Benjamin Markovits

Three years after Lord Byron dismissed him from his service, Dr John Polidori has fallen on hard times. And then a young woman mistakes the doctor for the poet. As the pair fall in love, Polidori knows that he can only emerge from Byron''s shadow if he confesses his true identity to the dcluded girl; but was it only Byron''s shadow that led her to love him in the first place? And a ghost story, "The Vampyre", is published under Byron''s name, but will the truth of the matter be uncovered?

Amid a swirl of parties and engagements, eligible bachelors and dazzling debutantes comes nineteen-year-old Lady Annabella Milbanke, already well versed in London social life in the early nineteenth century. Then, an invitation to a post-breakfast waltzing party arrives. Lord Byron''s presence at the party both excites and appalls, and amongst his admirers, Annabella notices his partial relation - his sister - Augusta Leigh. It is these three characters that form the extraordinary menage a trois at the heart of this remarkably elegant novel. Written with enormous passion and sympathetic understanding for the complex passions at the heart of Byron''s personality, "A Quiet Adjustment" dramatises the rise and fall of a famous literary romance and the relationship in its shadow.

An unforgettable novel about basketball and race, friendship and envy, and the powerful divide that separates greatness from ordinary life.

An unforgettable novel about basketball and race, friendship and envy, and the powerful divide that separates greatness from ordinary life.

Nineteen-year -old Annabella Milbanke, visiting London for the swirl of parties and engagements of the season, is introduced to Byron at a waltz. He has just published Childe Harold, and is surrounded by a crowd of admirers, one of whom is his half-sister Augusta Leigh. Annabella and Byron fall in love, but Augustas unwelcome presence in their relationship becomes increasingly unbearable. Caught up in a potentially scandalous love triangle, Annabella must decide whether following her heart is the most dangerous thing she has ever done . . .

Three years after Lord Byron dismissed him from his service, Dr John Polidori has fallen on hard times. And then a young woman mistakes the doctor for the poet. As the pair fall in love, Polidori knows that he can only emerge from Byrons shadow if he confesses his true identity to the deluded girl; but was it only Byrons shadow that led her to love him in the first place? And a ghost story, The Vampyre, is published under Byrons name, but will the truth of the matter be uncovered?

Douglas Pitt is a man obsessed. Laughed at, mocked, and dismissed at every turn, Pitt has dedicated the best part of an unremarkable academic career attempting to prove the genius of Samuel Highgate Syme (b.1794, Baltimore; soldier, geologist, inventor). Pitts postulation is simple enough: Syme, through some fault, wrong-doing, conspiracy or mischance, has not been credited with the recognition he deserves for hitting upon a key discovery in the advance of modern science - the theory of continental drift.Lacking the crucial last piece of the puzzle to convince his peers and normalize his family life, Pitts emotional equilibrium is stabilised in a magical stroke of fortune when he uncovers a contemporary manuscript written by a fledgling German scientist, Friedrich Muller, which recounts a year (1821) in the company of the irrepressible Syme.Switching between these beguiling and colourful narratives, The Syme Papers takes the reader on an odyssey into the heart of Maryland and Virginia in the 1820s by way of London and Texas today. An epic stew of intellectual procrastination, early nineteenth-century picaresque and late twentieth-century angst, it is a novel of genius and failure; of a man who thought he could prove the world was hollow, and in the glorious process of discovery, broke his own heart.Teeming with comic detail and fierce intelligence, The Syme Papers recreates a time when to question the world and the origins of creation was the greatest project a scientist could undertake.

Elegant and absorbing.GuardianA book to be savoured.ObserverIntimate, funny . . . Masterfully done.Daily MailSophisticated and engrossing.Literary ReviewPaul is a mid-ranking tennis professional on the ATP tour. His girlfriend Dana is an ex-model and photographer, and together with their two-year-old son they form a tableau of the contented upper-middle-class New York family. But Pauls parents and siblings have come to stay in the build-up to the US Open, and with summer storms brewing, several generations of domestic tension are brought to boiling point . . .

Fresh out of college and uncertain how to proceed with life, the narrator of Ben MarkovitsPlayingDays finds himself drifting towards a career that once obsessed his father - professional basketball. Gaining a place on a minor league German team, he leaves Texas and lands in the small rather desolate town of Landshut, playing basketball with an eclectic group of teammates, training for most of the day and then trying to find ways to fill the rest of it. Its an odd, isolated existence, punctuated by the intense excitement - and often intense disappointment - of the game. But then he meets Anke, a young single mother who happens to be the former wife of one of his teammates; and their tentative, burgeoning relationship becomes as significant and as life changing as the game itself. Beautifully written, Playing Days is entirely recognisable in its depiction of the first long summer after university. Tinged with the melancholy and nostalgia of early steps into adulthood, its the story of a young mans first experience of adult love, and of the discovery of his own limitations.

Human, astonishing, superb; and sublime.GuardianA formidable voice . . . the bastard son of Philip Roth and A. S. Byatt.New StatesmanA remarkable achievement.ObserverTaking place over the course of one year, shifting between uptown Manhattan and a private high-school campus in Riverdale, Either Side of Winter moves season by season through that richest of cityscapes, offering a deeply moving picture of people whose lives are linked by circumstance, community - and the need to be loved.

A SUNDAY TIMES TOP 100 NOVEL OF THE 21ST CENTURY WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE Ten years out of Yale and drifting, Greg Marnier heads for his college reunion. There he bumps into an old friend, Robert James, now influential and wealthy from dotcom success. He has a plan: to buy up several abandoned neighbourhoods in Detroit and build a new America from their ruins. But for every urban misfit whos come for a fresh start, theres a native Detroiter whose patch is being swallowed up by these new young colonials.Intense and very funny.Guardian,Best Novels of 2015Is Markovits contemporary fictions best kept secret?Independent on SundayRemarkable.Irish IndependentMulti-stranded and gripping.Sunday Times

Intricately, intimately written, with some wonderful prose and delicate dialogue.GuardianA loving and nuanced portrait of a familys myriad functions.The New YorkerUtterly absorbing.Financial TimesA tour de force.Sunday Times A Luminous family saga from one of Grantas Best Young British NovelistsWhen the four Essinger children gather in Austin for Christmas, they all bring their news. Nathan wants to become a federal judge. Susies husband has taken a job in England. Jean has asked her boyfriend and (once-married) boss to meet her family. Paul has broken up with Dana, mother of their son Cal. But their parents have plans, too, and Liesel, the materfamilias, has invited Dana and Cal to stay, hoping to bring them back together. As the week unfolds, each of the Essingers has to confront the tensions and conflicts between old families and new. Rich, intimate, and deeply perceptive, Christmas in Austin beautifully explores the deep-rooted division between the world we grow up in, and the life we make for ourselves.A subtle, complex, grown-up study of a modern family. Theres something pleasurable and astute to be found on every page.Literary Review

When his former colleague Peter Sullivan dies, the narrator of Childish Loves inherits his lifes work - a number of fragmentary manuscripts about the life of Lord Byron. Fascinated by his prose - and intrigued by the rather sinister rumours surrounding Peters life, including whispers of an inappropriate liaision with a young boy - he has the manuscripts published and then sets out to discover whether the reimagining of Byrons lost memoires can provide a key to Sullivans own elusive life and tarnished reputation. Acting as a literary sleuth, he sorts through boxes of Sullivans writing; reads between the lines of his scandalous, Byron-inspired stories; meets with the Society for the Publication of the Dead; and tracks down people from Peters past in an effort to untangle rumour from reality. In the process, he crafts a masterful story-within-a-story that turns on uncomfortable questions about childhood and sexual awakening, innocence and attraction, while exploring the lives of three very different writers and their brushes with success and failure in both literature and life.

ONE OF THIS WEEKS BEST NOVELS OF 2022The perfect novel for fans of The Last Dance, Hoop Dreams and Winning TimeExquisite. . . Warm, humane, and tragic. JONATHAN LETHEM At his high school basketball try-outs, nerdy sports-obsessed Brian Blum meets new kid Marcus Hayes. As a sportswriter, Brian spends the following twenty years tracking his friends superstar NBA career. But when Marcus mounts his last dance comeback, after a couple of years out of the game, both men must face the tensions of their unlikely dynamic, and the disappointments of getting older.There is something so compelling about the questions of whether these two friends, despite their fraught history and hefty egos, will rekindle a genuine connection . . . youll want to know how the game turns out.TLSCompelling and emotionally resonant.SpectatorContemporary fictions best kept secret . . . Its gratifying to observe someone with a large amount of specific knowledge not only imparting that expertise, but unlocking some deeper meaning within it, like a top sports star working their magic.Sunday Business Post

A TLS, FINANCIAL TIMES AND TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEARFeels less like reading a novel and more like sitting in a car beside a dear friend . . . a profoundly moving experience. ANN PATCHETT Deeply human ... a beautifully quiet and devastating book. SARAH JESSICA PARKER Funny, wise and knowing. CLARE CHAMBERS When Toms wife had an affair, he resolved to leave her once their children had grown up. Twelve years later, after driving his daughter to university, he remembers his pact and keeps driving West to visit friends, family and an old girlfriend.But he also has secrets of his own - trouble at work and health issues - and sometimes running away is the hardest thing to do. What readers are saying about The Rest of Our Lives: What a powerful tale; a really unexpected treasure.Highly recommended if you want to read something real and something that will resonate.The best novel Ive read this year.The perfect mix of funny, poignant and thought-provoking.Deeply heartfelt and engrossing . . . I cant stop thinking about it!It packs an emotional punch . . . I know Tom will stay with me for a long time.I loved it - almost a coming-of-old-age story.

After dropping his daughter at university, Tom Layward remembers his vow to leave his wife and begins a road trip across America. A poignant exploration of marriage, memory, and reinvention.

Tom, el protagonista de esta novela, se entera de que su esposa tiene una aventura y decide no separarse hasta que su hija menor cumpla dieciocho. Doce años más tarde emprende un viaje para llevarla a la universidad y, en el camino, recuerda esa especie de pacto que se habia hecho a si mismo. Entonces, en lugar de volver a casa, sigue manejando. El recorrido comienza a extenderse por distintas ciudades y paisajes donde se reencuentra con personas de su pasado. Ese arco es tambien un repaso por momentos de su vida, una vuelta atras para entender donde se encuentra y como seguir a partir de ahi. El resto de nuestras vidas es un retrato exhaustivo del matrimonio, con todas sus capas y complejidades, de la amistad que se transforma a lo largo del tiempo y de la extrañeza que a veces generan los hijos cuando crecen. Al estilo de Stoner de John Williams y Sueños de trenes de Denis Johnson, Markovits escribio una novela total que resuena con algo verdadero y universal: las decisiones que podriamos haber tomado y evitamos, la inercia que nos arrastra mientras el tiempo avanza y envejecemos, la fatalidad de algunas cosas y la belleza inesperada de otras. Es imposible leer El resto de nuestras vidas sin disfrutarlo. Telegraph Conmovedora e inteligente, esta es una novela brillante sobre la familia, la esperanza y las decisiones que marcan nuestras vidas. Observer

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025An Observer Novel to look out for in 2025 and an FT Best Summer ReadMoving, smart and life-affirming. ObserverWhy arent all novels like this?The CriticA triumphant twist on the great American road novel. GuardianSo funny, wise and knowing. Clare ChambersWhats left when your kids grow up and leave home?When Tom Laywards wife had an affair he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest daughter turned eighteen. Twelve years later, while taking her to Pittsburgh to start university, he remembers his pact, and keeps driving West.An unforgettable road trip novel, The Rest of Our Lives beautifully explores the nuance and complications of a long-term marriage