The Hunters: Two Novellas [Hardcover]

A careful and very beautiful meditation... Exquisitely crafted in themselves, these two novellas also complement each other... the work of a serious artist.

This title contains two very different short stories. "A Simple Tale" is about an emigrant from the Ukraine, Maria Poniatowski, and her life in Toronto. And "The Hunters" concerns an American doing research one summer in London and the mysterious relationship which develops with a neighbour.

Claire Messud’s two exquisite short novels, acclaimed for their subtlety, their insight and their dazzling prose, are destined to become masterpieces of twenty-first-century literature. ‘Claire Messud’s two brilliant novellas are exquisitely positioned: poised, subtle and perfect, they communicate with each other across expanses of silence like works of art. It is almost startling to encounter writing of this quality . . . This is masterly prose – modest, authentic, compassionate, interested and majestically complete . . . These two small masterpieces reflect and complement one another so as to form something larger, a work of tremendous scope and significance. I can think of few writers capable of such thrilling seriousness expressed with so lavish a gift’ Evening Standard ‘Messud proves to be as much an accomplished storyteller as an immaculate stylist . . . She is a mistress of parenthesis, the telling aside, the unspoken . . . With the short novel, Claire Messud, like Alice Munro, has found her ideal form’ Daily Telegraph Two short novels of remarkable power and artistry that outweigh works twice or thrice their size . . . They achieve their aim quite beautifully’ Financial Times ‘Messud is an expert storyteller. Her style is precise and illuminating, transforming the mundane into the unusual . . . dazzling’ Observer --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

A French man in Algeria. The secret holocaust that he uncovers. Will he keep silent about murder on such a huge scale or tell a story which has been written out of history? --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Claire Messud was born in the United States in 1966. Her first novel, When the World was Steady, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award 1996. Her second novel, The Last Life, won the Encore Prize for the best second novel of 1999. She lives in upstate New York, and teaches at Amherst.