Новинки Джеймса Вуда

Upstate is a funny, moving family drama from one of the world’s most influential literary critics.
‘Thoughtful and though-provoking’ Financial Times
Alan Querry, a successful property developer from the north of England, has two daughters: Vanessa, a philosopher who lives and teaches in Saratoga Springs, NY, and Helen, a record company executive based in London. The sisters never quite recovered from their parents’ bitter divorce and the early death of

The selected essays of James Wood - our greatest living literary critic and author of How Fiction Works
'James Wood is a close reader of genius... By turns luscious and muscular, committed and disdaining, passionate and minutely considered' John Banville
James Wood is one of the leading critics of the age, and here, for the first time, are his selected essays. From the career-defining 'Hysterical Realism' to his more personal reflections on family, religion a

In this remarkable blend of memoir and criticism, James Wood has written a master class on the connections between fiction and life. He argues that, of all the arts, fiction has a unique ability to describe the shape of our lives, and to rescue the texture of those lives from death and historical oblivion. The act of reading is understood here as the most sacred and personal of activities, and there are brilliant discussions of individual works – among others, Chekhov’s story ‘The Kiss’, W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants, and Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower.

Wood reveals his own intimate relationship with the written word: we see the development of a provincial boy growing up in a charged Christian environment, the secret joy of his childhood reading, the links he makes between reading and blasphemy, or between literature and music. The final section discusses fiction in the context of exile and homelessness. The Nearest Thing to Life is not simply a brief, tightly argued book by a man commonly regarded as our finest living critic – it is also an exhilarating personal account that reflects on, and embodies, the fruitful conspiracy between reader and writer (and critic), and asks us to re-consider everything that is at stake when we read and write fiction.

In the tradition of E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel and Milan Kundera's The Art of the Novel, How Fiction Works is a scintillating study of the magic of fiction--an analysis of its main elements and a celebration of its lasting power. Here one of the most prominent and stylish critics of our time looks into the machinery of storytelling to ask some fundamental questions: What do we mean when we say we "know" a fictional character? What constitutes a telling detail? When is a metaphor successful? Is Realism realistic? Why do some literary conventions become dated while others stay fresh?

James Wood ranges widely, from Homer to Make Way for Ducklings, from the Bible to John le Carré, and his book is both a study of the techniques of fiction-making and an alternative history of the novel. Playful and profound, How Fiction Works will be enlightening to writers, readers, and anyone else interested in what happens on the page.

How Fiction Works is a scintillating and searching study of the main elements of fiction, such as narrative, detail, characterisation, dialogue, realism and style. In his first full-length book of criticism, one of the most prominent critics of our time takes the machinery of storytelling apart to ask a series of fundamental questions: What do we mean when we say we 'know' a character? What constitutes a 'telling' detail? When is a metaphor successful? Why do most endings of novels disappoint?

"James Wood has been called our best young critic. This is not true. He is our best critic; he thinks with a sublime ferocity."--Cynthia Ozick

Following the collection The Broken Estate--which established James Wood as the leading critic of his generation--The Irresponsible Self confirms Wood's preeminence, not only as a discerning judge but also as an appreciator of contemporary novels.

In twenty-three passionate, sparkling dispatches, he effortlessly connects his encyclopedic, passionate understanding of the literary canon with an equally earnest and appreciative view of the most discussed authors writing today, including Franzen, Pynchon, Rushdie, DeLillo, Naipaul, David Foster Wallace, and Zadie Smith.

This collection includes Wood's famous and controversial attack on "hysterical realism", and his sensitive but unsparing examinations of White Teeth and Brick Lane. The Irresponsible Self is indispensable reading for anyone who cares about modern fiction.

В очередном выпуске ежегодника публикуются материалы, раскрывающие попытки империализма использовать религию в антигуманистических целях. Это отчетливо видно и в странах так называемого исламского мира, и на Западе, особенно в США. Авторы рассказывают также о деятельности антикоммунистических центров в связи с 1000-летием введения христианства на Руси. Обратившись к рубрике "У наших друзей", читатель узнает, как решаются проблемы отношения государства и церкви в Венгрии. Значительное место в сборнике заняли материалы под рубриками "По ту сторону..." и "Они о себе".

Издание рассчитано на идеологический актив, оно представляет интерес и для массового читателя.

Книга Джеймса Вуда - живое повествование о промахах, неудачах и поражениях английской армии в Европе в первый год второй мировой войны, приведших к дюнкеркской катастрофе.
Автор, участник описываемых событий, рассказывает о хаосе и неразберихе на фронте, высокомерии и карьеризме офицеров английской армии об их жестоком обращении с подчиненными. Простой по-солдатски грубоватый рассказ автора о скитаниях и приключениях горстки шотландских пехотинцев "забытых" начальством в спешке отступления читается с большим интересом.