Let Us Be True
From the Betty Trask Prize-winning author of Glass
Published on 10. August 2017
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-78125-740-1 (ISBN)
Description
Paris, 1958.
Ralf is alone, filling his days with glasses of red wine at Jacques' bar, waiting for life to happen to him. Then, one night, Elsa - bold, enigmatic, unpredictable - whirls into Jacques' bar and into Ralf's world, knocking him out of his cautious routine and into a life full of spontaneity and excitement.
But Elsa is hiding something. As Ralf falls deeper in love, he reveals more of his past - his childhood in Nazi Germany, his time in a British tank division at the end of the Second World War. But what is Elsa hiding? And can their love survive it?
Let Us Be True charts the lives of these two extraordinary characters through an era of great uncertainty, from the war and its aftermath through to the deadly unrest of 1960s Paris.
Evocative, charismatic and sweeping in scope, Alex Christofi's second novel is a moving story of love and loss, of the things we hide from ourselves and from others, and of the personal cost of Europe's turbulent twentieth century.
Ralf is alone, filling his days with glasses of red wine at Jacques' bar, waiting for life to happen to him. Then, one night, Elsa - bold, enigmatic, unpredictable - whirls into Jacques' bar and into Ralf's world, knocking him out of his cautious routine and into a life full of spontaneity and excitement.
But Elsa is hiding something. As Ralf falls deeper in love, he reveals more of his past - his childhood in Nazi Germany, his time in a British tank division at the end of the Second World War. But what is Elsa hiding? And can their love survive it?
Let Us Be True charts the lives of these two extraordinary characters through an era of great uncertainty, from the war and its aftermath through to the deadly unrest of 1960s Paris.
Evocative, charismatic and sweeping in scope, Alex Christofi's second novel is a moving story of love and loss, of the things we hide from ourselves and from others, and of the personal cost of Europe's turbulent twentieth century.
Reviews / Votes
A wonderful, moving love story ... Christofi belongs to the school of Julian Barnes ... He has an acute sense of narrative and stylistic decorum. Nothing outrageous or soppy: emotions derive from the quiet, understated accumulation of events. Let Us Be True is only Christofi's second novel. It's tender and sensitively written with a powerful feeling for the passage of time. -- James Marriott * The Times * The reader is sucked into Christofi's prose, a prisoner to his wit and imagination. -- Jonny Sweet * The Skinny * A blazing novel about identity, love, kindness, loss and survival in an uncertain world. Let Us Be True will stay with me for a long time -- Rachel Joyce Praise for Glass:'Charming and funny ... there's enough here to show you the author has plenty more to offer and that, like his hero, he definitely has his heart in the right place. * Daily Mail * Christofi's writing really does gleam with wit, inventiveness and an offbeat charm -- Kate Saunders * The Times * [An] impressive, tightly paced coming-of-age story ... a multi-layered story that follows one man's refracted path through life's prism * Financial Times *
More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Profile Books Ltd
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 144 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
422 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78125-740-1 (9781781257401)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
08/2017
Serpent's Tail
€9.49
Available for download
Person
Alex Christofi was born in Dorset and read English at Oxford University. As well as working as an editor, he writes occasional essays and reviews. His first novel Glass, also published by Serpent's Tail, was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Betty Trask Prize.