F is for family. F is for fortune. F is for fraud. F is
for fate.
From the internationally
acclaimed author of Measuring the World, here is a
dazzling tragicomedy about three brothers whose father takes
on the occult and both wins and loses.
Arthur
is a dilettante, a wannabe writer who decides to fill an
afternoon by taking his three young sons to a performance by
the Great Lindemann, Master of Hypnosis. While allowing one
of them to be called onto the stage and made a spectacle of,
Arthur declares himself to be immune to hypnosis and a
disbeliever in all magic. But the Great Lindemann knows
better. He gets Arthur to tell him his deepest secrets and
then tells him to make them real. That night, Arthur empties
the family bank account, takes his passport, and vanishes.
He’s going to become a world-famous author, a master of the
mystical. (F is for fake.)
But what of the
boys? Martin, painfully shy, grows up to be a Catholic
priest without a vocation. (F is for faith, and lack of it.)
Eric becomes a financier (F is for fraud), losing touch with
reality as he faces ruin, while Ivan, destined for glory as
a painter, instead becomes a forger. (F is for forgery,
too.) They’ve settled into their life choices, but when the
summer of the global financial crisis dawns they’re thrown
together again with cataclysmic results.
Wildly funny, heartbreaking, tragic, Daniel Kehlmann’s novel
about truth, family, and the terrible power of fortune is a
fictional triumph.
© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy