Sylvia

Leonard, a young writer drifting through the city, meets Sylvia by chance at a friend" s shabby Greenwich Village apartment. He" s instantly besotted with her striking beauty and quiet disdain, and the question of what to do with his life is resolved.In this remarkable semi-autobiographical novel, we are drawn into the world of a beatnik couple living in Manhattan in the early 1960s, and theirdemi-mondeof jazz, poetry, late nights and early mornings. But when Sylvia" s depression emerges and her disturbances take hold, their fights become increasingly violent and their relationship hurtles towards self-destruction.Written with extraordinary clarity and precision, this is a compelling portrait of the mad intensity, exquisite pain and destructive power of young love." Every page reveals the mark of an extraordinarily original and gifted talent." -William Styron" The writing isn" t merely stylish; it" s vital . . . the ending is as shocking as that of any thriller." -Sarah Manguso" A novel that has the power and the rawness of memoir." -New York Times