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    Damage
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    Damage
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    Damage
    Ebook208 pages3 hours

    Damage

    By Josephine Hart

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    New York Times Bestseller: This psychological thriller is “a taut, sinister tale of erotic obsession” (Vanity Fair).

    Damage is the gripping story of a man’s desperate obsession and scandalous love affair. He is a man who appears to have everything: wealth, a beautiful wife and children, and a prestigious political career in Parliament. But his life lacks passion, and his aching emptiness drives him to an all-consuming, and ultimately catastrophic, relationship with his son’s fiancée.

    Chilling and brilliant, Damage is a New York Times–bestselling masterpiece—a daring look at the dangers of obsession and the depth of its shattering consequences.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateAug 10, 2010
    ISBN9781453200063
    Unavailable
    Damage
    Author

    Josephine Hart

    Josephine Hart, Baroness Saatchi, was an Irish writer, theatrical producer, and television presenter who lived in London. Lady Saatchi wrote the New York Times bestselling novel Damage, which was the basis for the 1992 film of the same name, directed by Louis Malle and starring Jeremy Irons, Juliette Binoche and Rupert Graves.

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    Reviews for Damage

    3.5/5

    19 ratings12 reviews

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    • 5/5
      An amazing storyteller. I'll be putting all of her books on my to-be-read list.
    • 5/5
      Damage was on my list as a Father's Day read, if you can believe it. I read it over two lunch breaks. Some father! Told from the point of view of a doctor turned politician who has an affair with his son's girlfriend-turned-fiancee. What makes this (short, only 200 or so pages) story so intoxicating is the slow descent into hell this man willingly makes. When he first introduces us to his life he had been a well-to-do man who has a seemingly perfect family. Two smart and beautiful adult children, Martyn and Sally, a gorgeous wife Ingrid and a stable, well respected career. He does not deny that he had a good life...pre-Anna, his son's girlfriend. Then he meets Anna and all hell breaks loose in a slow unraveling sort of way. Inexplicably there is an instant attraction between the two of them and an affair ignites abruptly. While the physical relationship is spontaneous the mental obsession builds gradually until it is all consuming...for both of them.There is a sense of foreshadowing, a warning of sorts in the line "Can't you sense, smell, taste disaster waiting in the corners of the house?" (p 36).Anna's explanation as to why she is the way she is, "I have been damaged. Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive" (p 42) is probably the most often quoted in reviews.
    • 4/5
      I knew that this book was going to be a train wreck ten pages in but I couldn't stop myself. There was something fascinating about this simple marriage and the husband who became so narcissistic. Perhaps he was... all along and it took Anna to bring it out where we could really see it.The story is about a family of four: father, mother, son & daughter. The son is a lothario, bringing home a different blonde to Sunday Dinner weekly. That is until he meets Anna. The daughter is a nice sweet British lass who has her head on right.The mother and father are a relatively boring couple who do everything just right. That is until the son brings Anna home.This isn't a book you will like but you will perhaps be fascinated by it as I was, horrified by it as I was, appreciate the writing as I did and find a new author to read as I did.I rated this one 3 1/2 stars and recommend it to a select group of readers.
    • 3/5
      "Damage" is so vivid, the prose so clear and beautifully rendered that it's inevitable that this book would be made into a movie. Wonderfully dark and twisted, "Damage" examines the depths of human desire and obsession in all their brutality and ugliness. The narrator seems extremely, uncomfortably real, his actions entirely plausible. The character of Anna seemed a little unlikely and some of the dialogue was a bit melodramatic, but overall, this is a very powerful novel that is quite hard to put down! I was struck a few times with how much (I think) this novel is a sort of modern-day "Wuthering Heights." There is a strange, dark, incestuousness about the love story. Love and tragedy are woven wonderfully together. And something about the character of the aloof, almost cruelly-strong Anna reminded me of Bronte's Cathy with brother Aston as Heathcliff (and perhaps there's a little Heathcliff in the narrator as well). At the very least, Anna is as indecipherable as Cathy.
    • 4/5
      In this intense and shocking novel, an unnamed narrator details the treacherous and frightening spiral from his life of ease and comfort into one of depravity and obsession. The narrator, a well-to-do politician and doctor with a beautiful wife and two children, has always felt that things have come to him too easily and nothing he's attained has truly been a challenge for him. He walks through life with a deep sense of ennui, content to live his life in the shadow of a deep seated discomfort and numbness, when one day his son, Martyn, brings home the latest in a series of women. But Anna, Martyn's new girlfriend, is different, and the narrator immediately takes notice of her in some disturbing ways, feeling instantly as though he has finally met one of his own kind. The relationship between this man and Anna is instantaneously deviant and sexually fearsome, and soon the narrator is being slowly driven mad with the compulsion to possess Anna in every way. This is a serious problem, for Martyn has marriage in mind, and though he allows Anna the freedom that she needs to be who she is, he doesn't realize that she is abusing his trust. As the narrator becomes more and more obsessed with this odd woman, whom his wife also feels strangely about, his life begins to crumple and distort in a series of events that will shatter not only him his family, but anyone connected to Anna as well. Deeply physiologically disturbing, this close and spare novel immediately grabs you in its teeth and shakes you, until finally you are left spent and breathless, marveling at the cruelty and deception within it.From the moment I began this book, there was a dark and portentous feeling surrounding me as I read. I think part of this comes from the fact that Hart knows her material and is able to be lush and spare at the same time, creating a sense of confinement and dread within the narrator's confession. For that is truly what this book really is, a confession of the dark misdeeds that the narrator succumbs to in his pursuit of Anna. The narrator himself is an odd fellow. He is supremely indifferent to all aspects of his life. From his loving wife to his perfect children, he feels almost nothing and strives to understand why he feels so dead inside. When he meets Anna, he becomes alive in a frightening instant and becomes obsessed with her in a way that is truly out of character for him, and truly worrisome to the reader.Anna is a damaged person. She says this herself and explains to the narrator how dangerous people like her can be. She exists as a sort of repository for the narrator's growing obsession and doesn't really have any defining characteristics other than her ability to egg him on to further and further acts of madness. She is cold and calculating and seems to grow in her capacity for destruction as the narrator begins to sink into her. As he diminishes, she increases, and though he believes he's in control of everything that happens between them, in reality it is she who is in control. Something I noticed about Anna was how she passively pushes people to their extremes and then lets them believe their actions are their own idea, when in reality, she is the impetus for the destruction that takes place around her. She submits, but only when it's advantageous for her to do so, and she creates a sense of well being tempered with an acute anxiety for the narrator as she slowly strips his life away.One could argue that all this destruction comes from the narrator himself, that he is, in fact, the hinge upon which all this madness rests. In my opinion, that would be to simple an assessment, for there's something about Anna that inspires rational people to do irrational things. In her quiet acquiescence she gives power and freedom to all sorts of malevolent ideas that seem to overtake people. Though she is rational and seems benign, she quietly unlocks all the secret desires of the people around her and sends them spinning out of control. The scariest thing about this is that Anna knows who and what she is and what she can do, and though she warns the narrator, she also strangely clings to him in an effort to live out her secret desire for domination. She is powerful, but also quiet and seemingly demure, her cacophony of malignancy resting just below a placid surface.I felt a lot of discomfort reading this book, due to the curious sense of detachment exhibited by its characters, and when this all-consuming obsession and desperation took over the story, it was almost to unbearable to read about. The mental changes the narrator goes through are rather chilling and alarming, and by the time I turned the final page, I was unsettled and disturbed in way that bothered me but also made me wonder at Hart's awesome capacity for creating her story. Though our narrator has had his life, family and livelihood ripped away by his savage obsession with Anna, he still doesn't regret what he's done and still hungers for her both physically and mentally.I loved this book, not only for its masterful style but for Hart's ability to get under my skin like a splinter and stay there. A lot of the book is written in a very direct and quiet way, but the story is chaotic and formidable, and it left me feeling vulnerable and unsettled in some vaguely strange ways. I think those readers who are looking for something that will riddle them with complex feelings and those who enjoy books that are deft yet sparse would love this one. I know I'm looking forward to reading more from Hart because I think she has an incredible narrative gift and the ability to create characters whose coldness is wondering and impeccable.
    • 4/5
      The protagonist (unnamed) of Damage is wealthy, educated, has a beautiful wife and children and is on his way up the political ladder. Then he meets his sons fiancee and realizes he's been asleep for all of his fifty years on Earth. The woman wakes him up and he's instantly obsessed with her--he must possess her in every way. He gets his wish to devasting results. Damage is an intimate portrait of a live knocked off the rails by consuming passion and leaves the reader wondering how he or she would behave in a similar situation. Compelling and thought-provoking.
    • 4/5
      A riveting psychological drama which was made into a movie starring Juliette Binoche and Jeremy Irons.
    • 1/5
      This is the most poorly written book I've read in a long time. How this book can be recommended by Iris Murdoch and Ted Hughes is beyond me. Could this be vanity published? The writer I see is married to a Saatchi and, after all, money talks. A cornucopia of boring sentences, cardboard characters and a slow, cliched plot. Dire.
    • 4/5
      For anyone who has had a love affair with someone they can not have. Beautifully, poetically written. Truely shows the heart ache of the situation.
    • 3/5
      Twisted tale of obsession, adultery, betrayal, and sex. Couldn't put the ebook down until I finished reading it.
    • 5/5
      Esta frase describe muy bien al personaje principal :


      It had been so simple. I was trembling with joy and longing. Lines from childhood sang in my head, ‘All a-wonder and a wild, wild longing’.

      My maniac’s face as I walked from the booth startled a passer-by.

      Un libro breve pero excelente.
    • 4/5
      Damaged- by Josephine HartThis was a very well written book, capturing what greed, lust, and love, can drive even what may seem the most “normal” people to do. The writing style seemed almost like a play, taking place in the early twentieth century, but actually the story took place in modern times, and no play could capture the intense feelings and thoughts of the main character. The father of a prominent, upstanding, wealthy English family, has gotten himself into quite a predicament. Some may call it a mid-life crisis of sorts, but he has crossed the line over to the ultimate betrayal that will destroy his family. This father had everything going for him. He was a successful doctor, politician, husband, and father of two grown children, about to start new lives on their own. Although looks can be deceiving, and he was not truly satisfied with his life, all of this changed when he met Anna. The passion and lust he felt for Anna was so eloquently written, along with the anger and hatred he felt at times towards himself, and others who came between Anna. This erotic and dangerous affair that began with Anna consumed the father and his relationships with his family members because Anna was going to be his daughter-in-law. This story was full of emotion, the feelings of the characters were well captured and beautifully written, and the twists and turns of the story kept it interesting to read.