The Worms Can Carry Me to Heaven

by Alan Warner (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $4.80

  Manolo Follano is handsome, fastidious, opinionated, more than a little vain and has built a comfortable provincial life for himself. Despite his inability to master the English language, his architectural design company on the mediterranean coast is thriving, his suits are handsome and his luxury appartment complete. So when his doctor and best friend tells 'Lolo' he is dangerously ill it is, it would seem, the end of everything. In Alan Warner's fifth novel, however, this devastating news is only the beginning. In a series of vivid, erotic, hilarious flashbacks Manolo plays back his life in glowing technicolour: each wild and glorious set-piece building towards a picture of life - flawed, certainly, but passionate, richly imagined and deeply humane.

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $4.92

  Manolo Follano, a 40-year-old Spanish roue, has built a comfortable life for himself in his hometown by the sea. His architectural design company is thriving, his suits are Italian linen, his cigars Cuban, he's on friendly terms with his two ex-wives and happily free to enjoy the charms of women much younger. For a playboy like Manolo - handsome, fastidious, opinionated and more than a little vain - to be told by his doctor and friend that he is HIV Positive is, it would seem, the end of everything. In Alan Warner's fifth novel, however, this devastating news is only the beginning. Manolo strolls around his familiar haunts recalling, with Proustian clarity, the loves of his life, as he prepares to tell each of them his terrible secret - all the while bracing himself for the final reckoning, and the thin hope of redemption. In a series of vivid, erotic, hilarious flashbacks, he plays back his life in glowing technicolor with each wild and glorious set-piece building towards a complete picture of a life - flawed, certainly, but passionate, richly imagined and deeply humane. A novel of stunning visual invention that manages to be both provocative and profound, both shocking and riotously funny, The Worms Can Carry Me To Heaven is further proof of Alan Warner's prodigal gifts of spirit and imagination, and his position in the first rank of contemporary writers.