Description
From the bestselling, Booker-shortlisted writer of Italian Ways and Europa, a classic novel about a man's emotional reckoning in a changed world far from home
Frank's reclusive existence in a leafy part of London is shattered when he is summoned to Milan for the funeral of an old friend. Preoccupied by this sudden intrusion of his past, he flies, oblivious, into the epicentre of a crisis he has barely registered on the news.
It is spring, his luxury hotel offers every imaginable comfort; perhaps he will be able to weather the situation and return home unscathed? What Frank doesn't know is that he's about to make a discovery that will change his heart and his mind.
The arresting new novel from Booker Prize-shortlisted Tim Parks, Hotel Milano is a universal story from a unique moment in recent history: a book about the kindness of strangers, and about a complicated man who, faced with the possibility of saving a life, must also take stock of his own.
Praise for In Extremis:
'Parks's prose brings us closer to the pressures and rhythms of a lived life than the work of any other contemporary writer I can think of'
Mike McCormack, New Statesman Books of the Year
'Head and shoulders above so many of the books turned out by similar writers... A wonderfully written novel'
Kirsty Gunn, Guardian
'Tim Parks is a hugely talented writer'
Sunday Times
About the Author
Born in Manchester, Tim Parks grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. He lives in Milan.
Parks is the acclaimed author of novels, non-fiction and essays, including Europa, A Season with Verona, Teach Us to Sit Still, Italian Ways and Italian Life. He has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and has won many awards for both his work in English and his translations from the Italian, which include works by Alberto Moravia, Italo Calvino, Roberto Calasso, Antonio Tabucchi and Niccolo Machiavelli.
Reviews
Hotel Milano is one of Tim Parks' most engaging and satisfying books * Scotsman, *Summer Reads of 2023* *
Tim Parks, a long-time resident in Italy, is an accomplished writer of both fiction and non-fiction, and this deft and affecting short novel combines his skills * New Statesman *
A compelling mix of emotional introspection and pressing drama * Mail on Sunday *
Excellent and quietly devastating... While recent pandemic novels such as Sarah Hall's Burntcoat and Sarah Moss's The Fell gave us the claustrophobia and forced intimacy of the pandemic, Hotel Milano comes closest to evoking what it was really like to watch the world be redrawn in real time * Guardian *
Parks writes with an appealing wry elegance, and his quirky, erudite narrator finally finds solace not so much in the grand themes of European culture as in a shredded balloon stuck in a tree or the yellow beak of a blackbird * Spectator *
Book Information
ISBN 9781787303416
Author Tim Parks
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Harvill Secker
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 241g
Dimensions(mm) 214mm * 135mm * 18mm