Our Evenings - by Alan Hollinghurst (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Dave Win, the son of a a Burmese man he's never met and a British dressmaker, is thirteen years old when he gets a scholarship to a top boarding school. With the doors of elite English society cracked open for him, heady new possibilities emerge, even as Dave is exposed to the envy and viciousness of his wealthy classmates. Alan Hollinghurst's ... novel follows Dave from the 1960s on--through the possibilities that remained open for him, and others that proved to be illusory: as a working-class brown child in a decidedly white institution; a young man discovering queer culture and experiencing his first, formative love affairs; a talented but often overlooked actor, on the road with an experimental theater company; and an older Londoner whose late-in-life marriage fills his days with an unexpected sense of happiness and security"--

Book Synopsis

From the internationally acclaimed winner of the Booker Prize, "an engrossing tale of one man's personal odyssey as he grows up, framed in exquisite language" (The New York Times Book Review)

"The finest novel yet from one of the great writers of our time."--The Guardian

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Town & Country, Slate, Good Housekeeping, Financial Times, The Economist, Chicago Public Library, Parade, Publishers Weekly, BookPage, Kirkus Reviews

Did I have a grievance? Most of us, without looking far, could find something that had harmed us, and oppressed us, and unfairly held us back. I tried not to dwell on it, thought it healthier not to, though I'd lived my short life so far in a chaos of privilege and prejudice.

Dave Win, the son of a Burmese man he's never met and a British dressmaker, is thirteen years old when he gets a scholarship to a top boarding school. With the doors of elite English society cracked open for him, heady new possibilities emerge, even as Dave is exposed to the envy and viciousness of his wealthy classmates.

Alan Hollinghurst's new novel follows Dave from the 1960s on--through the possibilities that remained open for him, and others that proved to be illusory: as a working-class brown child in a decidedly white institution; a young man discovering queer culture and experiencing his first, formative love affairs; a talented but often overlooked actor, on the road with an experimental theater company; and an older Londoner whose late-in-life marriage fills his days with an unexpected sense of happiness and security.

From "one of our most gifted writers" (The Boston Globe), Our Evenings sweeps readers from our past to our present through the beauty, pain, and joy of one deeply observed life.

Review Quotes

"Our Evenings is that rare bird: a muscular work of ideas and an engrossing tale of one man's personal odyssey as he grows up, framed in exquisite language."--The New York Times Book Review

"A novel about acceptance: of time's passage, of life's limitations, of the small victories that make existence meaningful."--The Guardian

"It's time for American readers to know the genius of Alan Hollinghurst . . . Britain's finest prose stylist. . . . Extraordinary . . . gorgeous."--The Washington Post

"Such passages of precise and perceptive social dissection are what the Hollinghurst fan lives for . . ."--Slate

"Hollinghurst's cultural range--as his new novel, Our Evenings, again confirms--is enormous."--The Atlantic

"Our Evenings is [Hollinghurst's] longest and most stately production yet, the measured, deliberate work of an experienced artist who refuses to be rushed. Vaulty and voluminous . . ."--Los Angeles Review of Books

"Perhaps his best yet. . . If you've never read [Hollinghurst] and enjoy literary fiction, compelling characters and a panorama of British history, Our Evenings is for you."--Parade

"[Our Evenings is] the best novel that's been written about contemporary Britain in the past ten years. It's funny but desperately moving too."--The Sunday Times

"[Our Evenings is] a meditation on growing old, the mutability of relationships, and the fragility of social progress, framed by the world-on-fire mood of the present."--Vulture

"The book contains moments of extraordinary beauty and set pieces as powerful as anything Hollinghurst has written."--The New Yorker

"[Hollinghurst is] infinitely sensitive to landscapes, colours, textures, able to convey the most delicate of sensations and emotions."--The Telegraph

"Exquisitely fashioned . . . a masterful accomplishment."--BookPage, starred review

"Our Evenings is a truly astonishing novel, by turns delicate and ferocious, radical in the way it explores questions of race, class, sexuality, and origins in a genteel English Home Counties setting."--Tash Aw

"Our Evenings is marked by a sharp eye, a tender sensibility, and an unflagging wit. I never wanted it to end."--Emma Donoghue, author of The Pull of the Stars and Room

"This sublime novel--classic Hollinghurst in everything but point of view--could not be timelier."--Paul Mendez, author of Rainbow Milk

"Extraordinary. . . Every aspect is flawless: complex, multidimensional characters, subtle treatment of emotions, beautiful writing, a vividly realized theatrical setting, and more."--Booklist, starred review

"Hollinghurst shows off his singular ability to bring readers inside the world of a character."--Town & Country

"Hollinghurst proves once more to be a master of emotive prose. [Our Evenings is] a tour de force."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Hollinghurst continues to amaze and delight."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

About the Author

Alan Hollinghurst is the author of the novels The Swimming-Pool Library; The Folding Star; The Spell; The Line of Beauty, winner of the Man Booker Prize and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and The Stranger's Child. He has also received the Somerset Maugham Award, the E. M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. He lives in London.