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  • Published: 22 September 2022
  • ISBN: 9780241996386
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $26.00

The Bad Angel Brothers




A deliciously dark, atmospheric novel about family and brotherhood from one of America's most distinctive writers

There's sibling rivalry and then there's the relationship of brothers Cal and Frank Belanger, which takes fraternal antipathy to a whole new level.

Enemies seemingly since childhood, the small town of Littleford, where they are nicknamed 'The Bad Angel Brothers', just isn't big enough to hold them both. So Cal strikes out for the world's wild places - a gifted geologist in search of gold and other precious minerals, leaving Frank to develop a successful career as the town's lawyer, fixer and local hero.

Apart, their differences are muted by distance, but when Cal, newly rich and newly wed, returns to the town of his birth, to buy a house and raise a family, Frank gives him the opposite of a brotherly welcome. From undermining Cal's marriage, while Cal is away on business, to torpedoing his finances, nothing is off the table, setting the scene for a tale of gleefully vicious betrayals and reprisals, culminating in the ultimate plan: murder.

Few authors have as keen an eye for human nature as the inimitable Paul Theroux, and this riveting tale of adventure, betrayal, and the true cost of family bonds is a remarkable new work from one of America's most distinctive writers.

  • Published: 22 September 2022
  • ISBN: 9780241996386
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $26.00

About the author

Paul Theroux

Paul Theroux was born in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1941, and published his first novel, Waldo, in 1967. He wrote his next three novels, Fong and the Indians, Girls at Play and Jungle Lovers, after a five-year stay in Africa. He subsequently taught at the University of Singapore, and during his three years there produced a collection of short stories, Sinning with Annie, and highly praised novel Saint Jack. His other publications include The Black House (1974), a novel; The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia (1975), an account of his journey by train from London to Tokyo and back; The Family Arsenal (1976); The Consul's File (1977); Picture Palace (1978; winnner of the Whitread Literary Award); A Christmans Card (1978; The Old Patagonian Express (1979); World's End and Other Stories (1980); London Snow (1980); The Mosquito Coats, which was the Yorkshire Post Novel of the Year for 1981 and the joint winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; The London Embassy (1982); The Kingdom by the Sea (1983); Doctor Slaughter (1985); Sunrise with Seamonsters (1985); The Imperial Way (1985); O-Zone (1986); Riding the Iron Rooster (1988); My Secret History (1989) and Chicago Loop (1990).

Paul Theroux is married with two children and divides his time between London and Cape Cod.

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Praise for The Bad Angel Brothers

A manic tale of sibling rivalry that owes its small town setting mostly to John Cheever, and its seething resentment mostly to William Shakespeare . . . at once maundering and intensely emotionally violent

Observer

Searing and memorable . . . Theroux plays skillfully on reader sympathies until the bitter end, showing how a man's beliefs can make him turn to violence

Publishers Weekly

American master Paul Theroux delivers a chilling psychological novel in The Bad Angel Brothers

Honolulu Magazine

Watch the magician's hands: Theroux has some powerful twists in his hat, and the language and compelling prose with which to offer them into the spotlight

New York Journal of Books

Theroux's prose is so rich, his perceptions so many-layered, he involves us in a world that extends well beyond the physical limits of his novel

The Times