Oxygen
Synopsis
Summer 1997. Alec Valentine returns to his childhood home in the West Country to care for his dying mother, Alice. Alec’s brother, Larry, will visit from San Francisco, knowing that it will be almost impossible to hide the facts of his declining acting career and doomed marriage. In Paris, Laszlo Lazar, a Hungarian exile and playwright, whose play Alec is translating, appears to have it all - beautiful home, loving boyfriend, adoring friends, critical acclaim. But Laszlo’s recurring memories of the 1956 uprising force him to confront the horrors of the birthplace he abandoned. Each character will soon face a different challenge and take part in an act of liberation – though not necessarily the one foreseen.
Author Biography
Andrew Miller was born in Bristol in April 1960. He grew up in the West Country and has lived in Spain, Japan, Ireland and France. His first novel, Ingenious Pain, was published in 1997 and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Grinzane Cavour Prize in Italy. His second novel, Casanova (1998), met with similar acclaim. Both books are currently being adapted for film. His next book, Oxygen, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Whitbread Novel Award in 2001. He lives in Brighton.
