{"product_id":"2026100007342-secondhand-earthly-powers","title":"Earthly Powers","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Worn\/faded, no tears\u003cbr\u003ePages: Tanning and foxing\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne of the twentieth century's most audacious literary achievements opens with a line that immediately signals its ambition: an eighty-one-year-old homosexual novelist, Kenneth Toomey, is propositioned by a monsignor on behalf of his dying uncle — who happens to be the Pope. Earthly Powers chronicles eight decades of Western history through the eyes of Toomey, a Somerset Maugham-like figure whose long life intersects with dictators, saints, artists, and criminals across Europe and beyond, weaving a vast tapestry of faith, evil, creativity, and moral compromise.\n\nAnthony Burgess constructs his sweeping narrative with extraordinary linguistic virtuosity and a darkly comedic sensibility, interrogating the nature of good and evil with the rigour of a theologian and the irreverence of a satirist. The novel argues, with devastating conviction, that the capacity for both sanctity and monstrousness resides within the same human breast — and that the institutions of religion and art are no guarantee of either. A monumental work that stands alongside the great European novels of ideas, it leaves the reader questioning every comfortable assumption about virtue, history, and the soul.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49130995548379,"sku":"2026100007342-SECONDHAND","price":40.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/3488b6fe-91ce-4f2d-98cd-d3b500438436.png?v=1786593976","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100007342-secondhand-earthly-powers","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}