Oxygen

by Andrew Miller (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $4.38

  In a house in the English countryside a woman in her sixties, Alice, is dying. In the garden, her younger son is working on the translation of a play by a celebrated Hungarian playwright, Lazlo Lazar. In San Francisco, Alice's other son, a one time soap actor and now heavily in debt, is on his way to a meeting with a pornographic film producer. And in Vienna, Lazlo Lazar is having supper with his lover, Kurt, and an American painter, discussing action, courage and the revolutions of 1956 and 68. Each of these characters will soon face a test of courage. Each will be forced to take part in an act of liberation - though not necessarily the one they foresaw. Naturally, there are certain coloured pills, a revolver, and a child who cannot be trusted as the summer of 97, the summer of the comet, reaches its surprising conclusion.

• New

  paperback
  

  $11.69

  Shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize and Whitbread Novel of the Year Award In the summer of 1997, four people reach a turning point: Alice Valentine, who lies gravely ill in her West Country home; her two sons, one still searching for a sense of direction, the other fighting to keep his acting career and marriage afloat; and Laszlo Lazar, who leads a comfortable life in Paris yet is plagued by his memories of the 1956 Hungarian uprising. For each, the time has come to assess what matters in life, and all will be forced to take part in an act of liberation - though not necessarily the one foreseen.