The Confessions of Max Tivoli

by Andrew Sean Greer (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $10.53

  So begins The Confessions of Max Tivoli, a heartbreaking love story with a narrator like no other. At his birth, Max has the external physical appearance of an old, dying creature. Max grows older like any child, but his physical age appears to go backwards - on the outside a very old man, but inside still a fearful child. When Max is seventeen, he falls in love with a neighbour girl, Alice, who ages normally. Max, of course, does not; as a young man, he has an older man's body. But his curse is also his blessing: as he gets older, his body grows younger, so each successive time he finds his Alice, she does not recognize him, she takes him for a stranger, and Max is given another chance at love. Set against the backdrop of San Francisco at the turn of the twentieth century, Max's confessions are written in a prose that is beautifully modulated; its tale of love lost then found achieves an emotional resonance that is unforgettable.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.25

  We are each the love of someone's life ...So begins The Confessions of Max Tivoli, a heartbreaking love story with a narrator like no other. Sitting in a sandbox, Max Tivoli is writing the story of his life. He is nearly seventy years old, but he looks as if he is only seven - for Max is ageing backwards. The tragedy of Max's life is that he falls in love when he is seventeen with Alice, a girl his own age - but to her he looks like a middle-aged man, and when he makes advances, she is repulsed. But when he is thirty-five, he actually looks his age, so he has a second chance at love - but tragedy befalls this star-crossed couple and desperate measures are required. Set in San Francisco during the turbulent years at the turn of the twentieth century, this is a haunting tale of love lost, then found - in ways that are least expected.

• New

  Paperback
  2005

  $10.19

  Max Tivoli is writing the story of his life. He is nearly seventy years old, but he looks as if he is only seven - for Max is ageing backwards. The tragedy of Max's life was to fall in love at seventeen with Alice, a girl his own age - but to her, Max looks like an unappealingly middle-aged man. However when Max reaches the age of thirty-five, with an appearance to match, he has his second chance at love. But tragedy befalls this star-crossed couple, and desperate measures are required.