Jeff in Venice, Death in VaranasiGeoff DyerPantheonApril 7 2009A wildly original novel of erotic fulfillment and spiritual yearning. Every two years the international art world descends on Venice for the opening of the Biennale. Among them is Jeff Atmana jaded and dissolute journalistwhose dedication to the cause of Bellini-fuelled partygoing is only intermittently disturbed by the obligation to file a story. When he meets the spellbinding Laura, he is rejuvenated, ecstatic. Their romance blossoms quickly, but is it destined to disappear just as rapidly? Every day thousands of pilgrims head to the banks of the Ganges at Varanasi, the holiest Hindu city in India. Among their number is a narrator who may or may not be the Atman previously seen in Venice. Intending to visit only for a few days he ends up staying for months, and suddenly findsor should that be loses?a hitherto unexamined idea of himself, the self. In a romance he can only observe, he sees a reflection of the kind of pleasures that, willingly or not, he has renounced. In the process, two ancient and watery cities become versions of each other. Could two stories, in two different cities, actually be one and the same story? Nothing Geoff Dyer has written before is as wonderfully unbridled, as dead-on in evocation of place, longing and the possibility of neurotic enlightenment, and as irrepressibly entertaining as Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi.From the Hardcover edition. About the AuthorGeoff Dyer is the author of three novels, a critical study of John Berger, and five genre-defying books, including But Beautiful, which was awarded the Somerset Maugham Prize, and Out of Sheer Rage, which was a National Book Critics Circle finalist. He lives in London.From the Hardcover edition.About IcebergThe Iceberg Reader revolutionizes the reading experience, making it easier than ever to browse, buy and enjoy books.Features- Attractive interface provides a natural reading experience with full pagination.- Table of Contents incorporates one click navigation.- Vertical and horizontal page orientation.- Adjust font size with a pinch, text reflows automatically.- Search the text within a book.- Create margin notes with user notation.About Knopf Doubleday Publishing GroupRandom House, Inc., the world's largest English-language trade book publisher, publishes many of the foremost & most popular fiction & nonfiction authors in hardcover, trade & mass market paperback, audio, electronic, digital & other formats. Random House, Inc. (www.randomhouse.com) is the U.S. division of Random House, the book division of Bertelsmann AG, one of the world's leading media companies. Random House, Inc. has won the most major awards of any publishing company, including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, & the Newbery Medal. Among the dozens of Random House, Inc. publishing divisions & imprints in the U.S. are the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, the Crown Publishing Group, the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, the Knopf Publishing Group, Fodor's Travel Guides, Random House Children's Books, the Random House Publishing Group, & the Random House Audio Publishing Group. Random House's publishing companies in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, & Korea are publishing leaders in their territories.About ScrollmotionScrollMotion, creator of the Iceberg Reader, is a content technology company based in downtown New York City. For more information, visit www.scrollmotion.com.SupportIf you have any technical problems please email us at icebergsupport@scrollmotion.com before you post a review.
