A Game for the Living: A Virago Modern Classic

Description

BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, CAROL AND STRANGERS ON A TRAIN 'The No.1 Greatest Crime Writer' THE TIMES 'I love Highsmith so much . . . What a revelation her writing is' GILLIAN FLYNN 'No one has created psychological suspense more densely and deliciously satisfying' VOGUE 'Ramon had done it. Obviously! He thought about Ramon, his Catholic soul trapped in his passion for Lelia. He'd find Ramon and see that he paid with his life for what he had done.' In A Game for the Living threads of sexual jealousy and guilt are shot through with all Patricia Highsmith's uncanny talent for the unexpected. Ramon mends furniture. Theodore paints. A devout Catholic, Ramon lives in Mexico City, not far from where he was born into poverty. Theodore, a rich German transplanted to a country where money buys some comfort but no peace, believes in nothing at all. You'd think the two had nothing in common. Except, of course, that both had slept with Lelia. The two were good friends, so neither minded sharing her affections. They did mind, however, when Lelia was found raped, murdered, and horribly mutilated. The two friends, suspects both, twist in a limbo of tension and doubt, each seeking his own form of solace and truth. A thrilling, psychologically complex novel, rich with setting, A Game for the Living is Highsmith at her best.

Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to New York when she was six. In her senior year, she edited the college magazine, having decided at the age of sixteen to become a writer. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train (1950), was made into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. The Talented Mr Ripley (1955), introduced the fascinating anti-hero Tom Ripley, and was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1999 by Anthony Minghella. Highsmith died in Locarno, Switzerland, in February 1995. Her last novel, Small g: A Summer Idyll, was published posthumously, the same year.

The No.1 Greatest Crime Writer - The Times I love Highsmith so much . . . What a revelation her writing is Highsmith writes about men like a spider writing about flies - The Observer No one has created psychological suspense more densely and deliciously satisfying - Vogue For eliciting the menace that lurks in familiar surroundings, there's no one like Patricia Highsmith - Time