Clue to the Exit

A beautifully modulated novel that shows Edward St. Aubyn at his sparkling best

Charlie Fairburn, successful screenwriter, ex-husband, and absent father, has been given six months to live. He resolves to stake half his fortune on a couple of turns of the roulette wheel and, to his agent's disgust, to write a novel-about death. In the casino he meets his muse. Charlie grows as addicted to writing fiction as she is to gambling.

His novel is set on a train and involves a group of characters (familiar to readers of St. Aubyn's earlier work) who are locked in a debate about the nature of consciousness. As this train gets stuck at Didcot, and Charlie gets more passionately entangled with the dangerous Angelique, A Clue to the Exit comes to its startling climax. Exquisitely crafted, witty, and thoughtful, Edward St. Aubyn's dazzling novel probes the very heart of being.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Picador Paper
Published: 09/01/2015
ISBN: 9781250046031
Pages: 208
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.50w x 0.50d

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 04/01/2015 pg. 62
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2015
Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2015 pg. 19
Publishers Weekly 06/15/2015
Booklist 08/01/2015 pg. 27
Library Journal 09/01/2015 pg. 96
New York Times Book Review 09/06/2015 pg. 13
Shelf Awareness 09/11/2015
New York Times Book Review 09/13/2015 pg. 30
New Yorker (The) 12/07/2015 pg. 76
Library Journal 04/01/2015