Wieslaw Mysliwski0.0 A lively and playful exploration of human interaction, self-knowledge and humankind's connection to the land, life, death and dreams, STONE UPON STONE is without doubt one of the most stunning achievements of modern literature and - in the English-speaking world - a hitherto unsung classic. Capturing both the playfulness and the gravitas of the Polish original, Bill Johnston's excellent translation will have readers hooked from the very first minute, as they follow Mysliwski's stubborn yet questioning country bumpkin narrator rebel against his fate.
Jean Echenoz3.7 Drawn from the life of Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest inventors of his time, Lightning is a captivating tale of one man’s curious fascination with the marvels of science.
Hailed by the Washington Post as “the most distinctive voice of his generation,” Echenoz traces the notable career of Gregor, a precocious young engineer from Eastern Europe, who travels across the Atlantic at the age of twenty-eight to work alongside Thomas Edison, with whom he later holds a long-lasting rivalry. After his discovery of alternating current, Gregor quickly begins to astound the world with his other brilliant inventions, including everything from radio, radar, and wireless communication, to cellular technology, remote control, and the electron microscope.
Echenoz gradually reveals the eccentric inner world of a solitary man who holds a rare gift for imagining devices well before they come into existence. Gregor is a recluse—an odd and enigmatic intellect who avoids women and instead prefers spending hours a day courting pigeons in Central Park.
Winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, Echenoz once again demonstrates his astonishing abilities as a prose stylist as he vividly captures the life of an isolated genius. A beautifully crafted portrait of a man who prefers the company of lightning in the Colorado desert to that of other human beings, Lightning is a dazzling new work from one of the world’s leading contemporary authors.
Jacques Jouet0.0 Two minutes into the second act, there is a knock on Nicolas Boehlmer s dressing-room door, just as he s smoking his last cigarette before having to go back on stage . . . and, without thinking, he says, Come in, still in character. He quickly finds himself bound, gagged, and stripped by a man who appears to be his mirror image: costumed in the same wig, make-up, and clothes. Nicolas is powerless to prevent his usurper from going out and playing his role with increasingly ridiculous consequences. Is this upstaging the act of a depraved amateur? Sabotage by a rival? A piece of guerrilla theater? A political statement? Whatever the cause, Nicolas and his fellow actors soon find their play and their lives making less and less sense, as the parts they play come under assault by this irrational intruder.
Дежё Костоланьи0.0 „Kosztolányi költészete kétségkívül gyönyörűséges, megrendítően mély, odakacsintóan aktuális, léha és sírós.. mindehhez alig ötven évet élt, mégis mindent megcsinált, ami neki adatott.”
Kiadónk gondozásában megjelenő, talán legismertebb, legszeretettebb műve az Esti Kornél, melyet most Esti Kornél kalandjaival egy kötetben, Tandori Dezső előszavával ajánlunk az irodalmat szerető közönség figyelmébe.
Dany Laferriere0.0 A devilishly intelligent new novel by the internationally bestselling author and Prix M�dicis winner.
A black writer from Montreal has found the perfect title for his next book: I Am a Japanese Writer . His publisher gives him an advance on the strength of the title alone. The problem is, he can't seem to write a word of it. He can scarcely summon the energy to put pen to paper, and so he nurses his writer's block by taking long baths, re-reading the works of Japanese poet Basho and engaging in amorous intrigues with rising pop star Midori and her entourage of vampire girls. For the writer, though, the title isn't just a title: he really does believe he is a Japanese writer. He makes this declaration in a mall, and, the next thing he knows, he's an international celebrity. The book becomes a cult phenomenon, even though he still hasn't written a word of it. In Japan, it sets off a cultural revolution. A Japanese writer even publishes a book called I Am a Malagasy Writer. On the nightly news, a Japanese officer declares, "I Am a Korean Soldier." No wonder a pair of attach�s from the Japanese embassy has been following our hero around. At first, he is delighted to discover his celebrity. But things quickly go wrong. Part postmodern fantasy, part Kafkaesque nightmare and part travelogue to the inner reaches of the self, I Am a Japanese Writer calls into question everything we think we know about what-and who-makes a work of art.
Диего Марани3.0 One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can identifying him. When he regains consciousness he has lost his memory and cannot even remember what language he speaks. From a few things found on the man the doctor, who is originally from Finland, believes him to be a sailor and a fellow countryman, who somehow or other has ended up in Trieste. The doctor dedicates himself to teaching the man Finnish, beginning the reconstruction of the identity of Sampo Karjalainen, leading the missing man to return to Finland in search of his identity and his past.
Juan José Saer0.0 Scars explores a crime committed by a 39-year-old labourer who shot his wife twice in the face with a shotgun by examining the circumstances of four characters who have some connection to the crime: A young reporter, Angel, who lives with his mother and works the courthouse beat; A dissolute attorney who clings to life only for his nightly baccarat; A misanthropic and dwindling judge whos creating a superfluous Dorian Gray translation; and her killer, Luis Fiore, who, on May Day, went duck hunting with his wife, daughter and a bottle of gin.
Magdalena Tulli0.0 By the Ko?cielski Prize-winning author of Dream and Stones, In Red is the gripping cautionary tale in which real and unreal combine explosively, making us question the nature of the work itself. Set in an imaginary fourth partition of Poland, In Red retraces the turbulent history of the twentieth century in a labyrinth of greed, inheritance, and entropy, enacting—word by tremulous word—the claustrophobia of a small town from which there seems to be no escape. Never have Tulli¢s trademark precision of language and her crystalline storytelling been put to such brilliant use.
Enrique Vila-matas5.0 A splendid ironic portrayal of literary Paris and of a young writer’s struggles by one of Spain’s most eminent authors.
This brilliantly ironic novel about literature and writing, in Vila-Matas’s trademark witty and erudite style, is told in the form of a lecture delivered by a novelist clearly a version of the author himself. The “lecturer” tells of his two-year stint living in Marguerite Duras’s garret during the seventies, spending time with writers, intellectuals, and eccentrics, and trying to make it as a creator of literature: “I went to Paris and was very poor and very unhappy.” Encountering such luminaries as Duras, Roland Barthes, Georges Perec, Sergio Pitol, Samuel Beckett, and Juan Marsé, our narrator embarks on a novel whose text will “kill” its readers and put him on a footing with his beloved Hemingway. (Never Any End to Paris takes its title from a refrain in A Moveable Feast.) What emerges is a fabulous portrait of intellectual life in Paris that, with humor and penetrating insight, investigates the role of literature in our lives.
Kiwao Nomura0.0 As stunningly original to a contemporary American audience as haiku was to the late Victorians, this collection of Japanese poetry makes unpredictable leaps of association to explore themes such as sex, loss, and memory. The poems appear in English on one page and in Japanese characters on the facing page, providing readers with a glimpse into Japanese language and culture. Full of raw energy, these pieces have a visionary quality that likens them to a literary performance, exuding an air of enchantment as well as an astute sense of the human condition.
