Benjamin Markovits – författare

A love affair based on a case of mistaken identity, set in an impeccable re-creation of nineteenth-century London.

"A first-rate example of a literary historical novel."-Regan Upshaw, San Francisco Chronicle

The last piece of a literary puzzle falls into place in the final novel of Benjamin Markovits s Byron trilogy."

Douglas Pitt is a man obsessed. Laughed at, mocked and dismissed at every turn, Pitt has spent the best part of an unremarkable academic career attempting to prove the genius of Samuel Highgate Syme (b 1794, Baltimore; soldier, geologist, inventor). After years of frustration, Pitt finally stumbles into the good fortune he hopes will make his name: he uncovers a manuscript written by a fledgling scientist which recounts a year in the company of the irrespresible Syme.Teeming with comic detail and fierce intelligence, The Syme Papers recreates a time when to question the world and the origin of creation was the greatest project a scientist could undertake. It is a novel of genius and failure; of a man who thought he could prove the world was hollow, and in the glorious process of discover, broke his own heart.

'Human, astonishing, superb; and sublime.' Guardian'A formidable voice . . . the bastard son of Philip Roth and A. S. Byatt.' New Statesman'A remarkable achievement.' ObserverTaking place over the course of one year, shifting between uptown Manhattan and a private high-school campus in Riverdale, Either Side of Winter moves season by season through that richest of cityscapes, offering a deeply moving picture of people whose lives are linked by circumstance, community - and the need to be loved.

Three years after Lord Byron dismissed him from his service, Dr John Polidori has fallen on hard times. And then a young woman mistakes the doctor for the poet. As the pair fall in love, Polidori knows that he can only emerge from Byron's shadow if he confesses his true identity to the deluded girl; but was it only Byron's shadow that led her to love him in the first place? And a ghost story, The Vampyre, is published under Byron's name, but will the truth of the matter be uncovered?

Nineteen-year -old Annabella Milbanke, visiting London for the swirl of parties and engagements of the season, is introduced to Byron at a waltz. He has just published Childe Harold, and is surrounded by a crowd of admirers, one of whom is his half-sister Augusta Leigh. Annabella and Byron fall in love, but Augusta's unwelcome presence in their relationship becomes increasingly unbearable. Caught up in a potentially scandalous love triangle, Annabella must decide whether following her heart is the most dangerous thing she has ever done . . .

When the narrator of Childish Loves inherits a colleague Peter's writings on Lord Byron, he finds himself acting as a literary sleuth. Sorting through boxes of manuscripts he reads between the lines of these scandalous, Byron-inspired stories, meets with the Society for the Publication of the Dead, and tracks down people from Peter's past in an effort to untangle rumour from reality. In the process, he crafts a masterful story-within-a-story that turns on uncomfortable questions about childhood and sexual awakening, innocence and attraction, while exploring the lives of three very different writers and their brushes with success and failure in both literature and life.

Fresh out of college and uncertain how to proceed with life, the narrator of Ben Markovits' Playing Days finds himself drifting towards a career that once obsessed his father - professional basketball. Gaining a place on a minor league German team, he leaves Texas and lands in the small rather desolate town of Landshut, playing basketball with an eclectic group of teammates, training for most of the day and then trying to find ways to fill the rest of it. It's an odd, isolated existence, punctuated by the intense excitement - and often intense disappointment - of the game. But then he meets Anke, a young single mother who happens to be the former wife of one of his teammates; and their tentative, burgeoning relationship becomes as significant and as life changing as the game itself. Beautifully written, Playing Days is entirely recognisable in its depiction of the first long summer after university. Tinged with the melancholy and nostalgia of early steps into adulthood, it's the story of a young man's first experience of adult love, and of the discovery of his own limitations.

A SUNDAY TIMES TOP 100 NOVEL OF THE 21ST CENTURYWINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZETen years out of Yale and drifting, Greg Marnier heads for his college reunion. There he bumps into an old friend, Robert James, now influential and wealthy from dotcom success. He has a plan: to buy up several abandoned neighbourhoods in Detroit and build a new America from their ruins. But for every urban misfit who's come for a fresh start, there's a native Detroiter whose patch is being swallowed up by these new young colonials.'Intense and very funny.' Guardian, 'Best Novels of 2015''Is Markovits contemporary fiction's best kept secret?' Independent on Sunday'Remarkable.' Irish Independent'Multi-stranded and gripping.' Sunday Times

'Elegant and absorbing.' Guardian'A book to be savoured.' Observer'Intimate, funny . . . Masterfully done.' Daily Mail'Sophisticated and engrossing.' Literary ReviewPaul is a mid-ranking tennis professional on the ATP tour. His girlfriend Dana is an ex-model and photographer, and together with their two-year-old son they form a tableau of the contented upper-middle-class New York family. But Paul's parents and siblings have come to stay in the build-up to the US Open, and with summer storms brewing, several generations of domestic tension are brought to boiling point . . .

'Intricately, intimately written, with some wonderful prose and delicate dialogue.' Guardian'A loving and nuanced portrait of a family's myriad functions.' The New Yorker'Utterly absorbing.' Financial Times'A tour de force.' Sunday TimesA Luminous family saga from one of Granta's Best Young British NovelistsWhen the four Essinger children gather in Austin for Christmas, they all bring their news. Nathan wants to become a federal judge. Susie's husband has taken a job in England. Jean has asked her boyfriend and (once-married) boss to meet her family. Paul has broken up with Dana, mother of their son Cal. But their parents have plans, too, and Liesel, the materfamilias, has invited Dana and Cal to stay, hoping to bring them back together. As the week unfolds, each of the Essingers has to confront the tensions and conflicts between old families and new. Rich, intimate, and deeply perceptive, Christmas in Austin beautifully explores the deep-rooted division between the world we grow up in, and the life we make for ourselves.'A subtle, complex, grown-up study of a modern family. There's something pleasurable and astute to be found on every page.' Literary Review

ONE OF THE WEEK'S BEST NOVELS OF 2022'Exquisite. . . Warm, humane, and tragic.' JONATHAN LETHEM 'Compelling and emotionally resonant.' SpectatorAt his high school basketball try-outs, nerdy sports-obsessed Brian Blum meets new kid MarcusHayes. As a sportswriter, Brian spends the following twenty years tracking his friends' superstar NBAcareer. But when Marcus mounts his last dance comeback, after a couple of years out of the game,both men must face the tensions of their unlikely dynamic, and the disappointments of gettingolder.Praise for The Sidekick:'There is something so compelling about the questions of whether these two friends, despite theirfraught history and hefty egos, will rekindle a genuine connection . . . you'll want to know how thegame turns out.' TLS'Contemporary fiction's best kept secret . . . It's gratifying to observe someone with a large amount of specific knowledge not only imparting that expertise, but unlocking some deeper meaning within it, like a top sports star working their magic.' Sunday Business Post

A TLS, FINANCIAL TIMES AND TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR'Feels less like reading a novel and more like sitting in a car beside a dear friend . . . a profoundly moving experience' ANN PATCHETT 'Deeply human ... a beautifully quiet and devastating book' SARAH JESSICA PARKER 'Funny, wise and knowing' CLARE CHAMBERS When Tom's wife had an affair, he resolved to leave her once their children had grown up. Twelve years later, after driving his daughter to university, he remembers his pact and keeps driving West to visit friends, family and an old girlfriend.But he also has secrets of his own - trouble at work and health issues - and sometimes running away is the hardest thing to do.What readers are saying about The Rest of Our Lives: 'What a powerful tale; a really unexpected treasure.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Highly recommended if you want to read something real and something that will resonate.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'The best novel I've read this year.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'The perfect mix of funny, poignant and thought-provoking.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Deeply heartfelt and engrossing . . . I can't stop thinking about it!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'It packs an emotional punch . . . I know Tom will stay with me for a long time.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'I loved it - almost a coming-of-old-age story.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐