The Biography of Thomas Lang

Description

An epistolary novel about a concert pianist and a young man's attempt to write his biography. Thomas Lang was an outstanding concert pianist. He was elusive, arrogant, depressive, mysterious, and a genius. He died mysteriously, probably by his own hand. Bit by bit, in a volley of letters between his would-be biographer and Lang's brother Christopher, his life is pieced together and the real Thomas Lang begins to emerge. Jonathan Buckley's first novel ponders the nature of biography, the question of what a life is and, more particularly, what a life becomes once it is finished, who that life belongs to. Confident, endlessly inventive, often very funny, it is one of the most assured debuts in British fiction for some time.

Jonathan Buckley was born in Birmingham, and has contributed to and edited a number of Rough Guides. His first novel, The Biography of Thomas Lang, was published by Fourth Estate in 1997, followed by Xerxes (1999), Ghost MacIndoe (2001), Invisible (2004) and the critically acclaimed So He Takes the Dog (2006). He lives in Brighton with his wife and son.

`A Baked Alaska of a novel in a world of fictional muesli bars' In Dublin `An extraordinary achievement ... intelligent and skillfully crafted' TES `An accomplished first novel, by turns dry, knowing and poignant' TLS