From A to X - (The Essential John Berger) by John Berger (Paperback)

About the Book

"In the dusty, ramshackle town of Suse lives A'ida. Her insurgent lover Xavier has been imprisoned. Resolute, sensuous and tender, A'ida'sletters to the man she loves tell of daily events in the town, and ofits motley collection of inhabitants whose lives flow through hers. But the area is under threat, and as a faceless power inexorably encroachesfrom outside, so the smallest details and acts of humanity--anintimate dance, a shared meal--assume for A'ida a life-affirmingsignificance, acts of resistance against the forces that might otherwise extinguish them. From A to X is a powerfulexploration of how humanity affirms itself in struggle: imagining acommunity which, besieged by economic and military imperialism, findstranscendent hope in the pain and fragility, vulnerability and sorrow of daily existen ce."--

Book Synopsis

In the dusty, ramshackle town of Suse lives A'ida. Her insurgent lover Xavier has been imprisoned. Resolute, sensuous and tender, A'ida'sletters to the man she loves tell of daily events in the town, and ofits motley collection of inhabitants whose lives flow through hers. Butthe area is under threat, and as a faceless power inexorably encroachesfrom outside, so the smallest details and acts of humanity--anintimate dance, a shared meal--assume for A'ida a life-affirmingsignificance, acts of resistance against the forces that mightotherwise extinguish them.

From A to X is a powerfulexploration of how humanity affirms itself in struggle: imagining acommunity which, besieged by economic and military imperialism, findstranscendent hope in the pain and fragility, vulnerability and sorrowof daily existence.

Review Quotes

"An exquisitely written and constructed novel."
--Sunday Times

"Berger has given us an exquisite thing. This is a book of controlled rage sculpted with tools of tenderness and a searing political vision"
--Arundhati Roy

"Berger has found a voice perfectly fitted to express an emotional sincerity quite rare in fiction at the moment."
--Ursula Le Guin

"One of the most tender and poignant books I have read for many years. Its power rests in its economy of means, its account of enduring love surviving oppression. It demonstrates that however foul the forces oppressing us, love and the human spirit are indestructible"
--Harold Pinter

"best understood, like all Berger's best work, as the record of one restless, committed, brilliant consciousness; a late showcase of a mind and sensibility of astonishing range and depth, which should be read as an epic poem or a lyrical essay as much as a novel"
--Melissa Benn, Independent

"This little book is magic... It is original and graceful, sustained by a quiet rage."
--Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

"Wrought with a miniaturist's precision"
--New York Times

About the Author

Storyteller, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, dramatist and critic, John Berger is one of the most internationally influential writers of the last fifty years. His many books include Ways of Seeing, the fiction trilogy Into Their Labours, Here Is Where We Meet, the Booker Prize-winning novel G, Hold Everything Dear, the Man Booker-longlisted From A to X, and A Seventh Man.