“Intoxicatingly witty” (The New York Review of Books) author Edward St. Aubyn has chronicled the harrowing childhood and complicated adulthood of Patrick Melrose, painting an extraordinary—and broadly autobiographical—portrait of the beleaguered and self-loathing world of privilege, and offering a “spectacularly toxic confection” (The Village Voice) of the decadence, amorality, greed, and cruelty of the declining British aristocracy. His new novel, Lost for Words, is a droll and satirical look at the place of art in our celebrity-obsessed culture. In this “laugh-out-loud sendup of literary prizes” (Kirkus), St. Aubyn asks how we can ever hope to recognize real talent when everyone has an agenda.