The Hunters: Two Novellas

by Claire Messud (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $7.41

  *Two short novels by the author of The Last Life*'A Simple Tale' tells the story of Maria Poniatowski: her childhood in the Ukraine; her incarceration in a Nazi prison camp in Poland; and her life as an emigrant, working as a domestic in Toronto. Maria is now old, but not yet retired; her sole client is the ancient, demanding Mrs Ellison. Maria reflects on all that has happened, on her relationship with her family, with Mrs Ellison, with the country she left behind and the country in which she lives. 'A Simple Tale' is a moving story of a life and a century.'The Hunters' is the tale of an American academic doing research one summer in London, and the odd and disconcerting relationship she (or he? - the narrator remains a nameless and ungendered voice) develops with her downstairs neighbour, Ridley Wandor. Messud vividly captures the sweltering ugliness of London in the summer, and the sinister aspects of its grimmer quarters. 'The Hunters' is a mysterious story - powerful, haunting and accomplished.

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $4.40

  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