The Course of Love: A Novel

Author: de Botton Alain

Brand: Simon & Schuster

Edition: Reprint

Number Of Pages: 240

Details: Product Description

“An engrossing tale [that] provides plenty of food for thought” (People, Best New Books pick), this playful, wise, and profoundly moving second novel from the internationally bestselling author of How Proust Can Change Your Life tracks the beautifully complicated arc of a romantic partnership.

We all know the headiness and excitement of the early days of love. But what comes after? In Edinburgh, a couple, Rabih and Kirsten, fall in love. They get married, they have children—but no long-term relationship is as simple as “happily ever after.” The Course of Love explores what happens after the birth of love, what it takes to maintain, and what happens to our original ideals under the pressures of an average existence. We see, along with Rabih and Kirsten, the first flush of infatuation, the effortlessness of falling into romantic love, and the course of life thereafter. Interwoven with their story and its challenges is an overlay of philosophy—an annotation and a guide to what we are reading. As The New York Times says, “The Course of Love is a return to the form that made Mr. de Botton’s name in the mid-1990s….love is the subject best suited to his obsessive aphorizing, and in this novel he again shows off his ability to pin our hopes, methods, and insecurities to the page.”

This is a Romantic novel in the true sense, one interested in exploring how love can survive and thrive in the long term. The result is a sensory experience—fictional, philosophical, psychological—that urges us to identify deeply with these characters and to reflect on his and her own experiences in love. Fresh, visceral, and utterly compelling, The Course of Love is a provocative and life-affirming novel for everyone who believes in love. “There’s no writer alive like de Botton, and his latest ambitious undertaking is as enlightening and humanizing as his previous works” (Chicago Tribune).

Review

PRAISE FOR THE COURSE OF LOVE:

“The Course of Love is a return to the form that made Mr. de Botton’s name in the mid-1990s…. love is the subject best suited to his obsessive aphorizing, and in this novel he again shows off his ability to pin our hopes, methods and insecurities to the page.”
–The New York Times

“There’s no writer alive like de Botton, and his latest ambitious undertaking is as enlightening and humanizing as his previous works.”
–Chicago Tribune

“For me, the publication of any book by Alain de Botton is as much a reason for celebration as it is for cerebration, and his novel The Course of Love is a satisfying look at relationships and the perils of romantic love. This public philosopher writes with verve.”
–Wall Street Journal (WSJ.com)

“This book is like a self-help book for dating and relationships, disguised as a novel…We understand what each person is thinking and why, with de Botton’s insights sprinkled in. It made me rethink what it means to be happy in a relationship.”
–The Cut (NYMag.com)

“[De Botton] analyzes Rabih’s feelings, especially, with the finesse of a therapist—and in fact there is more than a whiff of the couch in this exemplarytale…Readers looking for insights and guidance will find plenty.”
–NPR

“An engrossing tale [that] provides plenty of food for thought.”
–People (Best New Books pick)

“Assured…The author deftly delivers both sides of the marriage, exploring the incompatible interplay of romantic love and practical love…Part literary novel, part self-help handbook, “The Course of Love” certainly illuminates the subtle and not-so-subtle fissures of one modern marriage and what it takes for two people to stay together through the years…this nontraditional novel is generous in its spirit and message.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“A cunning novel that tells of a couple from the spark of first love, maintenance through the demands of children and career, the challenges of boredom, and aging. What happens to our original ideals under the pressures of an average existence?”
–San Francisco Chronic

Release Date: 20-06-2017

Package Dimensions: 17x211x198