The American No

‘[An] eccentric and exquisite new collection of stories' Tatler

Rupert Everett author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Little, Brown Book Group

Published:3rd Oct '24

Should be back in stock very soon

The American No cover

This debut collection by Rupert Everett features eight engaging stories that explore love, loss, and the intricacies of life, showcasing his remarkable storytelling talent.

In The American No, Rupert Everett presents a captivating collection of short stories that blend humor, poignancy, and insight. Each narrative invites readers into the lives of diverse characters, exploring themes of love, loss, and the complexities of human relationships. From a chaotic funeral in Paris to the last night of Oscar Wilde, Everett's storytelling is rich with detail and emotion, offering a vivid glimpse into both the extraordinary and the mundane aspects of life.

The stories range from the darkly humorous to the deeply moving, showcasing Everett's ability to weave together elements of drama and glamour with a keen sense of truth. The tales feature a Russian-American countess grappling with age in a quaint teashop, a woman reflecting on her life choices from her deathbed, and a poignant portrayal of Proust's artistic journey. Each piece is a testament to Everett's skill as a writer, drawing on his extensive experience in film and television to create narratives that are both engaging and thought-provoking.

The American No is not just a collection of stories; it is an exploration of the human condition, filled with kindness and tenderness. Readers will find themselves laughing, reflecting, and perhaps even shedding a tear as they navigate the intricate worlds Everett has crafted. This collection is sure to delight both long-time fans and new readers alike, showcasing the brilliance of a writer at the peak of his craft.

This is a storyteller unafraid to spike his black comedy with sudden and strongly brewed emotion... Individually, the stories are exhilarating; together, they add up to an intriguing self-portrait of an artist at work, presenting us with the multiple facets of an undaunted imagination, recut, repolished and ready to shine in the dark * Guardian, Book of the Day *
Everett is a brilliant writer - funny, waspish, warm and seductive * Camilla Long, The Times *
Richly imagined and extraordinarily affecting... Everett is a terrific storyteller... far harder on himself than he is on his character, and his descriptions of his failed projects and collapsing physicality are always hilarious -- Hadley Freeman * Sunday Times *
Full of kindness, even tenderness... His feeling for failure is a writerly gift, throwing a navy shadow over even his funniest and most scabrous lines... He is a brilliant writer: opulently gossipy as few are these days, but also truthful, witty, wise and stoical -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *
Everett has a flair for historical fiction...What were once ideas for screenplays have become stories - and are all the better for the years of marinating. There is some real depth and richness here, as well as a sharp critique of the mores of La-La Land -- Erica Wagner * Tatler *
The best thing I've read this autumn is Rupert Everett's "The End of Time", in his new collection of stories, The American No... Everett gets Proust: his social and intellectual range, his eyes and ears, his modernity, his voyeurism, his sublime observational comedy * Nicola Shulman, TLS Books of the Year *
Burnished with the kind of detail only a Hollywood insider would know * Eithne Farry, Daily Mail *
Everett pulls it off thanks to a natural abundance of charm * Irish Times *
The joy of Everett as a writer has always been his pitilessly clear-eyed perspective... every sentence [he] writes rings with his personality, and it's a personality that has always been irresistible * Hadley Freeman, Guardian, praise for Rupert Everett *
Everett is a deliciously gifted writer. Nothing and no one escapes his attention...However wasteful and capricious his first profession, we know that he is perfectly safe. The blank page will henceforth always be his. He is a writer to his (aching) bones * Rachel Cooke, Observer, praise for Rupert Everett *
His resilient energy, sharp-eyed intelligence and keen sense of the ridiculous, as well as his capacity for short-term enjoyment of life's sensual pleasures, infuse his writing with a warm glow...the sheer force of his personality is irresistible and there isn't a dull moment * Telegraph, praise for Rupert Everett *
A supremely gifted writer * Lynn Barber, The Times, praise for Rupert Everett *
What makes this autobiography a (novelistic) masterpiece is the way he is acutely aware of the melancholia and pain that are the other side of hedonism's coin * Daily Telegraph, praise for Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins *
Most of all he is just a very good writer indeed * Julie Burchill, Observer, praise for Vanished Years *

ISBN: 9781408714195

Dimensions: 238mm x 162mm x 36mm

Weight: 560g

336 pages