Little Caesar
A Novel
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- US$9.99
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From the international bestselling author of These Are the Names: "A brilliant exploration of the uneasy transition from adolescence into adulthood" (The Independent).
After a decade away, gifted young pianist Ludwig Unger returns to his hometown of Kings Ness, England, where the houses are on the verge of falling into the sea. With little else but a plastic bag filled with his mother's ashes, Ludwig hopes to make amends with his lonely past and say goodbye to the familial ghosts that still haunt him.
Ludwig's mother tried to create a normal life for him after his father abandoned them, but Ludwig grew up in her shadow, developing an obsession with her and her sensual allure. When he discovers her secret past as "the Grace Kelly of porn," Ludwig's world spins out of control. He soon finds himself homeless, shouldering the shame of his mother's career, and embarking on a journey around the world in search of answers about his dysfunctional artistic family and the legacy they left behind.
"Beautifully lyrical storytelling under a banner of gray skies and heavy hearts." —Dan Kennedy, host of The Moth storytelling podcast and author of Rock On
"Although perfectly charming as picaresque, the tragedy of Unger's plight registers just as strongly as its understated oddness . . . Wieringa plays for keeps." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"[A] beautifully realized novel about a young man seeking to understand his difficult, eccentric parents." —Library Journal
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As Wieringa s second English-language novel (after Joe Speedboat) begins, down-and-out musician Ludwig Unger returns to coastal Kings Ness, England, where the houses are in constant danger of tumbling into the sea and the rabbits are all inexplicably diseased, making it immediately clear that we re in surreal territory despite the lucidity of the narration and prose. From his perch at a hotel lounge piano where he performs schmaltzy standards, Ludwig tells his tale: upon discovering that his mother was actually Eve LeSage, the Grace Kelley of porn, Ludwig, then 21, traveled to L.A. to confront her, only to witness her Las Vegas comeback after two decades out of the spotlight. Longing for less radical expressions of love from his mother, Ludwig goes with her and her production company to Vienna and Prague. Eve s all-consuming sexuality makes a liability of Ludwig at every turn, but it s an unforeseen problem with her attempt at a career revival that propels Ludwig to flee to Panama, where he encounters the sinister father who abandoned the family. Although perfectly charming as picaresque, the tragedy of Unger s plight registers just as strongly as its understated oddness. There are plenty of precedents for the novel-as-game (fellow Dutch author Cees Nooteboom, for instance) but in Little Caesar, Wieringa plays for keeps.
