Hotel Du Lac; Family and Friends

About this book

The first-ever hardcover omnibus of two of the best novels by the beloved, Booker Prize-winning writer--just in time for a major new biography by Hermione Lee Anita Brookner is known for her poignant, witty studies of emotionally restrained women navigating loneliness, deception, and desire. When middle-aged romance writer Edith Hope's life begins to resemble the melodramatic plots of her own novels, her friends banish her to Switzerland, where they hope the luxurious calm of the Hotel du Lac will restore her to her senses. But instead of contritely contemplating her mistakes, Edith spends her time keenly observing her eccentric fellow guests and writing unsent letters to the married lover she is supposed to be trying to forget. Before long, despite her determination to stay quietly on the sidelines, Edith attracts the attention of a worldly man who believes that they are uniquely situated to solve each other's problems. Beautifully observed and witheringly funny, Hotel du Lac is Brookner at her most stylish and potently subversive. In an ambitious departure from her usual form, Brookner expands her canvas in Family and Friends to create a richly textured novel about a wealthy Jewish family in London between the world wars. Presiding over the Dorn household is the formidable Sofka, an elegant widow who watches her four children find different paths into adulthood. Hedonistic Frederick escapes to the Riviera while dutiful Alfred runs the family business. Vain, selfish Betty pursues her ambitions in Paris and Hollywood, while her dreamy sister Mimi languishes at home. Family and Friends is a brilliant social novel of lost innocence and the complex nature of family bonds. Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.