A. S. Byatt — The Biographer's Tale
Vintage 2001 Paperback, 272pp. From the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession comes this erotic, playful, and provocative novel about the collision of art and truth. Phineas G. Nanson, a disillusioned post-graduate student, decides to leave his abstract studies and pursue a seemingly concrete task: to write a biography of a great biographer. But Phineas quickly discovers that facts can be unreliable and a âoewhole lifeâ hard to define. As he tracks his subject from Africa to the Arctic, he comes to rely on two womenâone of whom may be the guide he needs out of his research and back into his own life. A tantalizing yarn of detection and desire, The Biographerâs Tale is a provocative look at âoetruthâ in biography and our perennial quest for certainty. (ISBN: 9780099283935). Good.
