1
of
1
A Single Man
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 36,877 ratings, 3,548 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK
Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock
Sorry, we're currently out of stock of A Single Man. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Latest News
The Grand Line Awaits! New One Piece Plush Toys
New One Piece Plush Toys have arrived at Toy Hero
Bluey Alert: New Bluey Toys Have Just Arrived!
New Bluey Toys have arrived at Toy Hero
A personal message to our customers
We've heard that some people are surprised to learn that Book Hero is a 100%...
Fiction for Foodies
Lizzy is sharing some of her favourite fiction reads for people who love food as...
Book Hero's Favourite Biographies!
The Book Hero team are sharing their favourite biography or memoir - some are recent...
See moreIn this brilliantly perceptive novel, a middle aged professor living in California, is alienated from his students by differences in age and nationality ,and from the rest of society by his homosexuality. Isherwood explores the depths of the human soul and its ability to triumph over loneliness, alienation and loss.
A Single Man is an exclusive Vintage Classic that has been made into a film starring Julianne Moore and Colin Firth and directed by Tom Ford.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
A Single Man is an exclusive Vintage Classic that has been made into a film starring Julianne Moore and Colin Firth and directed by Tom Ford.
In this brilliantly perceptive novel, a middle-aged professor living in California is alienated from his students by differences in age and nationality, and from the rest of society by his homosexuality. Isherwood explores the depths of the human soul and its ability to triumph over loneliness, alienation, and loss.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood is considered his key postwar work, notably ahead of its time for its portrayal of everyday homosexual life, influencing gay writers in both Britain and the US. Reviewers praise Isherwood's blend of humour and stoicism in the face of grief, as well as his personal writing style that conveys intimacy and honesty. His work, often described as witty, observant, and nostalgic, showcases his literary talents, and the book is frequently regarded as a masterpiece in modern literature. The narrative's ability to balance sadness with moments of wild humour is also highlighted.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780099548829
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 04 February 2010
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Vintage Classics
Edition: Media tie-in
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 9.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 117g
Pages: 160
About the Author
Christopher Isherwood was born in 1904. He began to write at university and later moved to Berlin, where he gave English lessons to support himself. He witnessed first hand the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany and some of his best works, such as Mr. Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin, draw on these experiences. He created the character of Sally Bowles, later made famous as the heroine of the musical Cabaret. Isherwood travelled with W.H Auden to China in the late 1930s before going with him to America in 1939. He died on 4 January 1986.
Also by Christopher Isherwood
View all-
Goodbye to Berlin
VINTAGE DECO β Nine blazing, daring novels to celebrate the 1920s β 100 years on. Goodbye to Berlin is the novella that inspired Cabaret, evoking the glamour and sleaze, excess and repression of Berlin society. Isherwood depicts the lives of people under threat from the rise of the Nazis: a wealthy Jewish heiress, Natalia Landauer; a gay couple, Peter and...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
A Single Man
A Single Man is an exclusive Vintage Classic that has been made into a film starring Julianne Moore and Colin Firth, directed by Tom Ford. Isherwood's short, poignant novel is a tender and wistful love story. Celebrated as a masterpiece from its first publication, A Single Man is the story of George, an English professor in suburban California left heartbroken...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Goodbye to Berlin
The best prose writer in English - Gore Vidal As Cabaret returns to the West End, revisit the KitKat Club in the book that introduced Sally Bowles to the world. Set in the 1930s, Goodbye to Berlin is the novella that inspired Cabaret, evoking the glamour and sleaze, excess and repression of Berlin society. Isherwood shows the lives of people...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Berlin Novels
Two acclaimed novels based on Isherwood's experiences in pre-war Berlin, together in one volume. Christopher Isherwood offers fascinating insight into pre-war Berlin. Mr Norris Changes Trains The first of Christopher Isherwood's classic Berlin novels, this portrays the encounter and growing friendship between young William Bradshaw and the urbane and mildly sinister Mr Norris. Piquant, witty and oblique, it vividly evokes...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
20% offLost Years
His writing soon becomes addictive as one self-disclosure follows another. What better recommendation for a diary could there be? - The Times Christopher Isherwood settled in California in 1939 and spent the war years writing for Hollywood. By 1945, however, he had all but ceased to write fiction and even abandoned his habit of keeping a diary. Instead, he embarked...Paperback$4000Usually:$5000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Pre-orderSally Bowles
Relish a BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Christopher Isherwood, the master chronicler of 1930s Berlin, with this dazzling tale of glamour and decadence, poverty and ambition. Sally Bowles is the dazzling centrepiece of Goodbye to Berlin, distilling Isherwood's genius into the tale of one bawdy, brilliant woman. 1930s Berlin is a realm of glamour and sleaze, repression and excess, threatened by a...Paperback$2400Unit price /UnavailableOut 20 Oct 2026Pre-order -
Isherwood on Writing
Isherwood's lectures on writing and writers, now all available for the first time In the 1960s, Christopher Isherwood gave an unprecedented series of lectures at California universities about his life and work. During this time, Isherwood, who would liberate the memoir and become the founding father of modern gay writing, spoke openly for the first time about his craftβon writing...PaperbackSold Out -
All the Conspirators
All the Conspirators by Christopher Isherwood is his debut novel, featuring the first generation of Angry Young Men. The scene is 1920s Kensington, where Philip and Joan are testing the very limits of politeness and restraint as they fight to expunge the oppression of their motherβby whatever means necessary. In his first novel, Christopher Isherwood paints an intimate portrait of...PaperbackSold Out -
A Meeting by the River
A deeply satisfying novel of sibling rivalry, sexuality and spirituality. Breaking a long silence, Oliver, a young Englishman, writes to his elder brother, Patrick. Oliver, the idealistic younger brother, is living in a Hindu Monastery and has decided to take his final monastic vows. Patrick, a successful, long-married publisher, newly in love with a boy in Los Angeles, decides to...PaperbackSold Out
More from General Fiction
View all-
The Wedding People
'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people β but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...Paperback$2399Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...Set$12400Elsewhere:$15500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Goal
Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Red Rising
The first book in the incredible New York Times bestselling series Darrow is a Helldiver, toiling beneath the surface of Mars. As a member of the Red caste, he performs grueling labor in the belief that his sacrifice will enable future generations to one day inhabit the surface of the Red Planet. The Reds are humankind's lowest caste, living in...Paperback$2200Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Score
Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession... Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Score now for the perfect friends with benefits romance! He knows how to score, on and off the ice... Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn't have...Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe Ballad of Falling Dragons [Special Deluxe edition]
The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched continues with the second book in The Moonfall Series, The Ballad of Falling Dragonsβ¦ Raeveβs thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor β a staunch beacon from a past sheβs yet to face. With Rekkβs blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the...Hardback$5999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Theo of Golden
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came fromβ¦His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance β...Paperback$2899Elsewhere:$3499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Yesteryear
A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE β Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE β Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE β Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS β Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale β Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Golden Son
ENDER'S GAME meets THE HUNGER GAMES in this, the second in an extraordinary trilogy from an incredible new voice.'I'm still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.' Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind's last hope....Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Voracious
From USA Today bestselling author and TikTok sensation comes the gripping, steamy dark romance series that everyone is talking about!'Filled with TENSION, HEARTBREAK and ELECTRIC CHEMISTRY. This one will tear your heart right out of your chest before tossing it back in and sewing you up' No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Brynne Weaver'Leigh Rivers is THE QUEEN OF...Paperback$2200Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Mistake
Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Mistake now for the perfect second chance romance! He's a player in more ways than one . . . College junior John Logan can get any girl he wants....Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...Paperback$2399Elsewhere:$2400Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
General Fiction lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
-
![]()
![]()
![]()
Hannah's listGeneral Fiction
Gothic Reads for Dark Nights
With the advent of movie adaptations like Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein, it looks like pop culture is seeing a revival of the...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listGeneral Fiction
Shirl's Top 10 Most Recommended Books
These are my Top 10 books that I always recommend to my friends and whΔnau when they ask for recommendations for getting...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Books to Escape a Reading Slump
A reading slump can be a frustrating feeling and hard to break out of, but we've gathered together a list of crowd...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![Star Shipped]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Lizzy's Pride Fiction Picks!
June marks Global Pride Month so in case you're looking for your next great fiction read, here's a list of some of...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Readersβ Top 100 Novels of All Time - from The Guardian
There was some controversy when The Guardian released their critics and authors list of the top 100 novels of all time, but...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listGeneral Fiction
Shirl's Favourite Books of 2026
The first half of 2026 has been packed with brilliant books, making it hard to choose favourites but here are a few...View the list
