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Vintage paperback edition of this witty novel from A.S. Byatt which deftly explores the craft of the biographer, and the often fruitless searches he or she undertakes in search of a subject. "...dazzling, captivating, utterly convincing. Readers of lively curiosity and wide interests will revel in it" "The Scotsman".
Synopsis
Fed up with stultifying criticism, Phineas decides to study the messiness of 'real life'. Doing nothing by halves, he sets out to write a biography of a great biographer. But a 'whole life' is hard to find. How do we put the idea of a person together? Everywhere he looks, he finds fragments and gaps. Trails run cold and mysteries are unresolved.