Published: 18 June 2018
ISBN: 9780241979761
Imprint: Penguin General UK
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
RRP: $22.99

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The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth

William Boyd

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The dazzling new book from one of Britain's best-selling novelists

A philandering art dealer tries to give up casual love affairs - seeking only stolen kisses as a substitute. A man recounts his personal history through the things he has stolen from others throughout his life. A couple chart the journey of their five year relationship backwards, from awkward reunion to lovelorn first encounter. And, at the heart of the book, a 24-year old young woman, Bethany Mellmoth, embarks on a year-long journey of wishful and tentative self-discovery.
The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth depicts the random encounters that bring the past bubbling to the surface; the impulsive decisions that irrevocably shape a life; and the endless hesitations and loss-of-nerve that wickedly complicate it. These funny, surprising and moving stories are a resounding confirmation of Boyd's powers as one of our most original and compelling storytellers.

Published: 18 June 2018
ISBN: 9780241979761
Imprint: Penguin General UK
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
RRP: $22.99

Categories:

Share…

About the author

William Boyd

William Boyd is the author of one work of non-fiction, three collections of short stories and thirteen novels, including the bestselling historical spy thriller Restless – winner of the Costa Novel of the Year – and Any Human Heart, in which the character of Ian Fleming features. Among his other awards are the Whitbread First Novel Prize, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Prix Jean Monnet. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2005, he was awarded the CBE.

Born in Ghana in 1952, William Boyd spent much of his early life in West Africa. He now divides his time between the south-west of France and Chelsea, where he lives a stone’s throw from James Bond’s London address.

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Praise for The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth

A riveting short story collection from one of the best
Woman & Home

Boyd delights in themes of deceit and getting one over on the competition...such finely-honed prose
Evening Standard

Boyd has always been eloquent, his narratives memorably stylish
Literary Review

Boyd is dependably a master of what's most true: an always elegant realist whose characters will get under your skin
GQ

Boyd shows why he's so often compared to Graham Greene.... brilliant and bewitching collection of stories
Financial Times

Clever and, yes, cinematic
Observer

Enjoyably spot-on
Sunday Times

He is a skilled and humorous storyteller, and his pleasure in exploring life's uncertainties is apparent
i

Highly entertaining
Mail on Sunday

In a 2008 essay, Boyd explained that writing short stories gives him a welcome chance "to change habits, to experiment, to take risks, to try out different voices". And in the best stories here, it's a chance he takes full advantage of, serving up an impressive variety of settings and protagonists
Daily Telegraph

Like stealing badges, like shucking oysters, once you have one of these stories you can't stop. Lights out was after midnight
Times

No one charts the highs and lows of the human condition like Boyd
Red

Quite brilliant. There has been no decline in the wit, the style, the precise observation
The Tablet

Smart, funny and compelling
The Times Books of the Year

Spiky, sparking and simply brilliant
Sunday Mirror

The stories, as is often the case with Boyd, are packed with characters whose lives are upended by random upheavals
Sunday Times

These stories, by one of Britain's most compelling authors about how the post is inescapable - from random encounters to impulsive acts - is funny and surprising
Elle

Unfailingly amusing and clever
Guardian

Varied, entertaining
Daily Mail

What Boyd does so mesmerisingly...is make the insignificant utterly significant...you are confronted by the full force of Boyd's undeniable talent for storytelling, as he inventively plays with time and form, and infuses his prose with themes of lust, love and emotional incompetence
Stylist