Let Me Be Frank With You: A Frank Bascombe Book

Description

Richard Ford returns with four deftly linked Christmas stories narrated by the iconic Frank Bascombe. Now sixty-eight, Frank resides again in the New Jersey suburb of Haddam, and has thrived - seemingly but not utterly - amidst the devastations of Hurricane Sandy. The desolations of Sandy, which left countless lives unmoored, are the perfect backdrop for Ford - and Bascombe. With a flawless comedic sensibility and unblinking intelligence, these stories range over the full complement of universal subjects: ageing, race, loss, faith, marriage, the real estate debacle - the tumult of the world we live in.

Richard Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1944. He has published eight novels and four collections of stories, including The Sportswriter, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land and, most recently, the New York Times bestseller, Canada. His novel, Independence Day, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the first time the same book had won both prizes. Let Me Be Frank with You was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize 2015. Richard Ford lives in Maine, with his wife, Kristina Ford.

Ford here is at the top of his form ... Stylish, elegiac and funny * John Banville, Guardian Books of the Year * Funny, touching and profound * Financial Times * Exquisitely written, surprising and heart-breaking ... This is a work of understated power, intelligence and not a little mischief * Independent * Another seemingly effortless Ford masterpiece * Daily Mail * A huge talent. There is no denying Frank Bascombe is in ripping form and reading this makes you want to return to the trilogy * Irish Times * Written in a fresh, graceful, accessible voice ... In the supple, thickly detailed Bascombe prose, shifting effortlessly from lyrical to vulgar in a sentence ... There are many small marvels * Sunday Times *