Enigma Variations - by André Aciman (Paperback)

About the Book

"A passionate portrait of love's contradictory power, in five illuminating stories Andrâe Aciman, who has been called "the most exciting new fiction writer of the twenty-first century" (New York magazine), has written a novel that chronicles the life of Paul, whose loves remain as consuming and covetous throughout his life as they were in adolescence. Whether in southern Italy, where as a boy he has a crush on his parents' cabinetmaker; or on a snowbound campus in New England, where his enduring passion for a girl he'll meet again and again over the years is counterpointed by anonymous encounters with other men; or on a tennis court in Central Park; or on a sidewalk in early spring in New York, his attachments are ungraspable, transient, and forever underwritten by raw desire -- not for just one person's body but, inevitably, for someone else's as well. In charting the most inscrutable corners of desire, Aciman proves to be an unsparing reader of the human psyche, soul, and libido, and a master stylist of contemporary literature. With language at once lyrical, bare-knuckled, and unabashedly candid in Enigma Variations, he casts a sensuous, shimmering light over each facet of desire to probe how we ache, want, and waver, and ultimately how we sometimes falter and let go of the very ones who may want only to offer what we crave from them. Behind every step the hero takes, his hopes, denials, fears, and regrets are ready to lay their traps. Yet the dream of love casts its luminous halo. We may not know what we want. We may remain enigmas to ourselves and others. But sooner or later we discover who we've always known we were."--

Book Synopsis

From André Aciman, the author of Call Me by Your Name (now a major motion picture and the winner of the Oscar(TM) for Best Adapted Screenplay) comes "a sensory masterclass, absorbing, intelligent, unforgettable" (Times Literary Supplement).

Enigma Variations charts the life of a man named Paul, whose loves remain as consuming and as covetous throughout his adulthood as they were in his adolescence. Whether the setting is southern Italy, where as a boy he has a crush on his parents' cabinetmaker, or a snowbound campus in New England, where his enduring passion for a girl he'll meet again and again over the years is punctuated by anonymous encounters with men--whether he's on a tennis court in Central Park or on a New York sidewalk in early spring. Paul's attachments are ungraspable, transient, and forever underwritten by raw desire.

Ahead of every step Paul takes, his hopes, denials, fears, and regrets are always ready to lay their traps. Yet the dream of love lingers. We may not always know what we want. We may remain enigmas to ourselves and to others. But sooner or later, we discover who we've always known we were.

Review Quotes

"Aciman writes arousal so beautifully you miss it when it's gone . . . [Aciman is] up to something bolder this time . . . Aciman is all the way himself here. He writes with the ferocity of a writer who's finally getting his vision down, and he has to say it, has to get it out. He's made a magnificent, living thing." --Paul Lisicky, New York Times Book Review

"One of the great novels of this century so far."--Michael Silverblatt, host of "Bookworm" on KCRW

"Is there any writer out there who can conjure the seismic swings and loop-the-loop giddiness of sexual infatuation the way that André Aciman can? He first revealed this talent in his debut novel, Call Me By Your Name, the book that sealed his reputation along with his sublime memoir, Out of Egypt . . . The allure of Enigma Variations rests in its agile sense of the heart's paradoxes and might-have-beens." --Michael Upchurch, Boston Globe

"A breathless, sketched rendering of one man's life in love, Aciman's novel speaks earnestly not only of longing and lust, but also of more complicated emotions . . . [Aciman] portrays Paul convincingly as a sensuous and self-aware figure, forever treading the border between melodrama and tragedy." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

André Aciman is the author of Eight White Nights, Call Me by Your Name, Out of Egypt, False Papers, Alibis, and Harvard Square, and the editor of The Proust Project (all published by FSG). He teaches comparative literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and lives with his wife in Manhattan.