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From "one of the most rigorous and serious—and anachronistic—novelists working today" (The Washington Post) comes a raucous new tale plumbing the depths of ego and ardor.
In a remote country in Europe, Gerard Desacroux IV, petty tyrant and French nationalist, wants nothing more than to be reunited with Ada, the object of his desire ever since their brief fling in Paris years before. Though Ada is on her way to visit, there are the unfortunate matters of civil unrest, assassination attempts, and Ada's affluent (and highly inconvenient) husband to contend with before bliss is attained. Despite it all, Desacroux IV is determined that nothing—neither war, nor ominous weather, nor the rising swell of indignant peasants—shall stand between him and Ada.
Told with Mark Haber's trademark exuberant absurdity, Ada is a comedy about the mania of power, unrequited love, and the solitude of authority.
"Deliciously ridiculous: complicated, high-minded, and silly." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A sharp, taut portrait of curdled, angry leadership." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Reading Ada confirmed not what I suspected but what I already knew: With each of his books, Mark Haber is building, brick by brick and saint by saint, his immense and immaculate cathedral where style is plot and plot is style. Here, at last and again, the passionate gospel." —Rodrigo Fresán, author of Melvill
"With winding sentences puckered and punched by commas, Haber delivers aesthetic pleasure, profligate humor, and terrifying truth. As with the best and sharpest satires, we peasants outside the gates have no choice but to laugh with eyes open wide." —Amanda Goldblatt, author of Hard Mouth
This information about Ada 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.
Mark Haber was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Florida. His debut novel, Reinhardt's Garden (2019, Coffee House Press), was longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award. His second novel, Saint Sebastian's Abyss (2022, Coffee House Press), was named a best book of 2022 by the New York Public Library and Literary Hub. Mark's fiction has appeared in Guernica, Southwest Review, and Air/Light, among others. Mark lives in Minneapolis.
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