Book Summary and Reviews of Divorce Is in the Air by Gonzalo Torne

Divorce Is in the Air by Gonzalo Torne

Divorce Is in the Air

by Gonzalo Torne

  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Published:
  • Aug 2016, 320 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

The American debut of a highly acclaimed Spanish writer: a sly, acerbic novel about love - or the end of love - and how hard it can be to let go.

There's a lot about Joan-Marc that his second wife doesn't know - and that he now sets out to tell her, come what may. He begins with his disastrous first marriage to an American named Helen, and the vacation they took in a last-ditch attempt to save their relationship. From there Joan-Marc unfurls the story of his life, from early memories of adolescence to a reckoning with mortality in his forties: friendships he abandoned, women he wronged, the wide swathe he cut across polite society in Madrid and Barcelona. Joan-Marc may be the kind of man we love to hate, yet his caustic wit, nostalgia, and self-pity are ultimately as winning as they are devastating.

Here is an audacious new voice, an unapologetic portrait of an antihero navigating the perilous shoals of modern life - a man struggling with long-held illusions about the inexorable forward march of time.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. This novel should spark interest in Torné's previous two and anticipation for what's to come." - Kirkus

"Torné has a rich vocabulary, and he takes us into the mind of a miserable man, but readers may find him a less than compelling protagonist to follow." - Publishers Weekly

"In a muscular, nimble, and exuberant stream-of-consciousness flow reminiscent of the iconic master of the genre, David Foster Wallace, Torné offers a maniacally playful yet fiercely revelatory study of a man coming to grips with life's greatest joys and losses." - Booklist

This information about Divorce Is in the Air 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.

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More Information

Gonzalo Torné was born in Barcelona in 1976. He is the author of two previous novels published in Spain, for which he won the Premio Jaén de Novela and was a finalist for the Premio Nacional de Narrativa. He has also translated work by William Wordsworth and John Ashbery into Spanish. He lives in Barcelona.

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