Red: An Alphabet [Hardcover]

'there is much to admire’

Leading the reader on a dazzling, dizzying dance through the alphabet, Red tells a universal story of love and betrayal

Billed as an alphabet, and narrated by the nameless 'N', Red introduces us first to N's friend, Zach. In St Petersburg for a music festival, Zach encounters the red-headed Aline in the Matisse Room at the Hermitage and is immediately bewitched. The two fall in love as quickly as they fall into bed and it seems that nothing can keep them apart. But other characters also appear between the sheets: a gang of six black-shorted, grease-smeared, soot-smudged men, who take what they want, stealing money (and, on one occasion, a piece of art) from homes of the rich; a girl who tends pigs, and wants to keep what is hers; a workman whose wants are few, but with devastating consequences. Even aspects of N's own life are revealed: his awkward relationships with his teenage daughter and her American mother. As these stories overlap and entwine, Red is revealed as a vibrant, violent tale: a love story and a story about the love of art, about life imitating art, about the end of love -- and the end of life.

IRWIN ALLAN SEALY in a cold northern city two strangers stand in front of a painting that will shortly unite them. in a hot dusty town six men smear themselves with grease before slipping out into the night. before the summer is out their paths will cross. a masterpiece outlook dazzling india today mouth-watering tehelka compelling TLS inspiring CNN liberating indian express --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

I. Allan Sealy is the award-winning author of four novels, The Trotter-nama, for which he received a Commonwealth Writers Prize, Hero, The Everest Hotel and The Brainfever Bird, as well as a travel book, From Yukon to Yucatán. He lives in the foothills of the Himalayas.