From the prize-winning author of Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It

Jeff Atman, a journalist, is in Venice to cover the opening of the Biennale. He's expecting to see a load of art, go to a lot of parties and drink too many bellinis. He's not expecting to meet the spellbinding Laura, who will completely transform his few days in the city. So begins a story of erotic love and spiritual learning that will reach its conclusion amidst the ghats of Varanasi.

"Dazzling and peculiar . . . A prodigious display of virtuosity." - * Guardian *

"Engaging and funny . . . Dyer is a witty and concise observer of landscapes: social, geographical and emotional . . . [his] eccentric charm and barbed perceptiveness will hook you to the end." - * The Times *

"Delivered with laconic wit and an evocative sense of place, Dyer's effortlessly readable prose is shot through with psychological insight, truth and an eye for travelogue detail." - * Metro *

"Dyer is more than a cult writer; he's a virus, invading your system. You look at things differently, embracing the idiosyncratic, keeping the obvious at bay . . . vintage Dyer, painfully funny, slyly observant, brilliant, full of wild misery." - * Spectator *

"Dyer is a smart, witty writer..., extraordinarily reflective, perceptive and funny...as well as a fine prose stylist. He's a keen commentator on the ironies of contemporary life from the very first page." - * Financial Times *

"Jeff in Venice is a love song to the pleasures of the phenomenal world, very fast and very funny . . . [Death in Varanasi] is Dyer at his very best: philosophical, astute, unstructured, oscillating between surface and depth, between the casual and the universal." - * Independent *

"Dyer's ingenious linking of these contrasting narratives is indicative of his intelligence and stylistic grace, and his ability to evoke atmosphere with impressive clarity is magical. Both novellas ask trenchant philosophical questions, include moments of irresistible humor and offer arresting observations about art and human nature. . . . A work of exceptional resonance. [Starred review.]" - * Publishers Weekly *

"A riddle of a novel wrapped in a two part travelogue about losing oneself . . . the writing is discursive and full of bleak, often funny observations about the more jaded intersections of art and life." - * Frieze *

"Entrancing . . . [Dyer] is a writer who resists categorization, who is constantly morphing from one thing to another...it takes talent to pull off a career like that, and Dyer has plenty of talent. His work is illusory yet real, funny but serious . . . [Jeff in Venice] is a haunted - and haunting - book." - * GQ *

"Raw and descriptive - this is a truly original piece of writing." - * Tatler *

"A haunted - and haunting - book." - * GQ *

"Cleverly-penned . . . affirms Dyer's place as one of Britain's most witty and original writers; the lively prose, colourful characters and at times extremely poignant descriptions making for both a riveting and really quite brilliant read." - * List *

"Smart, provocative, often very funny, but ultimately deeply sobering, Jeff in Venice is an early contender for the most original, and the cleverest, novel of the year." - * Daiy Telegraph *

"Dyer's prose always has a hint of intimacy...Memory, language and writing aare all intricately and emotionally woven." - * Times Literary Supplement *

"

You'll be hooked by a playful, fictive intelligence that flickers over every page.

"(T)he joy of his writing at its best lies in not knowing what's coming next, and in the fluent way it throws irreverence and transport together with a confessional ease that reflects the spirit of the age... In the weeks since I devoured Jeff in Venice, I don't think a day has passed without my thinking back to it." - * The New York Times Book Review *

"The last 20 pages approach magnificence: a virtuosic melding of style and repertoire that come together as a sort of yogic "one."" - * The Boston Globe *

"The English writer Geoff Dyer delights in producing books that are unique, like keys." - * The New Yorker *

"Beguiling." - * Metro *

"Filled with shimmering apparitions." - * Observer *

"Witty, observant, unexpected." - * Sunday Telegraph *

"Quite mad, it can be read poolside, roadside or mountainside: wherever you are, you'll be Lake-side." - * The Observer *

"Erudite and often very funny." - * The Telegraph *

"Rarely less than brilliant." - * The Guardian *

"Dyer is compared to Proust, Lawrence and Kingsley Amis. The praise is deserved . . . i hadn't read such a fully realised piece of fiction for ages." - * Evening Standard *

"By marrying fiction with travelogue, serious confessional with comedy, Dyer produces a heady literary package." - * Independent *

"Dyer at his very best . . . philosophical, astute, unstructured, oscillating between surface and depth, between the casual and the universal." - * Independent *

"A book about desire in all its manifestations: the desire for sensation and escape, to get out of one's own skin and to become somebody else, whether through love, intoxication or spiritual transformation. Smart, provocative, often very funny, but ultimately deeply sobering, Jeff in Venice is an early contender for the most original, and the cleverest, novel of the year" - * Telegraph *

"This is a bellini of a novel, sparkling and intoxicating, in which the hero concludes that something - maybe everything - has to give" - * GQ *

"Rarely less than brilliant" - * Guardian *