
Ocean Sea
Alessandro Baricco(Author)
Canongate Books (Publisher)
Published on 17. July 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-84767-074-8 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
A handful of disparate lives converge at a remote seaside inn: a lovelorn professor, a renowned painter, an inscrutable seductress - and a beautiful young girl, fatally ill, brought to the sea by a desperate father's last hope. An intricate web of destinies and associations begins to reveal itself, but it is not until the arrival of a mysterious sailor called Adams that the truth in all its dreamlike beauty and cruelty becomes clear.
Adams may furnish the key to the girl's salvation, but only the fulfilment of his obsessive secret purpose - to answer murder with murder - can conclude the journey that has brought him from the ends of the earth. Alternately playful and profoundly serious, Baricco's novel surges with the hypnotic power of the ocean sea.
Adams may furnish the key to the girl's salvation, but only the fulfilment of his obsessive secret purpose - to answer murder with murder - can conclude the journey that has brought him from the ends of the earth. Alternately playful and profoundly serious, Baricco's novel surges with the hypnotic power of the ocean sea.
Reviews / Votes
Baricco is an exemplary storyteller . . . [he] shows a Bertolucci-like, chair-hopping, gesticulating sense of sheer joy, that turns this tragic tale into a bittersweet tragi-comedy. * * Time Out * * Compelling, profound and sharply funny -- Stephanie Merritt * * Observer * * Highly romantic and breathtakingly lyrical * * New York Times Book Review * * Baricco has produced a work of miraculously spun sugar, at which many people will gasp in admiration. * * Spectator * * This is a novel driven by the pleasure of narrative. Unburdened by a single perspective, the writing is ethereal. * * Telegraph * * Baricco has produced a beguilingly unusual beach book. * * The Times * *More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
174 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84767-074-8 (9781847670748)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Persons
Alessandro Baricco was born in Turin in 1958. He is the author of many novels, including Silk and Without Blood, all of which have been translated into English. His novel Silk became a film starring Kiera Knightley in 2007 and he has also produced collections of essays and a theatrical monologue. He lives in Italy.

