{"product_id":"the-ruins-isbn-9781912248674","title":"The Ruins","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn extraordinary novel about the ubiquitous mysteries of family, memory and music.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon, 2010: Icelandic volcanoes have the city in gridlock, banks topple like dominoes and Brandon Kussgarten has been shot dead by gunmen in Donald Duck masks. His death draws his twin brother -- shy, bookish Adam -- into Brandon's underworld of deceit and desire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA miniature kingdom sprouts in a Notting Hill tower-block, LA mansions burn in week-long parties, and in a Baroque hotel suite a record is being made that could redeem its maker even as it destroys him. As Adam begins to fall for his brother's shattered family he finds that to win them for himself he'll have to lose everything that he holds dear.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis intelligent, intriguing and emotionally-searing tale of fractured identities, narcissism and ambition questions how being loved for what others think we are differs from who we are to ourselves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith echoes of Performance, The Talented Mr Ripley and Mulholland Drive, The Ruins delves into the dark heart of fame: magic, music and murder.\"There’s a touch of Pynchon in this complex, woozily dream-like novel about music, mystery and imagined worlds...\" \u003cbr\u003e— \u003cb\u003eIan Rankin\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Ruins\u003c\/i\u003e reads like Raymond Chandler remixed by James Lasdun: barbed aperçus and killer images flare across each page, even as unsettling elements moil below, in pursuit of more sinister ambitions.  Every great noir tale is at some level a fantasia on the slipperiness of identity; Osman has written a great noir tale.\" \u003cbr\u003e— \u003cb\u003eMartin Seay\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Mirror Thief\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Ruins\u003c\/i\u003e is an intriguing and beautifully-written tale of two brothers, filled with music and danger. But at its heart this is a novel about being restless and lonely; about how the inability to create something transient leads to a silent despair and the desire to be someone else.\" \u003cbr\u003e— \u003cb\u003eMariana Enriquez\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eThings We Lost in the Fire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Oozes quiet sedition.\" \u003cbr\u003e— \u003cb\u003eSukhdev Sandhu\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eNight Haunts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Ruins\u003c\/i\u003e is such a brilliant and idiosyncratic thing. It’s hectic, soulful, elegant, and wickedly clever. It somehow approximates the immersive experience of listening to a life-changing album, and it also has some of the best line-by-line prose I’ve read in a really long time.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e— \u003cb\u003eAnna Smaill\u003c\/b\u003e, The Chimes \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The debut from Suede founding member and bassist Mat Osman is an altered state of a novel, mixing the crime of LA noir, the ambient cityscapes of JG Ballard and dark language games of Thomas Pynchon, all imbued with a sensitivity to the magical – and powerful – properties of making and listening to music.\" — \u003cb\u003eGeorge Chesterton\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGQ\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Fantastic debut novel. Magical, surreal, disturbing. Reminded me in places of early Iain Banks and DBC Pierre” — \u003cb\u003eJohn Niven\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Redolent of \u003ci\u003eThe Talented Mr Ripley, Performance\u003c\/i\u003e and Theodore Roszak’s \u003ci\u003eFlicker\u003c\/i\u003e, spanning London, LA and Las Vegas, \u003ci\u003eThe Ruins\u003c\/i\u003e by Suede guitarist Mat Osman contains multitudes; it has all the makings of a cult classic.” - \u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/i\u003eMat Osman is the bassist and founding member of iconic British rock band Suede.","brand":"Repeater","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302203707621,"sku":"NP9781912248674","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781912248674.jpg?v=1767741293","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-ruins-isbn-9781912248674","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}