The Death of Noah Glass

by Gail Jones

Overview

Having just returned from a trip to Sicily, the art historian, Noah Glass is discovered floating face down in the swimming pool at his Sydney apartment block. His grieving adult children Martin and Evie must deal with the shock of their father's death but also with his involvement in a sculpture missing from a museum in Palermo. Jones ponders the concept of a single life and the ways in which it exists in the memory of others. She skilfully explores how books, films and paintings can become repositories of time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781925603408
Publisher:	Text Publishing Company
Publication date:	05/07/2019
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.75(h) x (d)

About the Author

Gail Jones is an academic and the author of two short-story collections and seven novels. Her fiction has won many awards in Australia and been longlisted for both the Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize. Translated into 16 languages, she has had writing residencies in India, Ireland, Germany, France, the US, China and Italy. She teaches writing across the globe and is Professor of Writing at Western Sydney University.

Editorial Reviews

"Weaving together multiple narratives (Noah's, Martin's, and Evie's), the novel sketches a family portrait full of love, loss, and regret."—Kirkus

"An oblique and poetic novel… a vivid, unsettling study of mortality."—Sunday Times [UK]

"Told masterfully from the perspectives of three finely drawn characters, The Death of Noah Glass combines an enjoyable escapade involving art theft, mafia conspiracy, romance, and a suspicious death with a literary exploration of grief, identity and the power of the past to damage present lives.’—Books+Publishing

"Noah Glass is among (Jones’s) finest work and I expect it will be among this year’s outstanding novels."—The Australian

"Swooningly lyrical, carrying the reader along in the wake of its beauty." —Australian Book Review

"A book about ways of seeing and about the gaps that persist between vision and understanding. And in the end this novel…is also about patrimony as the pattern and measure that fathers leave behind them."—Saturday Paper

"Dominated by rich and vivid descriptions of personal interiors and public exteriors, of thought processes and intense associations."—Herald Sun

"In poetic prose that calls for slower reading to fully appreciate its metaphoric meaning, the narrative, as the mystery is untangled, explores the effects of grief and loss and the theme of time. You could re-read this book for the pleasure and stimulation of the language alone."—Good Reading

Praise for A GUIDE TO BERLIN

"Brimming with rich descriptions…A powerful exploration of biography, memory and meaning."—Daily Telegraph

"Jones’ sensitivity to the vibrancy of things demonstrates a Nabokovian vividness.’—The Independent

"A thoughtful study of the machinations of memory."—The Observer

"An ode to detail… A meditation on memory, travel and grief, on self-fashioning and on literary friendship."—Times Literary Supplement

Praise for DREAMS OF SPEAKING

"Leaves a lovely, subtle legacy."—The Times

"Beautiful and honest."—Daily Telegraph

"A work that is both determinedly cerebral and emotionally alive.’—Irish Times

"Shards of poetry stud Jones’ writing like diamonds as she switches masterfully between a lyrical and academic register."—Independent

"Startling images in spare prose."—The Guardian

Praise for FIVE BELLS

"Ambitious, beautifully written."—Reading Matters

"Thoughtful, intelligent and intensely lyrical."—The Guardian

"A story peopled by achingly real characters, memorably related in delicate, ornate prose, and throbbing with loss."—Independent on Sunday

"Jones’s writing has the intensity of a dream, and the pattern she makes of the characters’ lives is beautiful, managing to combine tension with lyricism."—The Times

"An intense, poetic tale."—Financial Times

From the Publisher

2019-02-17

Two orphaned adults try to make sense of their father's sudden death and their own grief.

Australian author Jones' (A Guide to Berlin, 2015, etc.) new novel begins with a funeral. The eponymous Noah Glass, a 67-year-old art historian, is dead—found floating in his apartment complex's swimming pool. His adult children, Martin and Evie, come together to mourn their father's death and make sense of a shocking revelation: A famous sculpture is missing, and Noah is the prime suspect. In the aftermath of the funeral, Martin travels to seedy yet historic Palermo, Italy, to trace his father's footsteps and solve the mystery; Evie moves into Noah's apartment and tries to figure out her next steps. They work through their grief apart but together—over grainy Skype calls and through their childhood memories and respective traumas. Weaving together multiple narratives (Noah's, Martin's, and Evie's), the novel sketches a family portrait full of love, loss, and regret. At times, the novel can feel weighed down by the overwhelming number of references to film, art history, and Australian and Italian history. Long stretches of the book seem tedious despite Jones' emotional and stunning meditations on grief, knowledge, and memory. If there are issues with the plotting or pacing, Jones' writing helps take the sting out. She distills complicated emotions and imagery and renders them beautifully: "the incandescent light falling like seawater over their small bent backs" and "clunky air conditioners stuck to their sides like ticks." There are wonderful subplots—Evie takes a job describing films to a blind man; Martin struggles with his ex-wife over their daughter—that are far more satisfying than the crime at the novel's center. The way Martin and Evie traverse their complex relationship in the wake of Noah's death is a particular strength; their journey feels real and earned.

A sentence-level marvel burdened with too many layers.

Kirkus Reviews