MOMENTAN AUSVERKAUFT
Über dieses Produkt
Product Identifiers
PublisherKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-10052556537X
ISBN-139780525565376
eBay Product ID (ePID)21038613737
Product Key Features
Book TitleBody in Question : a Novel
Number of Pages192 Pages
LanguageEnglish
TopicLegal, Thrillers / Suspense, Romance / Contemporary, Literary
Publication Year2020
GenreFiction
AuthorJill Ciment
Book SeriesVintage Contemporaries Ser.
FormatTrade Paperback
Dimensions
Item Height0.5 in
Item Weight6 Oz
Item Length7.9 in
Item Width5.2 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2018-037798
Reviews"A fantastic rendering of female desire . . . Few writers can tackle the bedroom--or female libido . . . but Ciment is a master: in exquisitely spare prose, she nails it." --Penelope Green, The New York Times "[The] deft orchestration of absurdity and existential dread distinguishes Ciment's style. That's why the situation of Ciment's latest novel, The Body in Question, is so perfectly suited to her powers as a novelist . . . incisive . . . a profound story about mortality and the mysteries of human behavior . . . smart and disturbing." -- Maureen Corrigan, NPR "Engaging, empathetic . . . This honest, mature look at life and love adds to a growing body of evidence leading to a decisive verdict: Ciment is an author well worth reading." -- Kirkus (starred review) "Stark and absorbing . . . scathingly funny . . . a smart, compact, refreshingly unsentimental exploration of the persistence of desire amid the fact of death." -- The Wall Street Journal "Excellent . . . short and brisk, propelled by the suspense of multiple questions . . . deft and gripping." --Curtis Sittenfeld, The New York Times "Stunningly concise. . . . Pulled me in right off the first page. It's a bravura performance, Ciment exercising almost flamboyant control of her material." -- Emily Donaldson, The Globe and Mail (Canada) "Ciment . . . a virtuoso of the situational novel, has created a hypnotizing, forked tale of trust and guilt, masks and doubling, lies and desire, life and death." -- Booklist "Intriguing, swift-moving. . . . This novel will hook readers with its powerful, magnetic narrative." -- Publishers Weekly "This book's lean style and cool tone shape an unsentimental story with unexpected depths. . . . Ciment gives her story a series of wicked twists, some thrilling, some heart-wrenching." --The Tampa Bay Times, "A fantastic rendering of female desire . . . Few writers can tackle the bedroom--or female libido . . . but Ciment is a master: in exquisitely spare prose, she nails it." --Penelope Green, The New York Times "[The] deft orchestration of absurdity and existential dread distinguishes Ciment's style. That's why the situation of Ciment's latest novel, The Body in Question, is so perfectly suited to her powers as a novelist . . . incisive . . . a profound story about mortality and the mysteries of human behavior . . . smart and disturbing." -- Maureen Corrigan, NPR "Engaging, empathetic . . . This honest, mature look at life and love adds to a growing body of evidence leading to a decisive verdict: Ciment is an author well worth reading." -- Kirkus (starred review) "Stark and absorbing . . . scathingly funny . . . a smart, compact, refreshingly unsentimental exploration of the persistence of desire amid the fact of death." --Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal "Excellent . . . short and brisk, propelled by the suspense of multiple questions . . . deft and gripping." --Curtis Sittenfeld, The New York Times
TitleLeadingThe
Dewey Edition23
Dewey Decimal813/.54
SynopsisFrom the author of Heroic Measures ("Brave, generous, nearly perfect"-- L.A. Times ), Act of God , and (with Amy Hempel), The Hand That Feeds You ("An unnerving, elegant page-turner"-- Vanity Fair ), a spare, masterful novel about a shocking murder trial, a sequestered jury, and an affair between two of the jurors--the woman, in free fall in her life and marriage to a much older man. The place: central Florida. The situation: a sensational murder trial involving a rich, white teenage girl--a twin--on trial for the horrific murder of her toddler brother, and the sequestered jury deciding her fate. The setting: a utilitarian marble cube of a courthouse, more Soviet than Le Corbusier; and the court-appointed motel off the interstate. Two of the jurors: Hannah, a 52 year-old former Rolling Stone, Interview Magazine photographer of rock stars and socialites (she switched to photographing animals when she realized she looked at people "as a species" rather than as individuals) and Graham, a 41 year-old anatomy professor, sequestered (she, Juror C-2; he, F-17), holed up at the Econo-Lodge off I-75. As the shocking and numbing details of the crime and its surrounding facts are revealed during a string of days and seemingly endless court hours, the nights, playing out in a series of court-financed meals (Outback Steak House; Red Lobster; Domino's pizza delivery), Hannah and Graham fall into a furtive affair, keeping their oath, as jurors, never to discuss the trial. During deliberations the lovers learn they are on opposing sides of the case and realize that their fellow jurors are wise to their affair. After the trial's end, as Hannah returns home to her much older, now, suddenly, frail husband (they married when she was 24; he, 58) an exploding media fury involving the case catches them all up in a frenzy of public outrage at a jury that seems to have convicted the wrong twin, and a judge who has received an anonymous handwritten letter about a series of sexual encounters ("I feel it is my duty as a juror and a citizen to report that two of my fellow jurors had sexual contact on more than seven occasions during our nights at the motel..."), calling into question their respective verdicts, and announcing she is releasing the jurors' names to the media. Hannah's "one last dalliance before she is too old" takes on profoundly personal and moral consequences, as the novel moves to its affecting, powerful and surprising conclusion., *** NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE YEAR *** A 52 year-old photographer and a 41 year-old anatomy professor are jurors sequestered during a sensational three-week trial: a toddler murdered by one of his twin sisters. At the court appointed cut-rate motel off the interstate, they fall into an intense, furtive affair, but it is only during deliberations that the lovers learn they are on opposing sides of the case. Suddenly they look at one another through an altogether different lens. After the trial, the photographer returns to her much older husband amidst an ongoing media frenzy over the case. But the judge has received an anonymous letter about the affair, and she is preparing to release the jurors names. From that point on, the photographer's "one last dalliance before she is too old" takes on profoundly personal and moral consequences, as The Body in Question moves to its affecting, powerful, and surprising conclusion.
LC Classification NumberPR9199.3.C499B63
