The Rub of Time

An expansive and incisive collection of essays and reportage from one of England's celebrated writers.

Martin Amis has spent decades turning his forensic intellect and inimitable prose toward the absurdities, vanities, and occasional triumphs of modern life. In The Rub of Time, a collection of his sharpest nonfiction from over twenty years, he trains his gaze on politics, literature, sports, and the spectacle of celebrity with a wit as lethal as it is precise.

Here, Amis dissects the rise of Donald Trump with mordant amusement, capturing the theatrical bluster and ominous undertones of American politics. He revisits his literary titans, Saul Bellow and Vladimir Nabokov, parsing their genius with the awe of a disciple and the rigor of a peer. His sportswriting crackles with the same energy, whether reflecting on the fleeting prime of his own athleticism or the strange poetry of competition. From the war on terror to Brexit, from the pitfalls of fame to the pleasures of the written word, Amis blends personal reflection with razor-sharp cultural critique, always with his signature mix of erudition and dark comedy.

Brimming with linguistic fireworks and featuring new commentary from the author, The Rub of Time is Amis at his most incisive, irreverent, and unmissable.