halfhearted efforts to seize the day and its present pleasures--first with a striving young photographer and later with a love of his youth who never loved him--cannot compete with his need to commune with the living and the dead that crowd his life: his father and uncle, pillars of the Establishment, sources of the "genetic puritanism" he has never tried to resist; his son, Sam, whose love he has only barely salvaged; his wife, once perfectly "beautiful and suitable," now humiliated by him and half-scorned. And the one woman who embodies everything he might have wished for, a woman he "never had and never lost."Deeply poignant yet mordantly funny, Mistlers Exit brilliantly discloses the pleasures and miseries of having it all. A masterly revelation of the complexities of the heart. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Louis Begleys Memories of a Marriage.