In Extremis

Description

In Extremis is one of the most implacable, but also one of the funniest, novels about death and family you will ever read. Thomas knows there is something he needs to say to his mother before she dies. But will he reach her in time? And will he have the courage to say what he couldn't say before? His phone is buzzing, his mind is racing, and he can't concentrate on the significance of what is happening. Should he try to solve his friend's family crisis? Should he reconsider his separation from his wife? Why does he feel so utterly confused and paralysed? In his most exhilarating book to date, Tim Parks explores how profoundly our present identity is rooted in our family past. Can we ever really change?

Reviews

"This is what a novel should be - gutsy, moving, funny, tragic, true - and with a syntax to die for. Tim Parks is in a league of his own. He makes every other English author of his generation look lame. In Extremis, in exacting detail, depicts the naked truth of marriage and aging, sex and death, family. Brilliant, brutal and all too quick - like life." -- Henry Sutton "In Extremis is simply spellbinding and quite unique in my reading experience; very funny and very existential, compact and chatty, complicated and raw. Parks has written a masterpiece." -- Per Wastberg "A thrillingly unsentimental-thrilling because unsentimental-meditation on every aspect and orifice of the human body." -- David Shields "A master of emotional complexity" Sunday Telegraph "Parks writes with wit and intelligence" The Times

Author description

Born in Manchester, Tim Parks grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. In 1981 he moved to Italy where he has lived ever since. He is the acclaimed author of novels, non-fiction and essays, including Europa, Cleaver, A Season with Verona, Teach Us to Sit Still and Italian Ways. He has won the Somerset Maugham, Betty Trask and Llewellyn Rhys awards, and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He lectures on literary translation in Milan, writes for publications such as the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, and his many translations from the Italian include works by Moravia, Calvino, and Machiavelli.