num_pages: 581
description: This marvellous book is one of the most ingenious works of modern fiction, an entire microcosm brought to life in a Paris apartment block. Serge Valene wants to create an elaborate painting of the building he has made his home for the last sixty years. As he plans his picture, he contemplates the lives of all the people he has ever known there. Chapter by chapter, the narrative moves around the building revealing a marvellously diverse cast of characters in a series of ever more unlikely tales, which range from an avenging murderer to an eccentric English millionaire who has devised the ultimate past-time...
language: English
title: Life: A User's Manual
titlecomplete: Life: A User's Manual
characters: Bartlebooth
genres: Fiction, 20th Century, French Literature, Classics, France, Contemporary, Philosophy, Literary Fiction, Literature, Novels
ratings_count: 8700
places: Paris
awards: awardedAt: 252489600000
name: Prix Médicis, awardedAt: 820483200000
name: Mekka-prijs, awardedAt: 568022400000
name: French-American Foundation Translation Prize
category: Fiction
publisher: Vintage Books