- Published: 1 December 2011
- ISBN: 9780099542261
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 304
- RRP: $19.99
Nemesis















- Published: 1 December 2011
- ISBN: 9780099542261
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 304
- RRP: $19.99
Heart-wrenchingly powerful
Sunday Times
A mesmerically imagined work of realism... A shocking gem... A masterclass in literature and life, that reaches into the pits of the dead
Guardian
What makes Roth such an important novelist is the effortless way he brings together the trivial and the profoundly serious
Independent
A masterful performance
Spectator
Nemesis is an artfully constructed suspenseful novel with a cunning twist
J.M. Coetzee
The genius of Philip Roth...back at his imperious best in this heartbreaking tale... The eloquence of Roth's storytelling makes Nemesis one of his most haunting works
Daily Mail
Cantor is one of Roth's best creations and the atmosphere of terror is masterfully fashioned
Tibor Fischer, Sunday Telegraph
Very fine, very unsettling
Douglas Kennedy, The Times
A perfectly proportioned Greek tragedy played out against the background of the polio epidemic that swept Newark, New Jersey, during the summer of 1944
Adrian Turpin, Financial Times
Outstanding
Sunday Times
Nemesis - if it's not too sinister to say so - is a breath of fresh air, because polio provides Roth with a new, outward-looking and substantial subject around which his writing can thrive; and, perhaps for this reason, the book contains many of the things that I find most exhilarating in his work
Observer
Nemesis is brief, astoundingly assured and devastating
Chris Wayell, Time Out
The "tyranny of contingency" is his theme and he pursues it with the cool, bleak brutality of a Greek tragedian
Siobhan Murphy, Metro
Roth is best known for sex and jokes, and Nemesis features neither, but it is a masterly performance none the less: an angry kaddish, or furious act of mourning, as deft and subtle in its construction as it is wrenchingly violent emotionally. Unmistakably a late work, it recalls Beethoven's Op. 127
Lewis Jones, Spectator
Roth's book has the elegance of a fable and the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama
New Yorker
Roth has given us a novel that is as moving and surprising as it is cruel and melancholy
Jason Cowley, New Statesman, Christmas round up
An affecting work, with a memorable twist
Daily Telegraph, Christmas round up
I admired Philip Roth's Nemesis
David Nicholls, Guardian, Christmas round up
Roth's best novel for some time
Rose Tremain, Guardian, Christmas round up
Grave little masterpiece
David Sexton, Evening Standard, Christmas round up
A story simply told
Alan Taylor, Sunday Herald, Christmas round up
Roth is a superb narrator, and the pace and balance of this fairly short work is excellent. The Newark of 1944 as well as the idyllic nostalgic summer camp of Indian Hill is evoked with feeling and emotion
Historical Novels Review
This is Vintage Roth: the story of a good man worn down - and finally ruined - by circumstance. Everything about it is perfectly judged...the writing throughout is flawless and the ending, when it comes, is both clever and profoundly moving
Observer
An elegiac and eloquent late work that brims with unexpected sentiment
Emma Hagestadt, Independent
It's hauntingly scary...a very well-told story
William Leith, Evening Standard
A superbly managed novel. It may not be long, but it's full, complete. Roth's ear has never been better, and there is an almost unbelievable mastery of technique in the way that the prose slips between narrative and speech. This is unputdownable, and although it is one of my jobs to show you how authors do this kind of thing, I can't here, except by invoking some kind of magical talent on Roth's part
Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
Exceptional
Metro
A poignant, humane novel about how brute bad luck can interfere with one's hopes of becoming a hero. The theme is reminiscent of Lord Jim - but for me, this goes deeper than Conrad's novel and is a better read too
Independent on Sunday
Roth's magnificent novel takes you into a city sweltering with heat and fear... Characters brim with complex believability and, from its perfect choice of narrator to its beautifully exact prose, everything seems in place but never cut and dried: quandaries reverberate around the inexorable momentum of its storyline
Peter Kemp, Sunday Times
A very well-told story
William Leith, Scotsman
As suspenseful as a thriller and as emotional as any love story
John Koski, YOU Magazine
A tragic and moving story from one of America's greatest writers
Mail on Sunday
This is such an emotionally harrowing story
Daily Mail
Roth asks how we can live a full life given the precariousness of the human condition
London Review of Books