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Radiant Days: A Novel [Paperback]

Michael A. Fitzgerald
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

Price: $15.00 & FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Book Description

February 1, 2007
During the last days of the Balkan War in the summer of 1995, Anthony, a hapless American questioning the dot-com values that allow him to live a pampered existence in San Francisco, agrees to join Gisela, a beauty he barely knows, in a search for her son, lost in a Hungarian orphanage. In Budapest they meet Marsh, a brilliant but frustrated British war correspondent. Anthony thinks he has found in Eastern Europe what his former life was missing: enterprising young people openly questioning U.S. values, determined to remake their own world. But when an odd and edgy love triangle emerges and he discovers his mission with Gisela is much darker than he imagined, Anthony is thrown further in flux. Moving from the tattered romanticism of Budapest, through the sparkling Dalmatian coast, and into the brutalized landscape of inland Croatia, the novel takes a shocking turn of irreversible consequence.
Radiant Days is held taut in the voice of Anthony, whose desire to experience a more serious (and thrilling) life leaves injury in its wake. With a swift plot and seamless style, Michael FitzGerald delivers a story of unattainable love, misplaced lust, and the politics of compassion.

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Radiant Days: A Novel + The Bridge on the Drina (Phoenix Fiction) + Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

FitzGerald's quiet debut centers on Anthony, a Gen X-er slacking away at a meaningless but remunerative Web producer job in dot-com–boom San Francisco. Anthony's life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Hungarian bartender Gisela at a local watering hole. Beautifully irresistible (and entirely untrustworthy) in the manner of all foreign femme fatales, Gisela quickly persuades him to travel with her to Hungary, supposedly so that she can be reunited with her missing son. In Budapest, the two meet jaded British war correspondent Marsh, a Graham Greene–like character who becomes the third leg in a rapidly evolving love triangle. Anthony spends his time just as purposelessly in Hungary as he did in California, though there are more lengthy sociopolitical and philosophical discussions to be had. Were it not for his glimmers of self-awareness, Anthony might be just another unbearable ugly American. The machinations of love between the bewitching Gisela, the dunderheaded Anthony and the fatigued and fatiguing Marsh aren't fully explored, though the novel's consideration of the Balkan conflicts may be compelling to some readers. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In his keenly accomplished first novel, FitzGerald's enigmatic tale of a feckless and dissolute American caught up in world events beyond his comprehension brings a disquieting new interpretation to the old adage that truth is the first casualty of war. At the height of San Francisco's dot-com revolution, Anthony unhesitatingly abandons his unfulfilling job to follow Gisela, a beautiful young woman he has only just met, back to her native Hungary, ostensibly on a mission to locate her missing son. Arriving during the perilous waning days of the Balkan War, the pair attach themselves to British journalist Marsh, who, at 24, already has attained a cynical disregard for humanity that endangers his two new friends. As Anthony falls more deeply in love with Gisela, Gisela's precise reasons for being in country dissolve into drug- and lust-induced escapades. Through Anthony's self-indulgent and alienated voice, FitzGerald flawlessly and astutely mirrors the ennui and confusion of a generation and world enervated by ceaseless and senseless images of war. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Paperback: 246 pages
  • Publisher: Shoemaker & Hoard (February 1, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1593761317
  • ISBN-13: 978-1593761318
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.7 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,837,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
(13)
4.5 out of 5 stars
It's smart, clever and well written. Kristen Christiansen  |  3 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars powerful January 15, 2007
Format:Paperback
this is a powerful, moving book. its a coming of age story which has deep resonance for anyone who's ever gone looking for adventure - and stumbled across experinces far deeper and more disturbing than they'd ever bargained for. I found the author's pen portrait of the central european generation expat poignant and accurate. the description of the author's journey to croatia - the place he goes beyond the boundaries of normal expat experience into the wartime uncertainties of life and death - was so well drawn I felt almost as though I had been there with him myself. worth a read.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A FANTASTIC NOVEL January 19, 2007
Format:Paperback
This is a fantastic novel. The very act of placing a dot-com era san-franciscan in the middle of the yugoslav wars is as hilarious as it is tragic, a move that isn't just brilliant, but also courageous and important. But the best part of this book is the narrator. In all of his selfishness and restlessness, he's truer to life than most other characters in contemporary literature. Anyone offended by his observations hasn't looked deep enough within their own desires. The world that Fitzgerald creates is like our own world, in that it's not populated by heroes or villains, but by humans. In addition, it's a fast-paced page-turner of a book. I took two tylenol PMs before I started it, and couldn't fall asleep until I'd finished part one.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Buy This Book January 18, 2007
By Mark
Format:Paperback
At a time when people say the word "war" daily without bothering to conjure up the details even yearly, we need books like Radiant Days. This novel traces a terrifying and previously unimaginable trajectory from the smug, insular affluence of 1990s San Francisco to nameless, offhand death in the streets of war-torn Croatia. There is something essentially American about FitzGerald's hero's voluntary tour of the killing fields, and I don't just mean the sex and drugs. It is no stretch to say that this book may well be the Farewell to Arms of our generation.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
I thought it was an amazing book. His description of how vapid the corporate world can be was dead-on. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Finance Guy
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it
I was wary about reading this because the author personally asked me to read it at www.goodreads.com, but I loved it. Read more
Published on September 19, 2007 by Borden B. Burns
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read!
FItzgeralds' Anthony embodies all that is the directionless slacker generation with flair. Looking forward to a second novel!
Published on August 16, 2007 by Benjamin Chernoff
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Debut Novel
Radiant Days is thick with detail, angst, desperation, ennui, and culture shock. The story is set in post-soviet Budapest where expats live cheaply and spout philosophy and... Read more
Published on August 9, 2007 by Patricia Auburn
1.0 out of 5 stars Not recommend
i have read so many books in my life, boring ones, funny ones, romantic ones, and sad ones. but as i came upon this book i realized it was so boring, i turn a page and its talking... Read more
Published on July 25, 2007 by Lina Zheng
5.0 out of 5 stars Snide Greatness!!
I enjoyed this book SO much. And not just because I hail from Michael's home town. I read it in 4 days and it usually takes me over a month to get through a book. Read more
Published on July 24, 2007 by Oogatha
5.0 out of 5 stars this book is worth your time
Foremost, this is a good read. It's one of those you-can't-look-away stories, which ends up implicating everyone, all the characters, the whole human race. Read more
Published on April 23, 2007 by David Cohen
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, Insightful, Very funny, Highly Recommended!!
I loved this book!! It's a fresh, funny and insightful look into the male ego and an honest reflection of an American attitude on international politics. Read more
Published on March 22, 2007 by Kristen Christiansen
2.0 out of 5 stars Boring....
I had to force myself to read this book, even while being stuck on a plane with nothing else to do for 8 hours. Read more
Published on March 18, 2007 by Jody
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read
Having lived through the tech boom in San Francisco and in Eastern Europe at basically the same time -- I was excited to read this book and was not disapointed. Read more
Published on February 20, 2007 by Emma Lee
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