Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
The Ballad of a Small Player
Novel by Lawrence Osborne From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
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.
Remove ads
Reception
The novel was selected for numerous year's best novel lists, including the 100 Notable Books of 2014 in The New York Times,[1] 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.[2] 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."[3]
Remove ads
Film adaptation
A film adaptation for Netflix is currently in production directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave) and starring Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter in April 2024.[4] Shooting began on June 27, 2024, in Macau and Hong Kong. Netflix will release the film on October 16th 2025 after premieres at the Toronto Film Festival, Telluride and the Zurich Film Festival.[5][6]
Remove ads
References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads