Dark Diversions: A Traveler's Tale

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In Dark Diversions, acclaimed author John Ralston Saul stages a black comedy of international proportions that takes the reader from New York to Paris to Morocco to Haiti. When he's not encountering dictators in Third World hot spots, Saul's unnamed journalist narrator moves in privileged circles on both sides of the Atlantic, insinuating himself into the lives of well-to-do aristocrats. Through his exploits we experience a fascinating world of secret lovers, exiled princesses, death by veganism, and religious heresies. The emotional fireworks of these inhabitants of the First World are sharply juxtaposed with the political infighting of the dictators and the corruption, double-dealing, and fawning that attend them. But as he becomes further enmeshed in these worlds, the outsider status of the narrator grows more ambiguous- Is he a documentarian of privileged foibles and fundamental inequity, or an embodiment of the very 'dark diversions' he chronicles

Reviews

[A] lean, caustic and darkly comic yarn. - Toronto Star

An ingenious read, Dark Diversions will be a solid end-of-summer choice for a wide and varied audience. - Winnipeg Free Press

"A delightful novel, invigoratingly wicked." - Le Monde

Author Bio

John Ralston Saul's philosophical trilogy - Voltaire's Bastards, The Doubter's Companion and The Unconscious Civilization - has had a growing impact on political thought in many countries. A further work, On Equilibrium, is a persuasive and groundbreaking exploration of the human struggle for personal and social balance. Mr. Saul has written five novels, including The Birds of Prey and The Field Trilogy. These works deal with the crisis of modern power and its clash with the individual. Like his non-fiction, his novels have been translated into many languages. He has received many national and international awards for his work. The Unconscious Civilization won the 1996 Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction as well as the Gordon Montador Award for Best Canadian Book on Social Issues. His reinterpretation of the nature of Canada , Reflections of a Siamese Twin, also won a Montador Award and was chosen by Macfean's magazine as one of the ten best non-fiction books of the twentieth century. His novel The Paradise Eater won the Premio Lettarario Internazionate in Italy. Most recently he received the Pablo Neruda Medal in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of Neruda's birth. Mr. Saul was born in Ottawa and studied at McGill University and the University of London, where h