{"product_id":"troubles-isbn-9781590170182","title":"Troubles","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Lost Man Booker Prize, this darkly hilarious book about the Irish war for independence takes place in a crumbling hotel on Ireland's west coast, a place where madness and brutality have begun to reign. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1919: After surviving the Great War, Major Brendan Archer makes his way to Ireland,  hoping to discover whether he is indeed betrothed to Angela Spencer, whose Anglo-Irish  family owns the once-aptly-named Majestic Hotel in Kilnalough. But his fiancée is  strangely altered and her family's fortunes have suffered a spectacular decline.  The hotel's hundreds of rooms are disintegrating on a grand scale; its few remaining  guests thrive on rumors and games of whist; herds of cats have taken over the Imperial  Bar and the upper stories; bamboo shoots threaten the foundations; and piglets frolic  in the squash court. Meanwhile, the Major is captivated by the beautiful and bitter  Sarah Devlin. As housekeeping disasters force him from room to room, outside the  order of the British Empire also totters: there is unrest in the East, and in Ireland  itself the mounting violence of \"the troubles.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTroubles\u003c\/i\u003e is a hilarious and heartbreaking  work by a modern master of the historical novel.\u003c\/p\u003eWe find in Farrell’s novels links between the depicted colonial past and the postcolonial present that yield an abundance of ironies and ambiguous parallels.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Ivan Kreilkamp,​ \u003ci\u003ePublic Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRemarkable … Mr. Farrell deserves high praise for this novel. It is subtly modulated, richly textured, sad, funny, and altogether memorable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA tour de force … sad, tragic, also very funny.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFarrell wrote superbly; all his books had a quality that hallmarks great literary talent—he could “do” texture. This album—which is what \u003ci\u003eTroubles\u003c\/i\u003e feels like—records the same Anglo-Irish as Elizabeth Bowen knew and belonged to. As with Bowen, this feels like the real thing (which is all a novel has to do). Always judge a writer by his grasp of what he doesn’t know: Farrell died young yet his old people are almost his best creations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Frank Delaney, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eJ.G.Farrell\u003c\/b\u003e (1935–1979) was born with a caul, long considered a sign of good fortune. Academically and athletically gifted, Farrell grew up in England and Ireland. In 1956, during his first term at Oxford, he suffered what seemed a minor injury on the rugby pitch. Within days, however, he was diagnosed with polio, which nearly killed him and left him permanently weakened. Farrell’s early novels, which include \u003ci\u003eThe Lung\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Girl in the Head,\u003c\/i\u003ehave been overshadowed by his Empire Trilogy—\u003ci\u003eTroubles\u003c\/i\u003e, the Booker Prize–winning \u003ci\u003eSiege of Krishnapur,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Singapore Grip\u003c\/i\u003e (all three are published by NYRB Classics). In early 1979, Farrell bought a farmhouse in Bantry Bay on the Irish coast. “I’ve been trying to write,” he admitted, “but there are so many competing interests–?the prime one at the moment is fishing off the rocks… . Then a colony of bees has come to live above my back door and I’m thinking of turning them into my feudal retainers.” On August 11, Farrell was hit by a wave while fishing and was washed out to sea. His body was found a month later. A biography of J.G. Farrell, J\u003ci\u003e.G. Farrell: The Making of a Writer\u003c\/i\u003eby Lavinia Greacen, was published by Bloomsbury in 1999.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Banville\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of many novels, including \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Evidence\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Untouchable\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eEclipse\u003c\/i\u003e. Banville’s novel \u003ci\u003eThe Sea\u003c\/i\u003e was awarded the 2005 Man Booker Prize. His most recent book is \u003ci\u003eMrs. Osmond\u003c\/i\u003e. On occasion he writes under the pen name Benjamin Black.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304285524197,"sku":"NP9781590170182","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590170182.jpg?v=1767742984","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/troubles-isbn-9781590170182","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}