About The Book

In Closer, Patrick Marber has written a brutal anatomy of modern romance, where a quartet of strangers meet, fall in love, and become caught up in a web of sexual desire and betrayal. Closer has been hailed as one of the best new plays of the nineties and, as the London Observer noted, “has wired itself into the cultural vocabulary in a way that few plays have ever done.”

Closer, the movie, with a screenplay written by Patrick Marber, was released in the United States on December 3, 2004. It was directed by Mike Nichols and included an all star cast headed by Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, and Clive Owen.

Praise

“Closer, a play about love, sex, and other crimes of the heart, established Patrick Marber as the leading playwright of his generation.”—The Independent on Sunday (London)

“One of the best plays of sexual politics in the language.”—John Peters, The Sunday Times

“Closer is a cool dark comedy of sexual desire and selfishness—and the illusion of love.”—John Heilpern, The New York Observer

‘sensational . . . In fact, no other recent play so beautifully captures the jittery, life-imitates-MTV superficiality of modern urban existence.”—David Patrick Stearns, USA Today

“A brilliant and bracingly adult new play . . . Closer is both bruising and beautiful, shatteringly funny and devastatingly sad. . . . Closer recalls that No’l Coward classic [Private Lives]. But it’s Coward laced with a nihilistic chill that derives from Samuel Beckett.”—Charles Isherwood, Daily Variety

Awards

New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Foreign Play
Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy
Olivier Award for Best New Play
London Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play
Time Out Award for Best West End Play
Selected as one of Time Out‘s 1,000 Books to Change Your Life