Pietro Russell's nomadic life unfolds alphabetically, not chronologically, with each segment from A to Z corresponding to the first letter of a place, such as L for Lyndonville, the town in which he fell in love. By the author of A Trick of the Light.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Pietro Russell, the protagonist of this moving, inventive and luminous novel, is an English traveling photographer whose assignments take him from Hong Kong to Ibiza, Jerusalem, Paris and Sarajevo. Arranging the 26 chapters alphabetically by place name, and jumping around chronologically as well as geographically, Faulks ( A Trick of the Light ) creates a prismatic effect, illuminating from many angles his restless hero's inner turmoil and search for self. Son of an Italian mother and a British soldier wounded during WW II, Pietro struggles to come to terms with his mother's death from cancer. We travel with him to Vermont, where he frantically pursues his American high school classmate Laura; to the balmy California coast, scene of their painful breakup; to Oxford where, as a lab assistant, he undergoes therapy with a female psychiatrist who helps him overcome agoraphobia, insomnia and depression. In the unconditional love of his Dutch-Belgian wife Hannah and their children, Pietro at last achieves an emotional anchorage. Faulks, a former literary editor of the English newspaper the Independent , has written a wonderfuly insightful book that reverberates with epiphanies large and small, a celebration of life in all its beauty and tragic brevity.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Pietro Russell is a photographer born to an English father and an Italian mother at the end of World War II. His schooling is rather eccentric, especially after the death of his mother. He falls in love, he marries, he has children, he discovers himself. The unusual part of this story is that it is told alphabetically rather than chronologically. Faulks takes us from one location to another, revealing significant events in Pietro's life, without regard for the progression of time. This forces the reader to piece together Pietro's story. Each scene is poignant and well written, dropping into place like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, until the whole picture is achieved. Interesting and unusual.
- Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Providence
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Providence
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant,
This review is from: A Fool's Alphabet (Kindle Edition)
A beautifully written moving book. The alphabet is a great idea and the characters are likeable whilst remaining realistic and the ending is very clever.
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