The Act of Love

By Howard Jacobson

Book Overview

No man has ever loved a woman and not imagined her in the arms of someone else.

Felix Quinn calls himself a happy man. He owns one of London's oldest antiquarian bookshops. He is married to and adores the beautiful Marisa. But a childhood experience has taught him that loss is intrinsic to love, and Felix realises that he can only be truly happy if his wife is sleeping with another man. Enter Marius into Marisa's affections. And now Felix must ask himself, is he really happy?

By the winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0099526735
• ISBN13: 9780099526735
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.8" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

beautifully wrtitten

The writing was so incredibly beautiful and I loved the intrigue of the story. I wanted to be each of the three main subjects at different times throughout the book. I read the book on a flight from San Francisco to Cartegena and then passed it on to a the husband of the friends we were traveling with. He was very disturbed by the book. He then passed it on to my partner, I am gay so he is male, who found the premise disturbing as well. Both agree that the writing is excellent and were motivated on with the book because of the writing, not the subject. I was motivated on because of both...I wanted the input of my other travel companion, my friends wife but she hasn't read the book yet so I don't have a complete opinion but I am going to back track and read the earlier books. I loved it... David, San Francisco

An amazing book

I have never read anything quite like it. It is hard to describe other than to say that I hung on every word. The writing is amazing, the story is amazing, the thinking is amazing. I will likely read it again very soon. This book will have a large audience. I believe everyone will or should be reading it.