All That Is
03 April 2025Synopsis
‘Enthralling’ - John Banville
‘Effortlessly beautiful, funny, sexy and wise’ - Julie Myerson, Books of the Year, Observer
All That Is explores a life unfolding in a world on the brink of change.
The life is that of Philip Bowman and we see his formative experiences as a young naval officer in battles off Okinawa, his post-war career as a book editor in New York, his trips to the great European cities – for publishing parties in London, romantic holidays in Paris.
But despite his success, what eludes him is love. His first marriage goes bad, another fails to happen, finally he meets a woman who enthrals him before setting him on a course he could never imagine for himself.
James Salter’s dazzling, seductive and haunting novel offers a fiercely intimate account of the great shocks and grand pleasures of being alive.
‘Full of verve and wisdom’ - Julian Barnes
Details
03 April 2025
9781035063550Reviews
A beautiful novel, with sufficient love, heartbreak, vengeance, identity confusion, longing, and euphoria of language to have satisfied ShakespeareJohn Irving
The best novel I’ve read in years. All That Is will be treasured by its readers. Salter’s vivid, lucid prose does exquisite justice to his subject – the relentless struggle to make good on our own humanity. Once again he has delivered to us a novel of the highest artistryTim O’Brien
Effortlessly beautiful, funny, sexy and wise – the kind of novel that makes you want to delete your own meagre work-in-progress and start over. Is there a How to Write Like Salter Handbook? If so, that's what I want for Christmas, please.Julie Myerson, The Observer
Not in my (admittedly failing) memory have I read a novel that, at its crucialest moment, made me just stand straight up out of my chair and have to walk around the room for several minutes. Laid into the customary Salterish verbal exquisiteness and vivid intelligence is such remarkable audacity and dark-hued verve about us poor humans. It's a great novel.Richard Ford, The Guardian
