Elliot Perlman Books

May 7, 1964

Australian author and barrister Elliot Perlman's writing critiques the economic rationalism that erodes human dignity when ordinary people face unemployment and poverty. Admiring writers with a strong moral compass and compassion, Perlman aims to entertain rather than propagandize, believing social critique is sufficient for political fiction. He is fundamentally interested in exploring 'the essence of humanity,' which often leads him into political territory. Perlman frequently employs music and song lyrics to convey ideas, moods, or character, acknowledging the risk that less familiar songs may diminish the reader's engagement.

Seven Types of Ambiguity
624 pages
22 hours of reading
4.0(4368)Add rating
The story is told in seven parts, by six different narrators, whose lives are entangled in unexpected ways. Following years of unrequited love, an out-of-work schoolteacher decides to take matters into his own hands, triggering a chain of events that neither he nor his psychiatrist could have anticipated. Brimming with emotional, intellectual, and moral dilemmas, this novel-reminiscent of the richest fiction of the nineteenth century in its labyrinthine complexity-unfolds at a rapid-fire pace to reveal the full extent to which these people have been affected by one another and by the insecure and uncertain times in which they live. Our times, now.
Three Dollars
3.3(27)Add rating
Eddie is an honest, compassionate man who finds himself, at the age of thirty-eight, with a wife, a child, and three dollars. How did he get that way? He is a university graduate. He married an attractive intelligent woman, his lover from university days. He is a good husband, father and son. At any other time the world would smile on him. But this is the nineties, and the world values other things. Angry, yet full of unexpected humour, Three Dollars chronicles a modern breach in the social contract, and the legacy of Thatcherism and Reaganomics and its effect on people and relationships. It is about a man's attempt to retain his humanity, his family and his sense of humour in grim and pitiless times; about what happens to people in our brave new world of downsizing, outsourcing and privatising.
Tonspuren
4.1(38)Add rating
Ein mitreißendes Geschichtsepos über die Kraft der Erinnerung und die Macht des Erzählens Ein junger Afroamerikaner, der in der Gesellschaft wieder Fuß zu fassen versucht; ein Holocaust-Überlebender, der auf dem Sterbebett die Vergangenheit aufleben lässt; ein Geschichtsdozent, der um seine Karriere und die große Liebe kämpft. Drei Schicksale, wie sie unterschiedlicher kaum sein können, verknüpfen sich in diesem Roman meisterhaft zu einer epischen Erzählung über Erinnerung, Liebe, Schuld und unerwartetes Heldentum. Elliot Perlman führt uns vom Polen der Kriegs-Ära über die amerikanische Bürgerrechtsbewegung der 1960er Jahre bis in das New York der Gegenwart und demonstriert uns, wie wichtig es bleibt, sich zu erinnern und Zeugnis abzulegen – denn Geschichte hat die Eigenschaft, sich zu wiederholen.

Seven Types of Ambiguity

Three Dollars

Tonspuren