{"product_id":"the-porcupine-isbn-9780679744825","title":"The Porcupine","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eThe Sense of an Ending\u003c\/i\u003e trains his laser-bright prose on the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStoyo Petkanov, the deposed Party leader, is placed on trial for crimes that range from corruption to political murder. Petkanov's guilt—and the righteousness of his opponents—would seem to be self-evident. But, as brilliantly imagined by Barnes, the trial of this cunning and unrepentant dictator illuminates the shadowy frontier between the rusted myths of the Communist past and a capitalist future in which everything is up for grabs.\"Wonderfully agile ... the provocations are as numerous as the title indicates.... [Barnes] is witty and telling and may not be outracing events by a great deal.\" \u003ci\u003e—Los Angeles Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Barnes's novels have a mesmeric charm and an air of dangerous simplicity.... [He is] an exceptionally accomplished and ingenious stylist.\" \u003ci\u003e—The New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Gripping ... Barnes relates this compelling story with his usual narrative brio, sketching his characters with the broad, colorful strokes of a mythic allegory.\" \u003ci\u003e—The New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Porcupine \u003c\/i\u003eis a work of power.... Barnes has woven a rich tapestry of life in a post-communist country.... [He] provides a shock befitting a master storyteller and irony worthy of a philosopher.\" \u003ci\u003e—Chicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Barnes is a fluent novelist, clever and richly inventive.... \u003ci\u003eThe Porcupine \u003c\/i\u003ecould hardly be more up to date.\" \u003ci\u003e—Vanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With the artful framework of testimony, internal monologue and chorus, Barnes's imagery is spare but vivid.... The central characters ... are cunningly defined by their ambiguities.... [He is] brilliant.\" \u003ci\u003e—San Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"One of England's most interesting and provocative novelists ... Barnes ... display[s] a remarkable versatility, a dashing wit, and a sense of irony that keeps his wonderfully idiosyncratic creations under tight control.\" \u003ci\u003e—New Republic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Absolutely brilliant and full of amazing possibilities.\" \u003ci\u003e—Dallas Morning News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Barnes is a dazzling mind in mercurial flight.\" \u003ci\u003e—Philadelphia Inquirer\u003c\/i\u003eBorn in Leicester in 1946, Julian Barnes is the author of nine novels, a book of   stories, and a collection of essays.  He has won both the Prix Médicis and the Prix   Fémina, and in 1988 was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.  He   lives in London.Author of Flaubert's Parrot","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46299897266405,"sku":"NP9780679744825","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780679744825.jpg?v=1767741005","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-porcupine-isbn-9780679744825","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}