Some Hope (The Patrick Melrose Novels, 3) - Softcover

'One of the most amazing reading experiences I've had in a decade.' Michael Chabon, LA Times `The darkest possible comedy about the cruelty of the old to the young, vicious and excruciatingly honest. It opened my eyes to a whole realm of experience I have never seen written about. That's the mark of a masterpiece' The Times `The main joy of a St Aubyn novel is the exquisite clarity of his prose, the almost uncanny sense he gives that, in language as in mathematical formulae, precision and beauty invariably point to truth . . . Characters in St Aubyn novels are hyper-articulate, and the witty dialogue is here, as ever, one of the chief joys' Suzi Feay, Financial Times `A humane meditation on lives blighted by the sins of the previous generation. St Aubyn remains among the cream of British novelists' Sunday Times `Irony courses through these pages like adrenaline . . . Patrick's intelligence processes his predicaments into elegant, lucid, dispassionate, near-aphoristic formulations . . . Brimming with witty flair, sardonic perceptiveness and literary finesse' Peter Kemp, Sunday Times `The Patrick Melrose novels can be read as the navigational charts of a mariner desperate not to end up in the wretched harbor from which he embarked on a voyage that has led in and out of heroin addiction, alcoholism, marital infidelity and a range of behaviors for which the term `self-destructive' is the mildest of euphemisms. Some of the most perceptive, elegantly written and hilarious novels of our era. . . Remarkable' Francine Prose, New York Times `His prose has an easy charm that masks a ferocious, searching intellect. As a sketcher of character, his wit - whether turned against pointless members of the aristocracy or hopeless crack dealers - is ticklingly wicked. As an analyser of broken minds and tired hearts he is as energetic, careful and creative as the perfect shrink. And when it comes to spinning a good yarn, whether over the grand scale or within a single page of anecdote, he has a natural talent for keeping you on the edge of your seat' Melissa Katsoulis, The Times `Beautifully written, excruciatingly funny and also very tragic' Mariella Frostrup, Sky Magazine `St Aubyn puts an entire family under a microscope, laying bare all its painful, unavoidable complexities. At once epic and intimate, appalling and comic, the novels are masterpieces, each and every one' Maggie O'Farrell `Wonderful caustic wit . . . Perhaps the very sprightliness of the prose - its lapidary concision and moral certitude - represents the cure for which the characters yearn. So much good writing is in itself a form of health' Edmund White, Guardian `Blackly comic, superbly written fiction . . . His style is crisp and light; his similes exhilarating in their accuracy . . . St Aubyn writes with luminous tenderness of Patrick's love for his sons' Caroline Moore, Sunday Telegraph `From the very first lines I was completely hooked . . . By turns witty, moving and an intense social comedy, I wept at the end but wouldn't dream of giving away the totally unexpected reason' Antonia Fraser, Sunday Telegraph `Humor, pathos, razor-sharp judgement, pain, joy and everything in between. The Melrose novels are a masterwork for the 21st century, by one of our greatest prose stylists' Alice Sebold `Perhaps the most brilliant English novelist of his generation' Alan Hollinghurst 'The wit of Wilde, the lightness of Wodehouse, the waspishness of Waugh. A joy' Zadie Smith `A masterpiece. Edward St Aubyn is a writer of immense gifts' Patrick McGrath `St Aubyn's Melrose series slices and dices morality with prose so chiselled and a narrative so intense that the hairs on the back of your neck stand up' Geordie Greig, Evening Standard `I've loved Edward St Aubyn's Patrick Melrose novels. Read them all, now' David Nicholls `A memorable tour de force' New York Times Book Review `Humor, pathos, razor-sharp judgement, pain, joy and everything in between. The Melrose novels are a masterwork for the twenty-first century, by one of our greatest prose stylists' Alice Sebold

Some Hope is the third of Edward St Aubyn's semi-autobiographical series, The Patrick Melrose Novels, filmed for Sky Atlantic and starring Benedict Cumberbatch as aristocratic addict, Patrick. Patrick Melrose, cleaned-up and world-weary, is a reluctant guest at a glittering party deep in the English countryside. Amid a crowd of flitting social dragonflies, he finds his search for redemption and capacity for forgiveness challenged by his observation of the cruelties around him. Armed with his biting wit and a newly fashioned openness, can Patrick, who has been to the furthest limits of experience and back again, find release from the savageries of his childhood? This title was originally published, along with Never Mind and Bad News, as part of a three book omnibus, also called Some Hope.