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Taut, stylish, and psychologically acute, Afternoon of a Faun dramatizes the search for truth as an accusation of sexual assault plunges a journalist into a series of deepening crises.
"The truth might be hard to bring to light, but that didn't mean it didn't exist, because it did exist: fixed in its moment, unalterable, and certainly not a matter of 'belief.' "
When an old flame accuses him of sexual assault in her memoir, expat English journalist Marco Rosedale is brought rapidly and inexorably to the brink of ruin. His reputation and livelihood at stake, Marco confides in a close friend, who finds himself caught between the obligations of friendship and an increasingly urgent desire to uncover the truth. This unnamed friend is drawn, magnetized, into the orbit of the woman at the center of the accusation - and finds his position as the safely detached narrator turning into something more dangerous. Soon, the question of his own complicity becomes impossible to avoid.
Set during the months leading up to Donald Trump's election, with detours into the 1970s, this propulsive novel investigates the very meaning of truth at a time when it feels increasingly malleable. An atmospheric and unsettling drama from a novelist acclaimed as "the literary descendent of Dostoevsky and Patricia Highsmith" (Boston Globe), Afternoon of a Faun combines a sharply observed study of our shifting social mores with a meditation on what makes us believe, or disbelieve, the stories people tell about themselves.
"Starred Review. Of the novels to come out of the #MeToo moment to date, none is more riveting, insightful, and unsettling. Lasdun is the perfect writer to navigate these troubled waters from the male perspective." - Kirkus
"Set in the days just after Trump won the Republican nomination - and referencing disgraced figures including Anthony Weiner and Roger Ailes - this novel comes to a brilliantly ironic conclusion that will leave readers reeling. Mainstream literary fiction readers will appreciate this one as well." - Publishers Weekly
"Afternoon of a Faun is an exquisitely rendered tale of moral arithmetic, erotic murkiness, and men's fascination with other men's scorecards. It's also Lasdun at his most pleasurably diabolical." - Laura Kipnis
Afternoon of a Faun is a brilliantly imagined, devastatingly insightful, and powerfully rendered novel of sexual exploitation and betrayal...it is meticulously written and intelligent, both a novel of ideas and a cautionary tale for the #MeToo era." - Joyce Carol Oates
This information about Afternoon of a Faun was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo by Tania Barricklo
James Lasdun was born in London and now lives in the US. He has published novels, a memoir, collections of poetry, books of short stories, and is the recipient of the 2026 Katherine Anne Porter Award, given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His New Yorker article on the Murdaugh case, The Corrupt World Behind the Murdaugh Murders, was the magazine's most widely read article in 2023. His story The Siege was adapted by Bernardo Bertolucci for his film Besieged. With the director Jonathan Nossiter he co-wrote the films Sunday, which won Best Feature and Best Screenplay awards at Sundance, and Signs and Wonders, starring Charlotte Rampling and Stellan Skarsgaard. He is an Executive Producer on the HBO series DTF St Louis, which was inspired by his New Yorker article, My Dentist's ...
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Link to James Lasdun's Website
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