The Age of Reinvention
-
-
5.0 • 3 Ratings
-
-
- £5.99
-
- £5.99
Publisher Description
An international bestseller and finalist for the Prix Goncourt; a suspenseful tale of a tangled love triangle in the long shadow of the war on terror.
Manhattan attorney Sam Tahar appears to have it all: fame, fortune, an enviable marriage to a prominent socialite, and two children. But his charmed life is built on a lie - he isn't the person he pretends to be.
As the son of a Tunisian immigrant growing up in a grimy Paris tower block, Samir Tahar seemed destined to stay on the margins - until he decided to 'cut through the bars of his social jail cell, even if he had to do it with his teeth'. At law school, he became friends with Jewish student Samuel Baron. The two were inseparable until the irresistible Nina, torn between the men, chose Samuel. Samir fled to America, where he assumed Samuel's identity while his former friend remained trapped in a French suburb, a failed writer seething at Samir's triumphs.
Years later, the three meet again and Samir's carefully constructed existence is blown apart, with disastrous consequences. The Age of Reinvention is a smart, captivating story about the temptations and terrible costs of remaking oneself.
'A work of great magnitude. It delves into and embraces the complexity of our modern world, mixes it up, describes, dissects and, finally, helps us to understand it. Brimming with ideas, original, compulsive' Le Figaro
'Stolen identities, social ambition, and suspense: Karine Tuil triumphs with this masterful novel...Unquestionably one of the season's best' Paris Match
'Karine Tuil's energy and inventiveness never flag. A distinctive and powerful work' French Elle
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Goncourt in France, The Age of Reinvention took our breath away. It follows the barbed love triangle of Nina, Samuel and Samir, who met in law school in Paris and went through life-altering experiences together and separately. Author Karine Tuil cuts into the chaos and fearfulness of modern life with the sharpness of a surgeon’s scalpel—masterfully translated, her ninth novel grabs hold and doesn’t let go.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
French author Tuil makes her U.S. debut with this suspenseful, if at times daunting, Gatsby-esque odyssey (a finalist for France's Prix Goncourt) laced with provocative observations of prejudice, politics, and sexism. Sam Tahar, a $1,000-an-hour Manhattan DA, media darling, and sex addict, enjoys the kind of life he could barely have imagined back when he was growing up in Paris as Samir, the poor son of Tunisian immigrants. But the lofty social position as the son-in-law of Rahm Berg, "one of the richest men in the U.S.," comes with a high price: Sam's pretense that he is a North African Jew, not a Muslim. Deep down Sam knows that the question is not if his past will catch up to him but when. Sam's secret lights the fuse on the twisty plot, but where it eventually explodes comes as a complete shock. Sadly, Tuil's theme of anti-Muslim prejudice and its consequences seems even timelier today than when the novel was first published in France in 2013.
