{"product_id":"9780547345611","title":"The Stranger at the Palazzo d'Oro and Other Stories","description":"\"This is my only story. Now that I am sixty I can tell it.\" He, the narrator, was a twenty-one-year-old art student traveling the world. She was a countess -- apparently cold, haughty, and inaccessible -- traveling with Haroun, her ambiguous companion. When the young man makes their acquaintance at a hotel in Sicily, he finds himself filled with unexpected lust and playing a part in something he doesn't quite understand. Filled with Theroux's typically effortless but devastating descriptions of people and places, The Stranger at the Palazzo d'Oro is a brilliant portrayal of aging and decay, a shocking tale of sensuality in a golden age.\u003cbr\u003e   The thrill and risk of pursuit and desire mark the accompanying stories of the sexual awakening and rites of passage of a Boston boyhood, the ruin of a writer in Africa, and the bewitchment of a retiree in Hawaii. This is Paul Theroux at his most allusive and wise, writing with a deep understanding of the frailties of men and boys.","brand":"Houghton Mifflin Harcourt","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073975435504,"sku":"9780547345611","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780547345611_p0.jpg?v=1763715297","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780547345611","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}