The Line of Beauty Book

*Winner of the 2004 Man Booker Prize! ; ; ; It is the summer of 1983 and young Nick Guest has moved into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens: Gerald an ambitious new Tory MP his wealthy wife Rachel and their children Toby and Catherine. Nick had idolized Toby at Oxford but in his London life it will be the troubled Catherine the critic and rebel of the family who becomes both his friend and his uneasy responsibility. As the boom years of the mid-80s unfold Nick an innocent in matters of politics and money becomes caught up in the Feddens' world - its grand parties its surprising alliances its parade of monsters both comic and menacing. In an era of endless possibility Nick finds himself able to pursue his own private obsession with beauty - a prize as compelling to him as power and riches are to his friends. An affair with a young male black council worker gives him his first experience of romance; but it is a later affair with a Lebanese millionaire that will change his life more drastically and bring into question the larger fantasies of a ruthless decade. Framed by the two general elections which returned Mrs. Thatcher to power The Line of Beauty unfurls through four extraordinary years of change and tragedy. Richly textured emotionally charged disarmingly funny it is a major work by one of the finest writers in the English language. ; ; ; About the Man Booker Prize: The Man Booker Prize for Fiction represents the very best in contemporary fiction. One of the world's most prestigious awards and one of incomparable influence it continues to be the pinnacle of ambition for every fiction writer. It has the power to transform the fortunes of authors and even publishers.

The Line of Beauty : Paperback : Pan Macmillan : 9780330483216 : : 02 Sep 2009 : Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2004, The Line of Beauty is a perfectly realized tale of our times.