Save on pre-loved Smartphones
Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals and award-winning movies and TV shows.
Buy new:
£15.99
FREE delivery Tuesday, 12 August
Dispatches from: Amazon
Sold by: Amazon
£15.99
FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, 12 August. Details
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
££15.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
££15.99
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Delivery cost, delivery date and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Dispatches from
Amazon
Amazon
Dispatches from
Amazon
Sold by
Amazon
Amazon
Sold by
Amazon
Returns
Returnable within 30 days of receipt
Returnable within 30 days of receipt
Item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund within 30 days of receipt
Read full Amazon return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
£3.42
FREE delivery 9 - 12 August. Details
Or fastest delivery Tomorrow, 8 August. Order within 11 hrs 49 mins. Details
Only 1 left in stock.
££15.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
££15.99
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Delivery cost, delivery date and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Dispatched from and sold by Goldstone-Books.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Tim Parks
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Cleaver Paperback – 1 Feb. 2007

by Tim Parks (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 38 ratings
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"£15.99","priceAmount":15.99,"currencySymbol":"£","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"51xBm%2FbJ0UauhCfDNooCIZIW%2FtGchFWNnpqvfLqlHCxHKODTF8QmEadPmUdrU%2BZdHKPbmj9oLMevCZi6ZSfueJz1flIz3B66v%2FYdZZJe%2FX6w2xK14ICh8y8pWEIKA8o2","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"£3.42","priceAmount":3.42,"currencySymbol":"£","integerValue":"3","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"42","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"51xBm%2FbJ0UauhCfDNooCIZIW%2FtGchFWN5Ip266YZr74wQBzP%2BOGPFelSmTM54ySKffM0Nm8ajFT0%2FRYBaKXR8LRN%2Bcz0SwRxAoiMVQjXuU3Y%2BpCYqMwcIZg6NhLg%2BadSYwE6xH8LihhHSI2E69wSTaH07KbFpyYUVR%2FQER8LF2i8AM0aNIhYjg%3D%3D","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Overweight and overwrought, Howard Cleaver, London's most successful journalist, abruptly abandons home, partner, mistresses and above all television, the instrument that brought him identity and power. It is the autumn of 2004 and Cleaver has recently enjoyed the celebrity attending his memorable interview with the President of the United States and suffered uncomfortable scrutiny following the publication of his elder son's novelised autobiography. He flies to Milan and heads deep into the South Tyrol, fetching up in the village of Luttach. His quest: to find a remote mountain hut, to get beyond the reach of email, and the mobile phone, and the interminable clamour of the public voice.

Weeks later, snowed in at five thousand feet, harangued by voices from the past and humiliated by his inability to understand the Tyrolese peasants he relies on for food and whisky, Cleaver discovers that there is nowhere so noisy and so dangerous as the solitary mind.

Read more
Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Vintage
  4. Publication date
    1 Feb. 2007
  5. Dimensions
    12.9 x 2 x 19.8 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0099481391
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0099481393
Next slide of product details

Frequently bought together

Cleaver
This item: Cleaver
£15.99
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Aug 12
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
Sent from and sold by Amazon.
+
Hotel Milano: Booker shortlisted author of Europa
£9.19
In stock
Sent from and sold by Amazon.
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your basket.
Details
Added to Basket
One of these items is dispatched sooner than the other.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.
Save 15% on Ingenuity

Product description

Review

Scintillating and subtly nuanced narrative. The secret of its success? Masterful prose, just free-form enough to imitate the whirligig of thought. Parks deserves to take a bow -- Alastair Sooke ― New Statesman

Tim Parks is one of Britain's most underrated authors...His latest book, Cleaver, is a dense, intriguing novel, prickly and strange...The novel's portrait of a disintegrating mind is skilful, a fine anatomy of a psyche that flickers between ordinary neuroses and megalomania, and it offers a pungent critique of the middle-class media and their obsessions. Alongside this ruthless acuity, there is as well a certain human warmth -- Henry Hitchings ― Financial Times

One can only admire the intelligence and skill with which Parks interleaves the disparate worlds of Chelsea and Sudtirol...I have now read Cleaver three times, and each has let me with greater respect for Park's abilities -- James Hamilton-Paterson ― Guardian

Yet again, Parks has anatomised the complexities of the heart with a skill which few of his contemporaries can match -- David Robson ― Daily Telegraph

Parks writes tragedy well and reveals Cleaver's piteous state, raw from loss and unable to mourn.....[Cleaver] is difficult to like and easy to judge, but he draws you into his world and convinces you to stay -- Katie Gould ― Scotland on Sunday

The book is written in plain, terse, highly effective prose, with Cleaver's thoughts coming at the reader pell-mell. Parks maintains a firm grip on this stream of consciousness, so that the narrative imitates the impatient, darting, obsessive quality of Cleaver's mind but never descends to incoherence -- Peter Parker ― Sunday Times

Cleaver ranks with the finest of Parks's club-class malcontents. An ogre with charisma he compels as much as he repels.... this novel should be required reading for all who preach from a media pulpit. It shows the hunter hunted, the exposer exposed. And it inspires - as only fiction could - sympathy for the old devil -- Boyd Tonkin ― Independent

A highly stimulating novel...As a critic, Cleaver would approve of his creator -- Oscar Turner ― Observer

About the Author

Born in Manchester, Tim Parks grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. He lives in Milan.

Parks is the acclaimed author of novels, non-fiction and essays, including Europa, A Season with Verona, Teach Us to Sit Still, Italian Ways and Italian Life. He has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and has won many awards for both his work in English and his translations from the Italian, which include works by Alberto Moravia, Italo Calvino, Roberto Calasso, Antonio Tabucchi and Niccolò Machiavelli.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 1 Feb. 2007
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0099481391
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099481393
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 228 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2 x 19.8 cm
  • Best Sellers Rank: 1,419,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 38 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Tim Parks

Tim Parks

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
38 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • jane
    5.0 out of 5 stars get cleaver
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 October 2013
    Verified Purchase
    this book got me reading again after years of absence. It was fascinating ,well written and a really intriguing idea.
    Helpful
     Report
  • J. Bassett
    4.0 out of 5 stars Superb novel
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 May 2007
    Verified Purchase
    Cleaver, like the fairly similar "Judge Savage" before it, is a wonderful insight into a troubled mind as it tries to evaluate its past. Cleaver, a famous television presenter, escapes into the Italian mountains to live entirely alone for several months after his son releases an "autobiography" of sorts in which he openly criticises every aspect of his father's life before killing him off at the end.

    Alone with his thoughts, Cleaver allows his mind to wander through his past, contrasting his son's observations with his own memories and trying to apply his view of life and relationships to the curious family from whom he is renting a dilapidated cottage, high up on a Tyrolese mountain-side.

    As he finds the quiet he craved, the noise of his own thoughts become ever more deafening as he dissects his life and tries to come to terms with the death of his daughter, some fifteen years ago, and his own son's apparent hatred of him.

    This is a wonderful book. A little unsettling at times. Certainly a difficult read if you have never attempted to read any Tim Parks fiction before; he frequently intersperses dialogue with internal monologue without the punctuation you might expect to help you tell one from the other. It sounds impossible, but it works brilliantly once you get used to it, and helps to maintain the flow and the illusion of seeing into the character's subconscious. Stick with it and you WILL be rewarded.
    12 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Susan Wilson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Parks at his best
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 July 2013
    The sinister side of the Tyrol is vividly evoked by a story relentlessly sustained. One of Tim Parks's best novels, strongly recommended
    Helpful
     Report
  • SaraT
    4.0 out of 5 stars Finely detailed tale of mountains and the mind
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 November 2008
    This book follows the journey of a man who at the height of his journalistic career, vilified by his son's newly published semi-autobiographical novel, flees the overwhelming demands of both his public and private lives to find refuge in a remote village in the mountains of the Tyrol. Here he battles with the demons of his past and present while struggling with a semi-hermetic existence on the fringe of a small village community.

    This is an engrossing read, the past and present of the main protagonist unravelling before the reader as the characters around him are slowly drawn in more detail. Highly recommend this book; I shall seek out others by Tim Parks.
    5 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • John Fitzpatrick
    4.0 out of 5 stars Edelweiss without the Sacharine
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 May 2012
    The subject matter of this novel - a middle-aged famous TV journalist fleeing to a remote Alpine village to escape the pressures of his personal and professional life - sounded so much like a literary luvvy Hampstead set product that I almost put it back on the shelf.

    However, I am glad I did not as I found it one of the most interesting books I have read in a long time.

    Spoiler. I'm going to mention the plot but as it is not exactly a detective story this should not give too much away.

    The main character - fat, bald 55 year-old Harold Cleaver* - is devastated when he reads an autobiographical novel in which his son portrays him as a selfish, phony lecher who never cared about his family and whose callous attitude led to the death of his pregnant daughter.

    He is unable to cope with the fallout which occurs at what should have been the highlight of his professional life - an interview with the US President - and he rushes off the South Tyrol area of northern Italy. He aims to cut off all links and isolate himself from the world on top of a mountain.

    However, he quickly finds that there is another side to the Alps than Julie Andrews and angelic children singing Edelweiss.

    He ends up among the German-speaking community of mountain farmers and forest workers and becomes involved in their complicated Cold Comfort Farm goings-on. He quickly finds himself in a domestic situation that has eerie similarities to the one he has fled.

    At first, he keeps wondering how his family and media colleagues are coping with his disappearance back in London but quickly goes to seed, physically and mentally.

    This is the best part of the book as he has copes with the harsh environment of blinding snowstorms, freezing cold, plunging gorges with giant icicles hanging from rock faces, while forming new relationships in broken German and reliving his past life through his son's book.

    Park obviously knows this part of the world and does a good job of conveying the primitive, pagan element that still exists alongside the Catholicism of Austria, Sud Tyrol and parts of Switzerland.

    This is seen in the symbols that reflect the fears of people who have lived for centuries in isolation in a harsh, frightening environment where one wrong turning can lead to being swallowed up by a forest or falling off a cliff - the masks, trolls, grotesque carvings and the underlying mental disorder, incest and alcoholism.

    The climax comes when Cleaver confronts his son and has to decide whether to go back or continue with his new life. It is the weakest part of the novel but as it occurs in the last few pages it does not spoil what is otherwise a fine book.

    *The cover of my edition presents him as thin with a full head of hair that shows, once again, how publishers' marketing departments seldom actually read the books they are publicizing.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Amzl cust
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks
    Reviewed in the United States on 11 July 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Great selection
    Report
  • Gilles Pourbaix
    4.0 out of 5 stars Etonnant
    Reviewed in France on 11 January 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Recommandé par une amie (merci!). Un livre étonnant. Qui n'a pas eu un jour envie de tout plaquer et de se retirer face à elle/lui-même?
    Report
  • Lynne M. Spreen
    4.0 out of 5 stars Witty and Wonderful
    Reviewed in the United States on 21 August 2013
    Verified Purchase
    This is a challenging book because it's written in stream of consciousness style, which might be off-putting to some. However, I found that aspect amusing because Cleaver's over-active squirrel brain reminds me of my own, leaping from subject to subject, as I find myself standing on the patio deep in thought about Barack Obama with a phone book in one hand and a pressure gauge in the other.

    But the story is a good one wherein a decent man is played and manipulated throughout his life - although he does a fair bit of the same, achieving great heights of celebrity and accomplishment. But at about age 60 (sorry, can't remember specifically), grief-stricken and at the end of his rope, he takes his overweight and out of shape body and his tech-addicted, co-dependent mind off on a crazy quest to find some kind of peace and independence, some place in the world where he can either end it all or find himself.

    He rents a very rustic cabin on the edge of the wilderness where he doesn't speak the language of the locals and thus is misunderstood, mistrusted, and insulated from humanity until the end of the book. (One of the interesting aspects of the story is the immersion in rural German culture.) Cleaver is also completely unprepared for the harshness of the winter in this mountain setting and almost dies as a result. The story is resolved when he demonstrates his core decency, stands up for himself, feels he is of value, and rejects the manipulating nastiness of those who should love him - his family. In a sense, he finds a new family in a very different place.

    I could only give this book 4 stars because there were a couple of errors of logic in it which revealed a need for a bit more editing - and the book is confusing enough with its switches between tense and point of view - but I frankly couldn't put it down, and I still, ten days later, think of the protagonist as a real person. I'm glad I read it, and I heartily recommend it, but it's a challenging read. Bottom line: if you're middle-aged and you're interested in seeing a character bust loose from convention and finally, at midlife, find his own way, this is a fantastic story.
    Lynne Spreen, Author of award-winning midlife novel Dakota Blues
    Report
  • Theodor Ickler
    3.0 out of 5 stars Nicht ganz befriedigend
    Reviewed in Germany on 20 June 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Der Grundgedanke ist gut und trägt auch über eine lange Strecke: Der Leser sind die Hauptfigur gleichsam von drei Seiten: als objektiver Beobachter, in Cleavers innerem Monolog und dann noch einmal gespiegelt im Buch seines Sohnes. Die Welt der Berge und ihrer Bewohner ist auch gut getroffen. Aber der Schluß wirkt konventionell und ungeschickt - als habe der Autor einfach kein sinnvolles Ende finden können. Die Begegnung zwischen Vater und Sohn ist erschreckend banal.
    Report
  • Jack Vant
    4.0 out of 5 stars Another good one from Parks
    Reviewed in the United States on 10 April 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I like this book even better than Europa. I like the main character more. I think he has some interesting things to say along the way. I also like this book because of the pace. Parks doesn't mess around and waste time with a lot of background at the beginning. You get the important background on Cleaver as the story moves along.
    Report