From André Aciman, the author of Call Me by Your Name (now a
major motion picture and the winner of the Oscar(TM) for Best Adapted
Screenplay) comes "a sensory masterclass, absorbing, intelligent,
unforgettable" (Times Literary Supplement).
Enigma Variations charts the life of a man named Paul, whose loves
remain as consuming and as covetous throughout his adulthood as they
were in his adolescence. Whether the setting is southern Italy, where as
a boy he has a crush on his parents' cabinetmaker, or a snowbound campus
in New England, where his enduring passion for a girl he'll meet again
and again over the years is punctuated by anonymous encounters with
men--whether he's on a tennis court in Central Park or on a New York
sidewalk in early spring. Paul's attachments are ungraspable, transient,
and forever underwritten by raw desire.
Ahead of every step Paul takes, his hopes, denials, fears, and regrets
are always ready to lay their traps. Yet the dream of love lingers. We
may not always know what we want. We may remain enigmas to ourselves and
to others. But sooner or later, we discover who we've always known we
were.