Genesis A Novel [Paperback]

A major new novel about sex and the citizen by the award-winning author of Being Dead

The timid life of actor Felix Dern is uncorrupted by Hollywood, where his success has not yet been shackled with any intrusive fame. But in the theaters and the restaurants of his own city, Lix is celebrated and admired for his looks, for his voice, and for his unblemished private life. He has succeeded in courting popularity everywhere, this handsome hero of the left, this charming darling of the right, this ever-twisting weather vane.

A perfect life? No, he is blighted. He has been blighted since his teens, for every woman he sleeps with bears his child. So now it is Mouetta's turn. Their baby's due in May. Lix wants to say he feels besieged. Another child? To be so fertile is a curse...

InGenesis, Jim Crace, winner of the National Book Critics' Circle Award and the Whitbread Novel of the Year, charts the sexual history of a loving, baffled man, the sexual emancipation of a city, and the sexual ambiguities of humankind.

Jim Crace's novels are superbly attuned to the substance of events at the edge of life. The edges of history, the seaweed edge of land, the gray zone of moral behavior, the sill between life and death, all lie within his baliwick. Barry Lopez

An extravagantly gifted writer. John Crowley, The Washington Post Book World

Crace may be the most original and interesting of living British writers. Richard Eder, The New York Times

Jim Craceis the author of seven previous novels, includingBeing Dead(FSG, 2000) which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, and, most recently,The Devil's Larder(FSG, 2001). He lives in Birmingham, England.

Discussion Questions
1.Genesisis comprised of seven chapters, beginning and ending with number 6. What is the significance of structuring the novel like this? Does it affect your experlÁ