{"product_id":"9780679737230","title":"A Painter of Our Time","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Fresh and inventive…dramatizes one of the cardinal dilemmas of our age.\"—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe year is 1956. Soviet tanks are rolling into Budapest. In London an expatriate Hungarian painter named Janos Lavin has disappeared following a triumphant one-man show at a fashionable gallery. Where has he gone? Why has he gone? The only clues may lie in the diary, written in Hungarian, that Lavin has left behind in his studio.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eIn his urgent and visionary first novel, John Berger created a multilayered intellectual and moral detective story. For Lavin's diaries— found, translated, and annotated by his English friend John—suggest far more than the motives for his disappearance; they also reveal the ways in which a man may reconcile the solitary call of art with the demands of conscience. With uncanny understanding, John Berger has written one of the most convincing portraits of a painter in modern literature, a revelation of art and exile.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e\"John Berger is one of the most original of contemporary thinkers. [His] ability to see something clearly, with fresh surprise yet profound understanding, makes his writing singularly moving and informative.\"—\u003ci\u003eWashington Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47060072923376,"sku":"9780679737230","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780679737230_p0.jpg?v=1763606891","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780679737230","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}