Lost for Words - Hardcover

EDWARD ST. AUBYN was born in London in 1960. He is the author of a series of highly acclaimed novels about the Melrose family, including At Last and Mother's Milk, which was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, as well as the novels A Clue to the Exit and On the Edge.

“An entertaining cartwheel of a book with a glittering razor's edge.” ―Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times Book Review

“Everything St. Aubyn writes is worth reading for the cleansing rancor of his intelligence and the fierce elegance of his prose.” ―Anne Enright, The New York Times Book Review

“Lost for Words is . . . a satirical romp that showcases . . . [St. Aubyn's] Waugh-like talent for comedy and his unsparing eye for people's pretensions and self-delusions.” ―Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Lost for Words is a withering satire . . . a deliciously irreverent novel.” ―Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

“Lost for Words is especially witty... a hilarious commentary on the dissonance between the daily lives of authors and how they are perceived publicly.” ―Maddie Crum, Huffington Post

“Lost for Words... is an entertaining squib... [with] perfectly aimed satirical barbs.” ―John Banville, The New York Review of Books

“St. Aubyn... executes his irony with phlegmatic and tightly controlled prose, underneath which lurks the trenchant exasperation of a veteran.” ―Esther Yi, Los Angeles Review of Books

“[D]eeply eloquent writing... St. Aubyn's mastery of language--and the resonance it can hew--can't help but come through.” ―Brian Gallagher, The Seattle Times

“Lost for Words is a withering satire... a deliciously irreverent novel.” ―Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

“Lost for Words [is a] savage field report. ...The best and meanest parts of the book are its pitch-perfect parodies of fashionable genres...” ―Eugenia Williamson, The Boston Globe

“[Lost for Words] contains some of the best writing we're likely to read this year.” ―Hannah Beckerman, Huffington Post

“A light-footed romp and a notable taboo-buster... a frisky satire on modern literary manners and the funniest thing St. Aubyn has ever written.” ―Sunday Telegraph

“St Aubyn's powers of observation are as sharp as ever.” ―Henry Hitchings, Financial Times

“Lost for Words is a fizzing satire that neatly skewers all the contradictions of literary prize-giving... Lost for Words is very funny, but it also makes some serious points about what is good writing, who is best qualified to make judgments about it... [The Melrose novels] are the most extraordinary transmutation of personal horror into great art.” ―Telegraph magazine

“[St. Aubyn is] an adept observer of the elite with a devastating talent for dialogue...” ―Chicago Tribune

“Edward St. Aubyn is among the handful of the current giants of English fiction. He has always had an eye for the sort of satire that does not exclude compassion and understanding; now that eye is trained on the absurd world of awarding literary prizes. The results are hilarious!” ―Edmund White

“A laugh-out-loud sendup of literary prizes . . . Both the author and the reader have great fun.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Lost for Words is a... jaunty, often hilarious farce... very, very funny.” ―Alexander Benaim, Bookforum

“... St. Aubyn offers a hearty satire, full of laughs and groans.” ―Mark Levine, Booklist

“St. Aubyn has a cut-glass prose style, a gift for unexpected metaphor, and a skewering eye... [He] is a conjurer, able to take that greasy deck of cards and make it perform tricks of a sort rarely seen anymore.” ―The Atlantic

“A tangy jeu d'esprit... [St. Aubyn] is such a bitchy, brilliant prose writer that any impression this book is a mere scathing divertissement is amply compensated for by nearly every sentence.” ―Metro