{"product_id":"down-time","title":"Down Time","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eA terribly funny and lovably louche novel about five friends growing older, if not always up, from Andrew Martin, author of \u003ci\u003eEarly Work\u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eCool for America\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWithout Cassandra, Aaron would probably be dead. Fortunately, she won't leave him-despite the drinking, flirting, solipsism, armchair socialism, overspending, infidelity, catastrophic depression, and disparate but increasingly frequent spells of drug- and booze-addled debauchery. Unfortunately, she might be reaching the end of her rope.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCass and Aaron, like the other neurotic, ambivalent intellectuals in their orbit, are getting older.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThere's Malcolm, with his own alcoholism and marginally more successful writing career; his partner, Violet, a doctor with little patience for both; Antonia, a teaching fellow whose book about ecocide may get her tenure at a prestigious university near Harvard Square-yes, that one. When Sam, a charming trust-fund punk at the center of this loose network, dies suddenly, and a global pandemic takes hold, all five must contend with the lives they've made: their desires and disappointments, habits and hang-ups, pathologies and addictions, and the possibilities of making art and being good as the earth whirls to its end.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eDown Time \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003emarks the delightful return of Andrew Martin, the author of the pitch-perfect slacker classics \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eEarly Work \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003eand \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eCool for America\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. Compulsively readable and contagiously intelligent, this is a wryly comic social novel of settling down, selling out, growing up, and getting out that turns a terribly funny and hyper-literate eye on our most desperately guarded ambitions: to love and be loved, to know and be known, to stay sane, if only just.'\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eFormat: Paperback \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003ePublished:  2026, US\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003ePublisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003ePages: 284\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eLanguage: English  \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eISBN: 9780374617066\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Andrew Marton","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57072484778315,"sku":null,"price":28.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/8755\/1819\/files\/9780374617066-2.jpg?v=1776678900","url":"https:\/\/desirelinesbookstore.com\/products\/down-time","provider":"desirelines books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}