The Infinities [Hardcover]

'Full of dark humour and written with a deft eye for detail.' --GQ

'A superb novel about maths and myths...a Beethoven string quartet of a novel. It deals with huge ideas - plenty of them - and in doing so, breaks new ground in its own medium...a masterpiece of a book' --Daily Telegraph

'While at the heart of the book lies death, shrouded in some exquisitely cast sentences and myriad cultural references, this novel also has levity, even comedy. There's a cast of supporting characters worthy of a modern-day Shakespeare...Banville, already esteemed for the brilliance of his language, proves in this novel to have mastery, too, of these many colliding universes.' --Independent on Sunday

'Dark, funny and delightful.'
--Times

'A playful reision of his family territort, its tone one of sportive, bawdy metaphysics during a single midsummer day... maths as metaphor, a poetic vision of boundless possibilty.' --Literary Review

'Banville's very different new novel is a more engaging and affective work (than 'The Sea')... a family saga which doubles as an investigation into ideas about space and time...Readers of John Banville's fiction are always the beneficiaries of his style.He writes musical ,agile prose.In this book he has liberated his gift from its customary Gothic context and applied it to a tale of love and memory in the summer sun(and rain).It makes a good fit.' --Daily Express

`I have read two outstanding books this summer. This is one of them. It seems to me very odd indeed that this book is not, according to the Booker judges, one of the 12 best books of the year. It may be one of the 12 best books of the decade, or even of several decades. . . . This is unequivocally a work of brilliance.'
--Justin Cartwright, Spectator

`John Banville's beautifully crafted new novel is a mischievous creation . . . Banville remains a gleeful trickster, but one with such a breathtaking turn of phrase that it's a pleasure to be so befuddled . . . this darkly comic and fearsomely clever creation is a heady delight' --Metro, Book of the Week ****

`A moving deathbed drama . . . superlative literary fiction'
--Marie Claire

`The arch intelligence and precise delicacy of his sentences, the occasionally arcane diction, the unsentimental authorial eye . . . a marriage of classical and Shakesperian comedy'
--Irish Times

'Intriguing . . . superb writing' --Sunday Times

'Often a funny book - and one written in such saturatedly beautiful, luminous prose that every page delights, startles and uplifts.'
--Times

'A superb novel about maths and myths . . . a Beethoven string quartet of a novel. It deals with huge ideas - plenty of them - and in doing so, breaks new ground in its own medium . . . like Beethoven, the material he uses is daring . . . The learning is impressive without oppressing the reader . . . [a] self-aware, mind expanding novel . . . gorgeous words and searching questions . . . a masterpiece of a book
--Independent on Sunday

'A beautiful, immersive read. Banville's latest novel is as smart and satisfying as ever. Lyrical, fastidious, and occasionally hilarious . . . Savour this' --Sunday Business Post

'His painterly style of prose is here with all its usual power . . . uncannily accurate . . . Banville and The Infinities are in a league of their own, an Olympian one, even.' --Irish Mail on Sunday

'Lyrical' --Esquire

'Deliciously dotty . . . the book radiates happiness . . . such is the exuberance of the writing that the novel does not feel like a hotch-potch . . a good deal of [Banville's] pleasure communicates itself to the reader . . . the human comedy is illuminated from a charming and unusual perspective ' --Sunday Telegraph

'Beautiful'
--Evening Standard

'Banville is a celebrant, an observer, an artist, the self-appointed god of an imaginary universe'
--Herald

'Luminous . . . intensely realised but also distanced through mischievous planes of refraction. The atmosphere is strong but elusive . . . always bathed in a great calm light.' --Observer

'On to this elegiac Anglo-Irish scene, evocative of Elizabeth Bowen and William Trevor, Banville mischievously doodles his conceit . . . the presence of the gods ensures a more lively tone of mercurial ebullience. Yet the real pleasure of The Infinities lies in the gods appreciation for "the enduring intensity of mere things" - a Hellenistic relish for life and its details, both cosmic and homely. Banville's breathtaking gift for simile is also to the fore . . . [an] often brilliant novel' --Financial Times

'John Banville's latest novel is good fun, to say the least' --Times Literary Supplement

'His painterly style of prose is here with all its usual power . . . compared to other contemporary Irish fiction, Banville and The Infinities are in a league of their own, an Olympian one, even.' --Irish Mail on Sunday

'A delicious fiction . . . A beautiful, immersive read, Banville's latest novel is as smart and satisfying as ever. Lyrical, fastidious, and occasionally hilarious . . . Savour this.'
--Sunday Business Post

'An ambitious work exploring the big questions . . . beautifully written and insightful . . . an impressive achievement' --Hot Press

'Poses age-old questions about time and space, and what it means to be mortal.' --Glasgow Evening Times

'From the very first pages of The Infinities a new more "fun" Banville emerges . . . Ribald and pithy, you can see Banville coming through in the voice of the gods. He is having fun playing with his characters in the same way the gods are having fun playing with the mortals . . . very entertaining . . . very accessible . . . it works.' --Gorey/New Ross/Wexford/Enniscorthy Echo

'The literary impulse is tempered by humour, urbanity and a spirited approach . . . a celestial-cum-earthly comedy, with unsettling undertones . . . the central drift of The Infinities is to celebrate the world and its infinity of riches. The interwoven texture of the novel, and its unimpeachable poise, are what gives point to its randomness of incident.' --Sunday Tribune

'A mischievous creation . . . this darkly comic and clever concoction is a delight.'
--Metro

'Scintillating' --Prospect

'Compelling . . . beguiling'
--Patrick Gale, Books Quarterly

'For the sheer beauty of the language and extravagance of the imagery Banville's tale of a decaying family in Ireland, all set in one day, is unrivalled this year.'
--Justin Cartwright, Book of the Year, Sunday Telegraph

'The writing is superbly well-wrought and frequently amusing.'
--Tablet

'The Infinities is John Banville's best book, I think. The prose is honed, as always, and every word matters, but the book breathes with humour and shines with a lovely discursive wink.'
--Colum McCann, Observer Books of the Year

'The turning of an omniscient, omnipotent narrator into a god has...been fulfilled so well.'