Permanence
A Novel
-
- ¥1,900
発行者による作品情報
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE: From the Booker Prize–longlisted author of speculative dreamscapes The Water Cure and Blue Ticket comes the story of an impassioned affair and the city designed to foster it—perfect for fans of I Who Have Never Known Men.
"It reads like a dream which is secretly a nightmare. I loved it." —Vincenzo Latronico, author of Perfection
"The kind of book that you’ll want to read in one long gulp, the literary equivalent of a crisp glass of rosé." —The Sunday Times (London)
Clara and Francis are in love, but nobody knows it. For months they have been stealing away from their respective lives, leaving no trace of their relationship behind. Their time together is always excruciatingly sweet and all too short. Until one day they wake up in an apartment neither of them recognizes, with no memory of how they got there.
They find themselves in a new, unnamed city, a self-contained sanctuary where adulterers live openly as couples. Here there are fountains and old town squares and perfect cafes with checkered tablecloths. Ripe fruits wait on the counter each morning, invisible threads bind each lover to the other, and their primary responsibility is to enjoy one another. Contact with the real world is impossible and the city’s whims are mysterious—but now those stolen afternoons never have to end.
How much would you sacrifice for a life you never thought possible? And how long can you stay in paradise before the cracks start to show?
An exploration of desire, novelty, and choice, Permanence explores the tantalizing quandary of what, if anything, can withstand the daily toll of “forever”.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An adulterous couple wakes up one morning in a strange new land with the freedom to enjoy their illicit relationship in Mackintosh's ethereal latest (after Cursed Bread). Clara, a young and spirited gallery receptionist, has been dating Francis, a married art history professor and father, for a year, but she never spent the night with him until now. They wake up to find themselves in an apartment stocked with their favorite books and clothes, surrounded by a city filled with golden light, music, and other happy cheating couples. They begin to settle into what they call "the city of impermanence," until they have a fight, triggered by Clara's sadness over not having Francis to herself if they return to the real world, and exacerbated by Francis's confession that he hopes to go back. Mackintosh invests more effort in exploring the characters than developing the speculative conceit. As a result, the novel feels more like a situation than a story, which might frustrate some readers. Still, she writes with delicate precision about Clara's yearning ("In the city there was time for all of this, and more. Time for the ordinary, to which we normally give little value"). It's a dreamy meditation on the power of love.
