Books by Edward St Aubyn
Parallel Lines
by Edward St Aubyn
‘The Ministry of Truth is now tightening its grip by the hour,’ comments one character in Edward St. Aubyn’s new book, a state-of-the-nation novel that brilliantly uses the conventions of farce, satire and social critique to evoke a nation drifting indifferently into chaos. Written in riotously creative language, St. Aubyn’s portrait of the family and its sharp-edged sketches of various institutions of British life are often very, very funny and always penetrating; but they are also at times moving, especially when they relate to mental health. Parallel Lines, which never seems parochial despite its apparently insular metropolitan setting, reinvents the so-called Hampstead novel with formal verve and political vitality.
“The central character is struggling with all sorts of problems that relate to his own early care and at the same time he is a father with a wife and small child and there are parts where he discusses the fact that the mother of his child is up against a culture which is really hostile to the provision of good care.” Read more...
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Oliver James, Psychologist
Interviews where books by Edward St Aubyn were recommended
The best books on Why We Live in a Mad World, recommended by Oliver James
The psychologist and trustee of Alzheimer’s charity SPECAL says British and American women today are 5 times more likely to suffer a mental illness than in the 1950s
The Best Political Novels of 2025: The Orwell Prize for Fiction
From a book based on the actual love letters a British prime minister sent to his mistress in the run-up to World War I, to a fantastical tale that takes its cue from the Epic of Gilgamesh, there’s a wide variety of novels to choose from on the shortlist of this year’s Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. The comments are from the judging panel, chaired this year by British novelist Jim Crace.
