The Game of Opposites: A Novel

by Norman Lebrecht

From the author of The Song of Names (winner of the 2002 Whitbread First Novel Award), a powerful new novel that explores the reverberations of love and hate in the story of one man’s unlikely survival.

In an unnamed country at the end of a world war, Paul Miller escapes from a labor camp, collapsing after running only a few hundred feet. He is taken in by a young woman named Alice, and by the time she has nursed him back to health, the war has ended. With no one to return to and learning to love the woman who saved him, Paul decides to stay where he is. Over time he marries Alice, has a family, helps to rebuild the village, and, eventually, becomes its mayor.

But Paul is inescapably haunted by his life before the war, by his time in the camp, and by the fact that the people who are now his friends ignored for years the labor camp in their midst. When the camp’s commander returns to the village, Paul is at last faced with the moral dilemma that will force him to choose between vengeance and forgiveness.

The Game of Opposites tells a universal tale of good and evil with extraordinary humanity and poignancy. It is a stunning evocation of the capability for both within all of us.

Genres: Fiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Norman Lebrecht (born 11 July 1948 in London) is a British commentator on music and cultural affairs and a novelist. He was a columnist for The Daily Telegraph from 1994 until 2002 and assistant editor of the Evening Standard from 2002 until 2009. On BBC Radio 3, he has presented lebrecht.live from 2000 and The Lebrecht Interview from 2006.

He has written twelve books about music, which have been translated into 17 languages. Coming up in 2010 is Why Mahler?, a new interpretation of the most influential composer of modern times. See Books for more details. Also coming back in print is Mahler Remembered (Faber, 1987).

Norman Lebrecht's first novel The Song of Names won a Whitbread Award in 2003. His second, The Game of Opposites, was published in the US by Pantheon Books. A third is in preparation.

A collection of Lebrecht columns will be published this year in China, the first such anthology by any western cultural writer. A Lebrecht conversation appears monthly in The Strad, magazine of the strings professions.

The Lebrecht Interview will return in July 2010 on BBC Radio 3 and there will be further editions of The Record Doctor in New York on WNYC.

A year-long series of events, titled Why Mahler?, will open on London's South Bank in September 2010, curated by Norman Lebrecht.

Other works in progress include a stage play and various radio and television documentaries.

Reviews

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story got off to a slow start and I was perhaps irritated at time jumping around. But before page 50 I was completely sold. I wish the ending had been handled differently. It's not that it wrapped up too quickly---it just wrapped up so differently, with characters that I wasn't concerned with talking third hand about the characters I wanted to know about. It created a distance, rather than a mystery. But all the story in the middle, I thoroughly enjoyed.

[Joanne Levy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written but not an easy read. I didn't enjoy the last third of the book and found it quite heavy.

[Juliana Ribeiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good book, but he don't really start well... But the history is interesting and is a very different way to talk about the second war.

[Candy · Rating 3 out of 5]

When faced with your adversary, you have three options: flight, fight or hide. Paul Miller-who barely survived WWII-resurfaces to build a new life in the shadow of the Nazi camp that held him captive and in the midst of those who stood idly by. Then, the face of terror shows up in his new world too, and Paul struggles with how to co-exist with his tormentor. So what will it be:flight, fight or hide? Ethical questions abound in this thought-provoking, powerful novel.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this story was incredible. It started slowly but with each chapter the suspense built to an almost unbearable crescendo. At first I didn't think that I would like how the author failed to mention any countries or ethnicities, but in the end I think it actually made everything flow better.

[FiveBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is the story of a man who gets out of the concentration camp right at the end of the war and is sheltered within a village. He has a very successful post-war life, becomes mayor of the village and the village becomes a prosperous town under his rule. Read the full interview with Simon Mawer about forgiveness: http://thebrowser.com/books/interview...

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful book, well-written, and thought-provoking about a man who survives a concentration camp and then lives among the villagers who allowed the camp's presence. A philosophical examination of good and evil but also an engaging, fascinating read.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intelligent, thougthful, intense observation of good and guilt, and all the complexities that follow.

[Amy Ramey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that takes a few days to read. Why? Because you need to take a break. You need to let it sink in...This book is a portrait of redemption--messy redemption.

[Rctgale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick read and demonstrates, once again, the lasting scars that Nazi prisoners carried with them after the war.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound. Wonderful use of language.

[Betsey Beyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

a troubling story of post holocaust survivor living near his death camp.