That's what real detail makes possible - a glimpse at the universal.
Berger's work is the result of an immersion in a French peasant community by getting so deep under the skin of a place, he's also able to tell a big story about the life of a culture, the lives being lived in our world. These stories are a high-watermark in the political project of the socialist century. The wit of these books, their intellectual sophistication - they're magnetic. Those kinds of superlatives are silly, really, but in the face of this achievement, these extraordinarily moving novels whose technical achievement is jaw-dropping, there's nothing else you can say. To my mind, St Aubyn is the greatest living English writer.
The Patrick Melrose novels - Edward St Aubyn I love all his books: I recommend A Long Long Way as a work of particular emotional power. Drawing on the lives that came before him to weave narratives of extraordinary dramatic power that open up the history of a nation in a way that makes you read and read compulsively.
Photo: Sunrise over Salisbury (c) Matt Gibsonīarry's project is the exploration of his cultural history through the history of his family.
