Autobiography Of Red
  • Published: 29 October 2024
  • ISBN: 9781784879020
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 160
  • RRP: $22.99

Autobiography Of Red

Formats & editions
Paperback
29 Oct 2024
Tr. Paperback
15 Aug 1999
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Published as a classic for the first time, this is Anne Carson's modern epic poem, an unconventional recreation of an ancient Greek myth and a wholly original coming-of-age story set in the present.

This is a volcanic journey into the soul of a winged red monster named Geryon. It is queer coming-of-age love story, a Greek myth retold, and a modern classic.

Tormented as a boy by his brother, Geryon escapes to a parallel world of photography. He falls deeply in love with Herakles, a golden young man, who deserts him at the peak of infatuation. So Geryon retreats ever further into the world created by his camera, fascinated by his wings, his redness and the fantastic accident of who he is. But all is suddenly and irrevocably shattered by Herakles’ return.

Autobiography of Red is a deceptively simple narrative filled with currents of meaning, emotion, and the truth about what it’s like to be red. An extraordinary, modern epic poem - moving, disturbing and delightful.

'Totally engrossing' Ocean Vuong

'This book is amazing - I haven't discovered any writing in years that's so marvellously disturbing' Alice Munro

‘A profound love story...sensuous and funny, poignant, musical and tender’ Ruth Padel, New York Times Book Review
  • Published: 29 October 2024
  • ISBN: 9781784879020
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 160
  • RRP: $22.99
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About the author

Anne Carson

Anne Carson was born in Canada and has been a professor of Classics for over thirty years. Her awards and honours include the T. S. Eliot Prize, a Lannan Award, the Pushcart Prize, the Griffin Prize, on two occasions, and fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations.

Also by Anne Carson

Wrong Norma
H of H Playbook
Penguin Modern Poets 1
Red Doc>
Decreation
The Beauty Of The Husband
Men In The Off Hours
See all

Praise for Autobiography Of Red

Anne Carson is, for me, the most exciting poet writing in English today. Autobiography of Red is a wonderful, mongrel work, a strange and ambitious bridge between classical texts and contemporary autobiographical poetry

Michael Ondaatje

Her work is full of moments of startling originality and beauty. The poems play with character and plot, myth and magic; they are rich with attitude and wit and the undertow of grief. If she was a prose writer she would instantly be recognised as a genius

Colm Tóibín, Times Literary Supplement

Anne Carson is a daring, learned, unsettling writer. Autobiography of Red, which perhaps comes closest to representing the range of her voice and gifts, is a spellbinding achievement

Susan Sontag

I'm a big fan of her work... There's a joy in encountering a mind that takes nothing for granted... She pinpoints the collision of oracle and anachronism

Teju Cole
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