{
    "id": 316247,
    "slug": "the-sparsholt-affair-alan-hollinghurst",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "The Sparsholt Affair",
    "subtitle": "Alan Hollinghurst",
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": "<p>1940s Oxford-two young men meet at university. Both know that they only have a year left of their studies, and possibly their lives, before they're forced to join the military. The novel follows the two through the generations to 2010 as well as a painting which disappears but is then rediscovered. 'As good as the English novel gets. Almost every sentence is a thing of beauty' Sunday Telegraph.</p>",
    "description": "In October 1940, the handsome young David Sparsholt arrives in Oxford. A keen athlete and oarsman, he at first seems unaware of the effect he has on others - particularly on the lonely and romantic Evert Dax, son of a celebrated novelist and destined to become a writer himself. While the Blitz rages in London, Oxford exists at a strange remove: an ephemeral, uncertain place, in which nightly blackouts conceal secret liaisons. Over the course of one momentous term, David and Evert forge an unlikely friendship that will colour their lives for decades to come . . . Alan Hollinghurst's masterly new novel evokes the intimate relationships of a group of friends bound together by art, literature and love across three generations. It explores the social and sexual revolutions of the most pivotal years of the past century, whose life-changing consequences are still being played out to this day. Richly observed, disarmingly witty and emotionally charged, The Sparsholt Affair is an unmissable achievement from one of our finest writers.\n\n",
    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": 448,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2017-10-05",
    "publication_date_latest": "2018-06-30",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [
        {
            "isbn": "9781447208228",
            "product_form": "BC"
        },
        {
            "isbn": "9781509844937",
            "product_form": "BC"
        }
    ],
    "ratings_count": 0,
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    "rating_average": null,
    "ratings_distribution": {
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    "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:17:12+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-11-01T00:25:43+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 4185,
        "slug": "picador-uk",
        "name": "Picador UK",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:08:37+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:13:02+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [
        {
            "id": 188734,
            "slug": "alan-hollinghurst-2",
            "key_names": "Hollinghurst",
            "names_before_key": "Alan",
            "prefix_to_key": null,
            "contributor_role": "A01",
            "readable_contributor_role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": [
        {
            "scheme_identifier": "32",
            "scheme_version": null,
            "main_subject": false,
            "subject_code": "300",
            "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:17:12+00:00",
            "updated_at": "2025-09-19T13:17:12+00:00"
        }
    ],
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}