{"product_id":"9781846590603","title":"Adam Gould","description":"\u003cp\u003e“A writer of stunning quality, a novelist of irony and compassion.”—\u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eParis in the 1890s. Adam Gould, whose Anglo-Irish father has disowned him, works in a lunatic asylum run by the celebrated Dr. Blanche, some of whose patients once starred in France’s social firmament and still, when sane, sit at table with distinguished guests.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne such patient is Guy de Maupassant. Another is Belcastel, who has taken the blame for a monarchist plot against the Third Republic and then feigned insanity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMadness and uncertain identity drive Adam’s story, fuelled by Maupassant’s sparkling insights on the matter. Gould falls in love with a married connection of Belcastel’s. And things are made no simpler on his return home, when he becomes entangled with a cousin who looks hauntingly like his dead mother.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy turns dark, witty, and illuminating, this is a gripping tale by an acknowledged master of the historical novel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eMaupassant, a red-eyed, stubbly-bearded, wasted-looking man, was standing in front of a mirror examining a scar on his neck. He did not turn when Adam came in, but addressed their joint images in the mirror.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e‘Sometimes there’s no reflection. Have you ever looked in a mirror and seen no one? Just emptiness. Silvery. Like a pond.’\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJulia O’Faolain\u003c\/b\u003e was born in London in 1932. She has published many books to great acclaim, and her novel \u003ci\u003eNo Country for Young Men\u003c\/i\u003e was nominated for the Man Booker Prize in 1980. She lives in London.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Telegram Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47032764760304,"sku":"9781846590603","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781846590603_p0.jpg?v=1763745499","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781846590603","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}