Creative NonfictionEssaysMemoirsOn Writing.Poetry.Book DetailsSpring ISBN: 978-1-55597-602-6.Trim Size: 5 1/2 x 8 1/4.Pages: 272.Pub Date: January 17, 2012.Subject: FICTION/Literary.. Spring Fiction > Novels. Spring A NovelDavid SzalayPrice $15.00 Paperback. Share: See Spring on Good Reads.Plenty of novelists have captivated readers with stories of passionate new relationships full of romance, optimism, and hot sex. In Spring, David Szalay pulls off a much harder trick, writing engrossingly about new lovers who manage to go straight to irritation, pessimism and pain. . . . This might be pretty bleak stuff if Szalay were not such a lyrical, precise writer, deftly capturing the hyperawareness that often stands in for real communication between couples. This awkward dance may be anything but dreamy, but its irresistible to watch.O, The Oprah Magazine[Szalay] draws his main characters with subtly devastating insight.The Boston GlobeAbout the BookThe U.S. debut of leading U.K. author David Szalay, named one of The Daily Telegraphs twenty best British novelists under fortyJames is a man with a checkered pastsporadic entrepreneur, one-time film producer, almost a dot-com millionairenow alone in a flat in Bloomsbury, running a shady horse-racing-tips operation. Katherine is a manager at a luxury hotel, a job shed intended to leave years ago, and is separated from her husband. The novel unfolds in 2006, at the end of the money-for-nothing years, as a chance meeting leads to an awkward tryst and James tries to make sense of a relationship where no means maybe and a yes can never be taken for granted. David Szalay builds a novel of immense resonance as he cycles though perspectives that add layers of depth to the hesitations, missteps, and tensions as James tries to win Katherine. Jamess other pursuit is money, and Spring follows his investments and schemes, from a half share in a thoroughbred to a suit-and-tie day job hes taken to pay the bills. Spring is a sharply tuned novel so nuanced and precise in its psychology that it establishes Szalay as a major talent.Additional Reviews[Szalay] gets to the heart of what it means to encounter disappointment and heartache. His characters . . . are skilled in picking up the pieces of their broken lives and moving on to something better, however elusive better may prove to be.Booklist