''The Ballad of a Small Player'' is a 2014 novel by British writer
Lawrence Osborne. Set in the gambling casinos of
Macau, it follows the fortunes of an English con man who passes himself off as a runaway Lord. Part ghost story, part psychological thriller, it earned Osborne comparisons with
Graham Greene and
Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...
.
Reception
The novel was selected for numerous year's best novel lists, including the 100 Notable Books of 2014 in ''
The New York Times'', by Neal Mukarjee in ''
New Statesman'', and by Ian Crouch in ''
The New Yorker''. It was admiringly reviewed by Tom Shone in ''The New York Times''. China scholar Paul French in the ''
Los Angeles Review of Books'' wrote: "I'll come right out and say it... Osborne's novel is the best on contemporary China since Malraux's."
Film adaptation
A film adaptation for
Netflix is currently in production directed by
Edward Berger (''
All Quiet on the Western Front
''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (german: Im Westen nichts Neues, lit=Nothing New in the West) is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental trauma du ...
'') and starring
Colin Farrell and
Tilda Swinton, as reported by
The Hollywood Reporter in April 2024. Shooting began on June 27, 2024, in Macau and
Hong Kong.
References
2014 British novels
British novels adapted into films
British thriller novels
Ghost novels
Hogarth Press books
Novels by Laurence Osborne
Novels set in Macau
Psychological thriller novels
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