{"product_id":"self-portrait-with-russian-piano-9781250800121","title":"Self-Portrait with Russian Piano","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA legendary literary figure who initiated a one-man Beat Generation in his native Germany, Wolf Wondratschek \"is eccentric, monomaniacal, romantic--his texts are \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eimbued with a wonderful, reckless nonchalance\" (\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ePatrick S skind).\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e Now, he\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003etells a story of a man looking back on his life in an honest portrait of the artist as an old man.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eVienna is an uncanny, magical, and sometimes brutally alienating city. The past lives on in the caf s where lost souls come to kill time and hash over the bygone glories of the twentieth century--or maybe just a recent love affair. In one of these caf s, our anonymous narrator meets a strange character, \"like someone out of a novel\" a decrepit old Russian named Suvorin. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA Soviet pianist of international renown, Suvorin committed career suicide when he developed a violent distaste for the sound of applause. This eccentric gentleman--sometimes charming, sometimes sulky, sometimes disconcertingly frank--knows the end of his life is approaching, and allows himself to be convinced to tell his life story. Over a series of coffee dates, punctuated by confessions, anecdotes, and rages--and by the narrator's schemes to keep his quarry talking--a strained friendship develops between the two men, and it soon becomes difficult to tell who is more dependent on the other. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRhapsodic and melancholic, with shades of Vladimir Nabokov, W. G. Sebald, Hans Keilson, and Thomas Bernhard, Wolf Wondratschek's \u003ci\u003eSelf-Portrait with Russian Piano\u003c\/i\u003e is a literary sonata circling the eternal question of whether beauty, music, and passion are worth the sacrifices some people are compelled to make for them. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A romantic in a madhouse. To let Wondratschek's voice be drowned in the babble of today's literature would be a colossal mistake.\" --Patrick S skind, internationally bestselling author of \u003ci\u003ePerfume: The Story of a Murderer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-13233808\"\u003eWolf Wondratschek\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Picador USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/07\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.62lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.25h x 5.50w x 0.52d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781250800121\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1250800129\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-FIC\"\u003eFiction\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-FIC019000\"\u003eLiterary\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-FIC\"\u003eFiction\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-FIC102020\"\u003eWorld Literature | Germany | 21st Century\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Picador USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42697217442029,"sku":"9781250800121","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/products\/img_29fa8bed-5ff1-407d-9bca-59b703201c40.jpg?v=1649886164","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/self-portrait-with-russian-piano-9781250800121","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}