In Paris, art student Aurelie Renard throws a stone and sets in motion a chain of events that will turn her life upside down. Suddenly finding herself in sole charge of a stranger's baby, and with no idea how babies work, it's only thanks to the help of her adoring professor and her gun-toting heartbreaker of a best friend that Aurelie Renard is able to navigate her way through the most extraordinary and calamitous seven days of her life. Meanwhile, in a Pigalle cinema, a naked man is doing his best to show the people of Paris, Aurelie among them, what it means to be alive . . .
Dan Rhodes was born in 1972. He is the author of six other books: Anthropology, Don't Tell Me the Truth About Love, Timoleon Vieta Come Home, Gold, Little Hands Clapping and, writing as Danuta de Rhodes, The Little White Car. In 2003 he was named by Granta magazine as one of their Twenty Best of Young British Novelists and in 2010 by the Daily Telegraph as one of their Best British Novelists Under Forty. He is the winner of many awards including the Author's Club First Novel Award and the E.M. Forster Award. He lives in Derbyshire.
Title: This is Life
Author: Rhodes, Dan
ISBN: 9780857862457
Binding:
Publisher: Canongate Books
Publication Date: 2012-03-01
Number of Pages: 432
Weight: 0.4809 kg
The funniest, most romantic book Dan Rhodes has ever written. It's full of zest and joy and art and Paris. Only to be read if you enjoy happiness. -- Jenny Colgan
Rhodes is that real, rare thing - a natural storyteller * * Sunday Times * *
My favourite writer who isn't dead. * * Stewart Lee * *
Dan Rhodes is a true original, with a fresh, funny, quirky style that seems to owe nothing to other writers and everything to his own powers of invention -- Hilary Mantel
Wonderfully unpredictable. Draws you in from the first page -- Alan Carr
A literary treasure -- Louis de Bernieres
Bound to be every bit as weird and inexplicitly beautiful as all Rhode's other novels. * * Independent on Sunday * *
This is the mad-yet-logical world of Dan Rhodes, possibly Britain's most idiosyncratic writer.. delightfully unique -- Kate Saunders * * The Times * *
The wit is spot-on, the writing immaculate, the atmosphere so French you can smell the Gauloises....I loved it -- Wendy Holden * * Daily Mail * *
This is Life is a true melange of talk, action, lust and performance art . . . the novel has many charms -- Daneet Steffens * * The Independent on Sunday * *
His novel is not a mockery of the chick-lit genre, even if it is aware of the narrative conventions of the genre and takes gentle pot-shots every now and then. It simply takes a popular formula and gives it a very welcome edge. Superb -- Lesley McDowell * * The Scotsman * *
A reminder of how strange ordinary life is and it challenges us to adjust to the darkness -- Michael Holroyd * * The Guardian * *
Rhodes has enormous fun here, sending up the intellectual onanism of the visual arts world in conspicuously clean, plain prose while also embracing the romantic mythology of his Parisian setting -- Claire Allfree * * Metro * *
Whether it's a novel about life imitating art or the other way around, Rhodes, like Le Machine, has managed to bottle something of both -- Emma Hagestadt * * Independent * *
It is irresistible: quality froth infused with restrained comic irony, some very nice touches of dark humour and one or two genuinely arresting moments -- Toby Clements * * Daily Telegraph * *
Dan Rhodes's heavily quirky, warmly improbable feel-good novel is romantic and satirical by turns, with a serious, sentimental core -- Phil Baker * * Sunday Times * *
This is Life is a charming and warm-hearted book, full of dark paradoxes and witty ideas and sexual jokes and people you would like to spend time with * * Observer * *
Rhodes is sharp, witty and endlessly clever, and, as the plot deftly side-steps from the ridiculous to the sublime and back, there's little that isn't charming along the way * * Irish Times * *
This is Life is sharp, satirical, heart-warming, a times silly, knowing and hugely enjoyable -- Doug Johnstone * * Big Issue * *
Rhodes is a masterful storyteller and this brims with the warmth of a writer in love with his characters. His comic timing is impeccable and his ability to create hilariously up-ended set pieces is unsurpassable. Dan Rhodes may just be the funniest author writing today * * Booktrust * *
Rhodes is a masterful storyteller and this brims with the warmth of a writer in love with his characters. His comic timing is impeccable and his ability toi create hilariously up-ended set pieces is unsurpassable. Dan Rhodes may just be the funniest author writing today * * Booktrust * *
