Edward St Aubyn

A brother and sister lost and found, in a novel that seizes your heart and enthrals your mind, from the author of the Patrick Melrose series. * The Orwell Prize Finalist 2025 * ‘We set off in opposite directions and walked around the world until we met, and I’m very pleased we have…’ It is summer. Sebastian is in treatment following a breakdown that has left him with a fragile hold on reality and a hunger to connect with the mother who abandoned him. His therapist, Martin, also faces challenges, including his adopted daughter Olivia’s tenuous relationship with her biological mother. Olivia, meanwhile, is producing a radio series on natural disasters, which itself seems to be running parallel to the events unfolding in her personal life. Over a year, their fates collide in outrageous and poignant ways, revealing their destinies in a new light. Parallel Lines is a novel about connection, family, love, and the cascading consequences of our choices. PRAISE FOR EDWARD ST AUBYN: ‘Perhaps the most brilliant English novelist of his generation’ ALAN HOLLINGHURST ‘I love Edward St Aubyn’ DONNA TARTT ‘Nothing can prepare you for the rich, acerbic comedy of St Aubyn’s world’ ZADIE SMITH

From the bestselling and award-winning author of the Patrick Melrose novels, a hilarious and moving story about a group of wildly different characters whose fates are improbably yet inextricably linked--a novel about extinction and survival, inheritance and loss, written with St. Aubyn's trademark wit and inimitable style It's the summer, and Sebastian is in treatment following a breakdown that has left him grappling with his fragile grip on reality and his persistent hunger to connect with the biological mother who abandoned him as a child. His therapist, Martin, is facing challenges of his own, including his adopted daughter's tenuous relationship with her own biological mother--a predicament that makes Sebastian's struggle feel uncannily proximate to her own. Olivia is producing a radio series on catastrophic natural disasters, which itself seems to be running parallel to the events unfolding in her personal life, as her best friend, Lucy, faces a grave diagnosis, and her husband, Francis, pursues his mission of re-wilding the world. Over the course of the next year their fates collide in outrageous and poignant ways, as each of their destinies is revealed in a marvelous new light. With characteristic brilliance and humor, Parallel Lines investigates themes of dualism, determinism, connection, and love. St. Aubyn captures the life of the spirit as vibrantly as the life of the mind, in a novel that wrestles with moral and psychic anguish and the cascading consequences of our choices at every stage of life. A thrilling, wholly captivating novel from one of the most gifted writers at work today.

The Patrick Melrose Novels hilariously dissect the English upper class, conjuring a world of decadence, amorality, greed, snobbery, and cruelty, but never without the possibility of grace. Taken together, they are one of the most thrilling reading experiences in contemporary fiction.Edward St. Aubyn chronicled the life of Patrick Melrose across five short novels, painting an acrid portrait of a beleaguered and self-loathing world of privilege. Never Mind unfolds over a day and an evening at the family’s chateau in the south of France, where the sadistic and terrifying figure of David Melrose dominates the lives of his rich and unhappy American wife, Eleanor, and their five-year-old son, Patrick.Bad News opens as Patrick, now twenty-two years old, sets off to collect his father’s ashes from New York, where he will spend a drug-crazed twenty-four hours.Back in England, Some Hope offers Patrick the possibility of recovery (and the most debauched and riotous dinner party in contemporary fiction).The Booker-shortlisted Mother’s Milk returns to the family chateau, where Patrick, now married and a father himself, struggles with child rearing, adultery, his mother’s desire for assisted suicide, and the loss of the family home.At Last, set over the single day of a funeral, is the stunning final volume.

Patrick Melrose Volume 1 is a story of abuse, addiction and recovery. It introduces a character like no other, on a journey to the furthest limits of human experience.

‘At Last is a miraculously wrought piece of art’ Suzi Feay, Financial Times‘A terrifying, spectacularly entertaining saga’ James Lasdun, The GuardianAt Last is the fifth instalment in Edward St Aubyn’s semi-autobiographical series, The Patrick Melrose novels.As friends, relatives and foes trickle in to pay their final respects to his mother Eleanor, Patrick Melrose finds himself questioning whether a life without parents will be the liberation he has so long imagined. Yet as the memorial service ends and the family gathers one last time, amidst the social niceties and the social horrors, the calms and the rapids, Patrick begins to sense a new current: the chance of some form of safety – at last.‘Remarkable. St Aubyn’s books are at once extremely dark and extremely funny’ Francine Prose, The New York Times‘The pinnacle of a series that has plunged into darkness and risen towards light. At Last is both resounding end and hopeful beginning’ Philip Womack, The TelegraphPart of the Picador Collection.

Shortlisted for the Man Booker PrizeWinner of the South Bank Literature Award‘So good – so fantastically well-written, profound and humane . . . it is heart-stopping’ - ObserverThe once illustrious, once wealthy Melroses are in peril. Caught up in the wreckage of broken promises, child-rearing, adultery and assisted suicide, Patrick finds his wife Mary consumed by motherhood, his mother in thrall to a New Age foundation, and his young son Robert understanding far more than he should. But even as the family struggles against the pull of its ever-present past, a new generation brings a new tenderness, and the possibility of change.‘Wonderful caustic wit . . . Polished yet profound, it’s even better than his previous work, and that’s saying something’ - The Guardian ‘Mother’s Milk has the cerebral excitement and piercing funniness of St Aubyn at his brilliant best’ - TatlerPart of the Picador Collection

‘Our purest living prose stylist’ – The Guardian‘Tantalizing . . . A memorable tour de force’ – The New York Times Book ReviewSome Hope is the third in Edward St Aubyn’s semi-autobiographical series, The Patrick Melrose novels.Patrick Melrose, cleaned-up and world-weary, is a reluctant guest at a glittering party deep in the English countryside. Amid a crowd of flitting social dragonflies, he finds his search for redemption and capacity for forgiveness challenged by his observation of the cruelties around him. Armed with his biting wit and a newly fashioned openness, can Patrick, who has been to the furthest limits of experience and back again, find release from the savageries of his childhood?This title was originally published, along with Never Mind and Bad News, as part of a three-book omnibus, also called Some Hope.‘This is beautifully written novel . . . whose harrowing but fiercely funny portrait of addiction is the best I’ve ever read’ – Time OutThe Patrick Melrose books inspired a Sky Atlantic series starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the aristocratic addict.

A brother and sister lost and found, in a novel that seizes your heart and enthrals your mind, from the author of the Patrick Melrose series.'We set off in opposite directions and walked around the world until we met, and I'm very pleased we have...'It is summer. Sebastian is in treatment following a breakdown that has left him with a fragile hold on reality and a hunger to connect with the mother who abandoned him. His therapist, Martin, also faces challenges, including his adopted daughter Olivia's tenuous relationship with her biological mother. Olivia, meanwhile, is producing a radio series on natural disasters, which itself seems to be running parallel to the events unfolding in her personal life.Over a year, their fates collide in outrageous and poignant ways, revealing their destinies in a new light. Parallel Lines is a novel about connection, family, love, and the cascading consequences of our choices.PRAISE FOR EDWARD ST AUBYN:'Perhaps the most brilliant English novelist of his generation' ALAN HOLLINGHURST'I love Edward St Aubyn'DONNA TARTT'Nothing can prepare you for the rich, acerbic comedy of St Aubyn's world'ZADIE SMITH

‘I’ve loved Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose novels. Read them all, now’ - David NichollsBad News is the second of Edward St Aubyn’s semi-autobiographical Patrick Melrose novels, adapted for TV for Sky Atlantic and starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the aristocratic addict, Patrick.Twenty-two years old and in the grip of a massive addiction, Patrick Melrose is forced to fly to New York to collect his father’s ashes. Over the course of a weekend, Patrick’s remorseless search for drugs on the avenues of Manhattan, haunted by old acquaintances and insistent inner voices, sends him into a nightmarish spiral. Alone in his room at the Pierre Hotel, he pushes body and mind to the very edge – desperate always to stay one step ahead of his rapidly encroaching past.Bad News was originally published, along with Never Mind and Some Hope, as part of a three-book omnibus also called Some Hope.‘The Melrose novels are remarkable – ferociously funny, painfully acute and exhilaratingly written’ - Peter Kemp, Sunday Times

Winner of the Betty Trask Award, Never Mind is the first in Edward St Aubyn's semi-autobiographical Patrick Melrose novels.'Perhaps the most brilliant English novelist of his generation' - Alan HollinghurstAt his mother’s family house in the south of France, Patrick Melrose has the run of a magical garden. Bravely imaginative and self-sufficient, five-year-old Patrick encounters the volatile lives of adults with care. His father, David, rules with considered cruelty, and Eleanor, his mother, has retreated into drink. They are expecting guests for dinner. But this afternoon is unlike the chain of summer days before, and the shocking events that precede the guests’ arrival tear Patrick’s world in two.Never Mind was originally published, along with Bad News and Some Hope, as part of a three book omnibus, also called Some Hope.Part of the Picador Collection'At once epic and intimate, appalling and comic, the novels are masterpieces, each and every one’ - Maggie O’FarrellAdapted for TV for Sky Atlantic and starring Benedict Cumberbatch as aristocratic addict, Patrick.

A beautiful Contemporary Classics hardcover omnibus edition of all five Patrick Melrose novels, one of the greatest fiction cycles of our time Set in a world of decadence, greed, snobbery, and cruelty, Edward St Aubyn's brilliant short novels paint a harrowing and darkly hilarious portrait of the English upper class. Patrick's story of abuse, addiction, and recovery follows him across decades of his life in settings ranging from the Melrose family's chateau in the South of France to the gritty streets of lower Manhattan to a riotously lavish high-society party at an English country house. We first meet Patrick as a sensitive five-year-old terrorized by the sadism of his domineering father and the succeeding volumes give us glimpses of his life as he moves through drug-addicted young adulthood into middle age and parenthood, in an ongoing struggle for emotional stability that is both comic and heartbreaking. The stunning final volume, At Last, takes place over the single day of a momentous funeral, and offers Patrick the possibility of finding a measure of peace. Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.

"Tsikl romanov o Patrike Melrouze javilsja dlja menja samym potrjasajuschim chitatelskim opytom poslednego desjatiletija", - pisal Majkl Shejbon. Emu vtorili takie mastitye literatory, kak Devid Nikols ("Romany Edvarda Sent-Obina o Patrike Melrouze - polnyj vostorg ot nachala do kontsa. Chitat vsem, nemedlenno!"), Alan Khollingkherst ("Edvard Sent-Obin - verojatno, samyj blestjaschij britanskij avtor svoego pokolenija"), Elis Sibold ("Edvard Sent-Obin - odin iz nashikh velichajshikh stilistov, a ego romany o Patrike Melrouze - shedevr literatury XXI veka") i mnogie drugie. Nu a v teleseriale "Patrik Melrouz" glavnuju rol blistatelno ispolnil Benedikt Kamberbetch. V svoem novejshem romane "Dvojnoj kontrol" Sent-Obin "s neobychajnoj legkostju zatragivaet samye zhivotrepeschuschie problemy. Kniga pronzaet i porazhaet do glubiny dushi, prevraschaja sereznye temy - nejrobiologiju, ekologiju, psikhoanaliz, teologiju, onkologiju i genetiku v uvlekatelnyj fejerverk novatorskikh idej... V svoem voskhititelnom romane Sent-Obin s almaznoj ostrotoj obnazhaet suschnost semi i ljubvi, druzhby i sopernichestva, ambitsij i nravstvennosti" (Air Mail). Peremeschajas iz Londona na frantsuzskij Lazurnyj Bereg, a iz glushi Sasseksa v kalifornijskij Big-Sur, geroi Sent-Obina issledujut temy svobody i predopredelenija, zagadki zhizni i problemy soznanija. Pri etom Frensis i Olivija bez uma vljubleny drug v druga, a Ljusi, staraja podruga Olivii, pytaetsja vystroit otnoshenija so svoim novym bossom Khanterom, virtuozom venchurnykh investitsij... "Genri Dzhejms, schitavshij, chto romanist pervym delom objazan zainteresovyvat chitatelja, byl by schastliv poznakomitsja s Sent-Obinom. "Dvojnoj kontrol" - emotsionalno ubeditelnyj i intellektualno zacharovyvajuschij roman. Ja ne mog ot nego otorvatsja" (Ien Makjuen).

"Tsikl romanov o Patrike Melrouze javilsja dlja menja samym potrjasajuschim chitatelskim opytom poslednego desjatiletija", - pisal Majkl Shejbon. Emu vtorili takie mastitye literatory, kak Devid Nikole ("Romany Edvarda Sent-Obina o Patrike Melrouze -polnyj vostorg ot nachala do kontsa. Chitat vsem, nemedlenno!"), Alan Khollingkherst ("Edvard Sent-Obin - verojatno, samyj blestjaschij britanskij avtor svoego pokolenija"), Elis Sibold ("Edvard Sent-Obin - odin iz nashikh velichajshikh stilistov, a ego romany o Patrike Melrouze - shedevr literatury XXI veka") i mnogie drugie. Nu a v teleseriale "Patrik Melrouz" glavnuju rol blistatelno ispolnil Benedikt Kamberbetch.V svoem novejshem romane "Dvojnoj kontrol" Sent-Obin "s neobychajnoj legkostju zatragivaet samye zhivotrepeschuschie problemy. Kniga pronzaet i porazhaet do glubiny dushi, prevraschaja sereznye temy - nejrobiologiju, ekologiju, psikhoanaliz, teologiju, onkologiju i genetiku v uvlekatelnyj fejerverk novatorskikh idej... V svoem voskhititelnom romane Sent-Obin s almaznoj ostrotoj obnazhaet suschnost semi i ljubvi, druzhby i sopernichestva, ambitsij i nravstvennosti" (Air Mail). Peremeschajas iz Londona na frantsuzskij Lazurnyj Bereg, a iz glushi Sasseksa v kalifornijskij Big-Sur, geroi Sent-Obina issledujut temy svobody i predopredelenija, zagadki zhizni i problemy soznanija. Pri etom Frensis i Olivija bez uma vljubleny drug v druga, a Ljusi, staraja podruga Olivii, pytaetsja vystroit otnoshenija so svoim novym bossom Khanterom, virtuozom venchurnykh investitsij..."Genri Dzhejms, schitavshij, chto romanist pervym delom objazan zainteresovyvat chitatelja, byl by schastliv poznakomitsja s Sent-Obinom. "Dvojnoj kontrol" - emotsionalno ubeditelnyj i intellektualno zacharovyvajuschij roman. Ja ne mog ot nego otorvatsja" (Ien Makjuen).Vpervye na russkom!

From the author of the acclaimed Patrick Melrose novels comes a dramatic and powerful reflection on nature, nurture, inquiry, perception, and the myriad ways we try to understand what it means to be alive. Double Blind follows three close friends and their circle through a year of extraordinary transformation. Set in London, Cap d'Antibes, Big Sur, and a rewilded corner of Sussex, this thrilling, ambitious novel is about the headlong pursuit of knowledge--for the purposes of pleasure, revelation, money, sanity, or survival--and the consequences of fleeing from what we know about others and ourselves. When Olivia meets a new lover just as she is welcoming her best friend, Lucy, back from New York, her dedicated academic life expands precipitously. Her connection to Francis, a committed naturalist living off the grid, is immediate and startling. Eager to involve Lucy in her joy, Olivia introduces the two--but Lucy has received shocking news of her own that binds the trio unusually close. Over the months that follow, Lucy's boss, Hunter, Olivia's psychoanalyst parents, and a young man named Sebastian are pulled into the friends' orbit, and not one of them will emerge unchanged. Expansive, playful, and compassionate, Edward St. Aubyn's Double Blind investigates themes of inheritance, determinism, freedom, consciousness, and the stories we tell about ourselves. It is as compelling about ecology, psychoanalysis, genetics, and neuroscience as it is about love, fear, and courage. Most of all, it is a perfect expression of the interconnections it sets out to examine, and a moving evocation of an imagined world that is deeply intelligent, often tender, curious, and very much alive.

When Olivia meets Francis, a young naturalist rewilding a corner of Sussex, and is reunited with her best friend Lucy, recently returned from a high-flying career in New York, her life expands in exciting and disorienting ways.

I "Dubbelblind" följer vi vännerna Lucy, Olivia och Francis under ett år då de kastas mellan hopp och förtvivlan. En oväntad sjukdom och ett neurologiskt forskningsprojekt driver dem till att studera hjärnans mest intrikata funktioner. Vad är arv och vad är miljö? Och vilka är skojarna som försöker kapitalisera på de senaste forskningsrönen? Jakten på svar leder till Big Sur och Antibes, till riskkapitalister, munkar och vilsna freudianer. I Edward St Aubyns utsökta prosa är allt dubbelt: här förenas hjärta och hjärna, storartad samtidssatir med existentiellt ödesdrama.

From the author of the internationally acclaimed Patrick Melrose books: a major new novel exploring some of the biggest ideas and most pressing questions of our times.'Both moving and so funny I had to stop every few pages to wipe tears from my eyes' OBSERVER, BEST BOOKS OF 2021'Emotionally cogent and intellectually fascinating... I was gripped by it' Ian McEwanDouble Blind follows three close friends and their circle through a year of extraordinary transformation. Set between London, Cap d'Antibes, Big Sur and a rewilded corner of Sussex, this thrilling, ambitious novel is as compelling about ecology, psychoanalysis, genetics and neuroscience as it is about love, fear and courage.When Olivia meets a new lover, Francis, just as she is welcoming her dearest friend Lucy back from New York, her life expands precipitously. Her connection to Francis, a committed naturalist living off-grid, is immediate and startling. Eager to involve Lucy in her joy, Olivia introduces the two -- but Lucy has news of her own that binds the trio unusually close. Over the months that follow, Lucy's boss Hunter, Olivia's psychoanalyst parents, and a young man named Sebastian are pulled into the friends' orbit, and not one of them will emerge unchanged.Expansive, playful and compassionate, Double Blind investigates themes of inheritance, determinism, freedom, consciousness, and the stories we tell about ourselves. Most of all, it is a perfect expression of the interconnections it sets out to examine, and a moving evocation of an imagined world that is deeply intelligent, often tender, curious, and very much alive.'The experience of St Aubyn is indelible' Jonathan Franzen'Extraordinary' Sam Mendes'A joy' Zadie Smith'Among the giants of English fiction' Edmund White

Double Blind follows three close friends and their circle through a year of extraordinary transformation. Set between London, Cap d'Antibes, Big Sur and a rewilded corner of Sussex, this thrilling, ambitious novel is as compelling about ecology, psychoanalysis, genetics and neuroscience as it is about love, fear and courage.When Olivia meets a new lover, Francis, just as she is welcoming her dearest friend Lucy back from New York, her life expands precipitously. Her connection to Francis, a committed naturalist living off-grid, is immediate and startling. Eager to involve Lucy in her joy, Olivia introduces the two -- but Lucy has news of her own that binds the trio unusually close. Over the months that follow, Lucy's boss Hunter, Olivia's psychoanalyst parents, and a young man named Sebastian are pulled into the friends' orbit, and not one of them will emerge unchanged.Expansive, playful and compassionate, Double Blind investigates themes of inheritance, determinism, freedom, consciousness, and the stories we tell about ourselves. Most of all, it is a perfect expression of the interconnections it sets out to examine, and a moving evocation of an imagined world that is deeply intelligent, often tender, curious, and very much alive.