'Fiction is a solution, the best solution, to the problem of existential solitude'

Pleasured Paperback

Pleasured

Philip Hensher

‘Pleasured begins on New Year’s Eve, 1988, when a car breaks down on a road connecting West Germany and West Berlin. Inside the car are an unlikely trio – Peter Picker, an Englishman, and the two strangers to whom he is giving a lift, a student who calls herself Daphne and Friedrich Kaiser. The novel tracks their intertwined fates in the year that follows. It is, of course, no ordinary year, and it is not only the Berlin Wall which has collapsed by its end… Distinctive and consistently appealing, Philip Hensher’s novels are full of mysteries to be uncovered, lies to collapse, and secrets to be dramatically revealed.’ Guardian

Reviews of Pleasured

  • ‘What starts out as a Pinteresque thriller turns out to be a rather touching love story… so good it gives you goosebumps.’ Time Out

    ‘Hensher’s most ambitious novel to date, it is also his most satisfying’ Alex Clarke, Guardian

    ‘Highly original and accomplished… An engrossing read.’ Barry Unsworth, Daily Telegraph

    ‘A sublimely structured and sophisticated novel’ Independent on Sunday

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