Louis Begley: 16 books

“Tragic and redemptive . . . Updike had Rabbit, Roth has Zuckerman, Richard Ford has Bascombe and Begley has Schmidt. . . .  [Schmidt Steps Back] isthe most ambitious novel [yet] in the Schmidt cycle.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) ** ** Full of dark humor, compassion, and heart, Schmidt...

“Terrifically intelligent, moving, and entertaining.” –The New York Sun “With snappy dialogue [and] intelligent prose . . . Begley paints a memorable portrait of lasting friendship and of the strength required to step outside of the expectations that surround each of us.” –Rocky...

Master stylist Begley continues the story of Jack Dana, the former Marine Corps officer turned novelist whose quest to avenge his murdered uncle takes a new, more dangerous turn. The man who brutally murdered Uncle Harry is dead. In an effort to recover from the confrontation and collect himself,...

From the master observer of upper-crust New York life comes a taut thriller that takes readers from the office suites of Manhattan to the tidy elegance of Sag Harbor and the rough-and-tumble western plains of Brazil. Find your next book club pick, read special features, and more. Join the Random...

By the author of the beloved Schmidt series, Memories of a Marriage is a penetrating look at class and privilege, shifting from Paris to Manhattan, Long Island to Newport. Mourning his wife and daughter, and on the edge of old age, Philip reencounters an astonishing woman from his past: Lucy De Bourgh,...

Recently widowed, Albert Schmidt has triumphantly rediscovered domestic bliss in the Hamptons with Carrie, the Puerto Rican waitress who is younger than his daughter. Schmidt is content with keeping his own hours and steering his own course, even as he becomes entertained--and increasingly ensnared--...

Marine-turned-novelist Jack Dana is back in Louis Begley's most intense, suspenseful, and deadly adventure yet. With the death of his nemesis, corrupt business mogul Abner Brown, retired Marine Jack Dana thought he could finally return to his peaceful career as a novelist. And after falling...

With an unforgettable novella and brilliant essays, a writing couple delivers “a love letter to an ancient Italian city by the sea” (The Washington Post).   *Venice for Lovers *is a memorable collaboration by two fine stylists who have fashioned their own personal homages to Venice, one with...

"Begley writes with a contemplative wisdom that permeates his work....[He] has captured some of the wispy melancholy of midcentury fiction, and this feat in itself is mellifluous to both ear and spirit." THE BOSTON GLOBE A man without a country or family, a Holocaust survivor, Ben...

Thomas Mistler has always thought himself "a happy man, as the world goes." A scion of old money, he made his own fortune in advertising and is now poised to sell the company he founded for a fabulous price. But when a medical examination reveals the presence in his liver of a fatal intruder,...

"Extraordinary...Rich in irony and regret...[the] people and settings are vividly realized and his prose [is] compelling in its simplicity." THE WALL STREET JOURNAL As the world slips into the throes of war in 1939, young Maciek's once closetted existence outside Warsaw is no more....

"[A] perfectly constructed novel.... The time is 1974, and Max, who is fleeing from the wreckage of his first marriage, is a summer-house guest on Lake Como, where he encounters the two characters who will shape his life over the next 20 years: Charlie Swan, a Harvard classmate from the 1950s...

As he tries to make his life habitable again--after the devastating loss of his wife--retired lawyer Albert Schmidt finds the possibility of regeneration in a new love the old "Schmidtie" would never have dreamt of. Set in the Hamptons and Mahnattan, and laced with black humor, About Schmidt casts...

A mesmerizing novel of deception and betrayal from the acclaimed author of Wartime Liesand About Schmidt*.* John North, a prize-winning American writer, is suddenly beset by dark suspicions about the real value of his work. Over endless hours and bottles of whiskey consumed in a mysterious café called...