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Desolation by Yasmina Reza
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Desolation

By Yasmina Reza
Translated by Carol Janeway

By Yasmina Reza
Translated by Carol Janeway

By Yasmina Reza
Translated by Carol Janeway

By Yasmina Reza
Translated by Carol Janeway

Best Seller

Part of Vintage International

Part of Vintage International

Paperback $11.00

Oct 14, 2003 | ISBN 9780375724725

Ebook $5.99

Dec 18, 2007 | ISBN 9780307425539

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    Desolation by Yasmina Reza
    Paperback $11.00
    Oct 14, 2003 | ISBN 9780375724725

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      Oct 14, 2003 | ISBN 9780375724725

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    About Desolation

    Samuel Perlman, the elderly narrator of Yasmina Reza’s deliriously dyspeptic novel, is surrounded by happy people. His wife Nancy is thrilled to be a member of the human race. His grown son is content crisscrossing the world to “sample exotic fruit with the savages.” But Samuel himself refuses to be happy and his attempt to explain his refusal (half to his son and half to himself) generates an epic, blasphemous, and hilarious rant against the compromises of his life.

    Whether he is recounting his pal Lionel’s heroic battle against impotence; lamenting the loss of his great love, the irresistible Marisa Botton; or pondering the possibility of a new love in the person of one Genevieve Abramowitz, the droll, irascible Perlman is one of the great talkers of contemporary fiction. And Desolation is one of the most dazzling performances ever written for one voice.

    About Desolation

    Samuel Perlman, the elderly narrator of Yasmina Reza’s deliriously dyspeptic novel, is surrounded by happy people. His wife Nancy is thrilled to be a member of the human race. His grown son is content crisscrossing the world to “sample exotic fruit with the savages.” But Samuel himself refuses to be happy and his attempt to explain his refusal (half to his son and half to himself) generates an epic, blasphemous, and hilarious rant against the compromises of his life.

    Whether he is recounting his pal Lionel’s heroic battle against impotence; lamenting the loss of his great love, the irresistible Marisa Botton; or pondering the possibility of a new love in the person of one Genevieve Abramowitz, the droll, irascible Perlman is one of the great talkers of contemporary fiction. And Desolation is one of the most dazzling performances ever written for one voice.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

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    About Yasmina Reza

    Yasmina Reza is a playwright and novelist whose plays Art, Life x 3, The Unexpected Man, and Conversations After a Burial have all been multi-award-winning critical and popular international successes, translated into more than thirty languages. She lives in Paris.

    About Yasmina Reza

    Yasmina Reza is a playwright and novelist whose plays Art, Life x 3, The Unexpected Man, and Conversations After a Burial have all been multi-award-winning critical and popular international successes, translated into more than thirty languages. She lives in Paris.

    Product Details

    Category: Literary Fiction

    Paperback | $11.00
    Published by Vintage
    Oct 14, 2003 | 144 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780375724725

    Category: Literary Fiction

    Ebook | $5.99
    Published by Vintage
    Dec 18, 2007 | 144 Pages | ISBN 9780307425539
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    Praise

    “Cantankerous, funny and fierce . . . . a stark yet bleakly comic look at the limitations and solitude inherent in the human condition.” –Los Angeles Times

    “Darkly comic. . . . . Reza . . . has conjured a character who, seen through the keen lens of her gimlet eye, is equal parts monster and mensch.” – Elle

    “Devilishly well-composed, hilarious, yet venomous….Smart and delectable…covers a gratifying range of emotions and provocative moral, spiritual and cultural terrain with sensitivity and virtuosity.” – Booklist

    “[Reza] has an easy understanding of just how amusing men can be when free-floating anxiety and frustration overwhelm them.”—The New York Times

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