Book description
Lawrence Miller, an English expatriate in New York, tells the story
of what appears to be an elaborate conspiracy to frame him for a
series of brutal killings. The intricate plot entangles Miller, a
teacher of Gender Studies, in the lives of a womanising colleague
under investigation for sexual harassment, a lonely attorney who has
developed an inexplicable passion for Miller, and a shadowy Bulgarian
who adapts Kafka for the stage, is prone to acts of explosive
violence, and may or may not be sleeping under Miller's office desk.
As the novel spirals to its shocking conclusion, Lawrence Miller
traverses, in terror, the streets of Manhattan, tracking the lines of
human connection across the city and out to the decaying suburbs
beyond, in wild pursuit of his persecutors.
James Lasdun was born in London and now lives in upstate New York. He
has published two novels as well as several collections of short stories
and poetry. His work has been adapted for film by Bernardo Bertolucci in
Besieged
and for the Sundance award-winning
Sunday
. He has been long-listed for the Booker Prize, shortlisted for the LA
Times, T. S. Eliot and Forward prizes in poetry, and was the winner of
the inaugural UK/BBC Short Story Prize. His non-fiction has been
published in
Harpers
,
Granta
and the
London Review of Books
.
