Kurzbeschreibung

Ein Wiedersehen mit alten Freunden, die längst ärgste Feinde geworden sind. Fünfundzwanzig Jahre war Clay nicht mehr in Los Angeles, doch jetzt muss er zurück in die Stadt seiner Kindheit und Jugend, um einen neuen Film zu promoten. Gleich auf der ersten Party trifft er, der gefeierte Drehbuchautor, auf seine alten Freunde. Doch keiner freut sich so recht, dass Clay wieder auftaucht, und sehr schnell zeigt sich, dass hinter der freundlichen Fassade alle einander zutiefst misstrauen: Die alten Geschichten und Ressentiments verbinden sich mit neuen Verdachtsmomenten zu einer dichten Atmosphäre der Paranoia und Angst. 25 Jahre nach "Unter Null" zeigt Bret Easton Ellis in diesem Roman, wie die hedonistische Gesellschaft der Achtziger heute lebt - und er entdeckt Fürchterliches: Es hat sich kaum etwas geändert ... Clay seems to have moved on - hes become a successful screenwriter - but when he returns from New York to Los Angeles, to help cast his new movie, hes soon drifting through a long-familiar circle. Blair, his vulnerable former girlfriend, is now married to Trent - still a bisexual philanderer - and their Beverly Hills parties attract excessive levels of fame and fortune. Clays childhood friend Julian is a recovering addict running an ultra-discreet, high-class escort service, and their old dealer Rip, reconstructed and face-lifted nearly beyond recognition, is involved in activities far more sinister than those of his notorious past.

Klappentext

In 1985, Bret Easton Ellis shocked, stunned and disturbed with Less Than Zero, his 'extraordinarily accomplished first novel' (New Yorker). Twenty-five years later, he returns to those same characters - to Clay and the band of infamous teenagers whose lives weave sporadically through his - but now they face an even greater period of disaffection: their own middle age.

Clay seems to have moved on - he's become a successful screenwriter - but when he returns from New York to Los Angeles, to help cast his new movie, he's soon drifting through a long-familiar circle. Only this time, it's darker and more ominous than ever before. Clay's seemingly endless proclivity for betrayal and exploitation finds him connected with Kelly Montrose, a producer whose gruesomely violent death is suddenly very much the talk of the town. And worse still, someone seems to be following him, stalking him even.

'A murder mystery - a woozy, paranoid, hallucinatory version of LA noir' Sunday Times

'Easton Ellis adds the playful self-advertisements of Philip Roth to the ambiguously complicit social reportage of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Imperial Bedrooms ranks with his best exercises in the latter register, teeming with sharp details of a narcissistic generation' Guardian

'Brilliantly written and coolly self-aware . . . has a thriller's pace and structure . . . Here, as in Less Than Zero, Ellis is plumbing the depths of human nature, exposing it at its worst.' Observer

'The novel is a kind of modern noir and, as in Chandler, the form's accepted master, atmosphere is king. Paranoia prevails' Independent on Sunday