(Sensually rich and darkly funny, full of energy and light, Johansson's writing pulsates with fresh images. At once serious, frightening, comic and wistful, this novel is the epitaph of one generation and a warning to the next. Brashly funny and genuinely moving, Skin of Sunset shows both brains and heart as it peels off the outer layers of relationships, rivalry, marriage and sex. Best friends in college, Barton, Jordan and Helmut, drift into the bewildering world of American adulthood. Together they establish a law firm, but then the marriage of Barton and Jordan tests their relationship with Helmut. Barton and Jordan, faced with their fading youth, doubt their roles as husband and wife, and when a financial crisis hits - loyalties are tested - both to each other and to their past notions of themselves. Rife with love and betrayal, sex and rivalry, Skin of Sunset explores the new pursuit of happiness, while an unexpected fate sweeps the three friends toward revenge and murder. Skin of Sunset delivers the saddest words in the English language - it's too late, even as a shiver of delight descends before the sunset's fiery end.

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