It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
The Escape

The Escape

Summary

'The more I knew of Haffner,' writes Adam Thirlwell in The Escape, 'the more real he became, this was true. And, simultaneously, Haffner disappeared.'

In a forgotten spa town snug in the Alps, at the end of the twentieth century, Haffner is seeking a cure, more women, and a villa that belonged to his late wife.

But really he is trying to escape: from his family, his lovers, his history, his entire Haffnerian condition.

For Haffner is 78.

Haffner, in other words, is too old to be grown up.

Reviews

  • A witty, irreverant and elegaic new novel...Haffner is a Quixote of our time
    New York Times Book Review

About the author

Adam Thirlwell

Adam Thirlwell was born in London in 1978. The author of three previous novels, his work has been translated into thirty languages. His essays appear in the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books, and he is an advisory editor of the Paris Review. His awards include a Somerset Maugham Award and the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; in 2018 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has twice been selected by Granta as one of their Best of Young British Novelists.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more