{"product_id":"the-new-confessions-9780375705038","title":"The New Confessions","description":"In this extraordinary novel, William Boyd presents the autobiography of John James Todd, whose uncanny and exhilarating life as one of the most unappreciated geniuses of the twentieth century is equal parts Laurence Stern, Charles Dickens, Robertson Davies, and Saul Bellow, and a hundred percent William Boyd. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom his birth in 1899, Todd was doomed. Emerging from his angst-filled childhood, he rushes into the throes of the twentieth century on the Western Front during the Great War, and quickly changes his role on the battlefield from cannon fodder to cameraman. When he becomes a prisoner of war, he discovers Rousseau's \u003cb\u003eConfessions\u003c\/b\u003e, and dedicates his life to bringing the memoir to the silver screen. Plagued by bad luck and blind ambition, Todd becomes a celebrated London upstart, a Weimar luminary, and finally a disgruntled director of cowboy movies and the eleventh member of the Hollywood Ten. Ambitious and entertaining, Boyd has invented a most irresistible hero.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWilliam Boyd's first novel, \u003cb\u003eA Good Man in Africa\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003ewon a Whitbread Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award; his second, \u003cb\u003eAn Ice-Cream War\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003ewas awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; \u003cb\u003eBrazzaville Beach\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ewon the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; and \u003cb\u003eThe Blue Afternoon\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ewon the Los Angeles Times Prize for Fiction. Boyd lives in London.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51474729304338,"sku":"9780375705038","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_39b6292c-adca-4e65-ba7c-b460a290b6a5.jpg?v=1752578977","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-new-confessions-9780375705038","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}