The Mayor's Tongue - Couverture rigide

'A hybrid of The New York Trilogy and Up the Faraway Tree...it is original and intelligent, and Rich is an elegant writer with a great deal of promise. He is definitely one to watch' The Observer

'Original and wildly ambitious; his inventiveness is joyous' The Guardian

The Mayor's Tongue is a bold, vertiginous debut novel that unfolds in two narratives, one following a young man and the other an old man. The young man is Eugene Brentani, a devotee of the reclusive author and adventurer Constance Eakins, who goes to Trieste to find the girl he loves, who has in turn gone there herself to find Eakins. The old man is Mr. Schmitz, whose wife is dying, and who longs to confide in his dear friend Rutherford. But Rutherford has disappeared, and his letters, postmarked from Italy, become more and more ominous as the weeks pass.

From a young writer of exceptional promise, this exhilarating novel is a meditation on the frustrations of love, the madness of mayors, the failings of language and the transformative powers of storytelling.

'This is a novel with a big brain and a cheeky wink by an author who could well become one of the defining writers of his generation'
The Sunday Telegraph

'If ambition wins prizes, Nathaniel Rich's mantelpiece should be creaking by the end of the year' The Financial Times

'One cannot finish The Mayor's Tongue without having been impressed by it'
The Times

"I read The Mayor's Tongue with ever-increasing delight, rooting with all my heart for the young protagonist on his near-mythic quest. This is an elegantly-structured, brilliantly-told novel, by turns terrifying, touching, and wildly funny, and always generous and magical... a brave book, a novel brimming with brio." (Stephen King)

"The Mayor's Tongue reminds me of Peter Carey's early work- the highest possible praise. It presents a young writer of deep ambition and imagination working with a kind of unnerving maturity." (Colum McCann)

"Ambitious, intelligent, hallucinatory, and, most importantly: heartfelt. Here is a young writer who is not afraid to give literature a kick in the pants." (Gary Shteyngart)

"A magical realist city-break that goes awry" (Thomas Marks Literary Review)

"This is a novel with a big brain and a cheeky wink by an author who could well become one of the defining writers of his generation" (The Sunday Telegraph)