The Nothing (English, Hardcover, Hanif Kureishi)

.Waldo, a notorious filmmaker who has known glory, awards and applause from critics and audiences, now remains in a wheelchair due to the ailments of his advanced age However, his libido remains intact, and his wife, Zee – an Indian married to a Pakistani and with two daughters, whom he seduced during a shoot and brought to London – agrees to his requests to undress before him and show him her parts intimate.

The third vertex of the triangle in the center of this novel is occupied by Eddie, film critic, admirer of Waldo and now lover of Zee under the nose of the old director. This spy on the couple, documents their suspicions and plans his revenge with the occasional help of Anita, actress and friend, willing to investigate Eddie’s turbulent and gruesome past …

Kureishi explores in this short novel the woes of old age and physical decrepitude, sordid marital and sexual conflicts, and the secret mechanisms of artistic creativity. And he does it by unleashing his rogue humor and pornographic and eschatological touches. Result: a forceful and wild novel, which handles with exemplary balance the mixture of the disgusting situations with the heartbreaking pathos of the characters. Laughter and desolation as ingredients of a visceral inquiry into the miseries and chimeras of contemporary life, through a love triangle that overflows with lust, hatred, resentment, pettiness, debauchery, lewdness and other excesses. A very black and fierce tragicomedy that will not leave any reader indifferent.