Lost for Words: A Novel

by Edward St Aubyn

Edward St. Aubyn’s satire on the pretentious world of literary prizes represents a departure for the novelist, best known for his shocking, semi-autobiographical Patrick Melrose novels. Widely received as a revenge novel, after the final novel of that series, At Last, failed to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize—something St. Aubyn brusquely denies—it has received mixed reviews. Expect “sly, chatty third-person narration,” explains The Guardian, and a “constant onslaught of wordplay, bathos, farcical mishap and circular logic.”