The Beauty of the Husband A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos

Since <i>Glass and God</i>, which was her first full-length collection published in Britain and which was nominated for the 1998 Forward Prize, Anne Carson has published a book a year to extraordinary critical acclaim. Her last two volumes, <i>Autobiography of Red</i> and <i>Men in the Off Hours</i> were both shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, and she has received numerous North American awards, including the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship.<br> <br> In her brilliant new book, she tells a single story. A long-time love, now a crumbling marriage, unfolds in 29 'tangos' of narrative verse, informed by the romanticism of Keats, the wisdom of the classical world and, most importatnly, by Carson's own unique sensibility.<br> <br> The unnamed narrator - sometimes 'I', sometimes 'the wife' - speaks of the man she calls only 'the husband', illuminating moments that are by turn sensual, erotic, painful and heartbreaking. <i>The Beauty of the Husband</i> is a work that explores these oldest of lyrical subjects - beauty, desire, love, betrayal - with freshness and devastating power.<br> <br> <b>**ONE OF THE <i>GUARDIAN</i>'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**</b>