Антуан Володин4.0 One of Volodine's funniest books, Bardo or Not Bardo takes place in his universe of failed revolutions, radical shamanism, and off-kilter nomenclature.
In each of these seven vignettes, someone dies and has to make his way through the Tibetan afterlife, also known as the Bardo. In the Bardo, souls wander for forty-nine days before being reborn, helped along on their journey by the teachings of the Book of the Dead.
Unfortunately, Volodine's characters bungle their chances at enlightenment, with the recently dead choosing to waste away their afterlife sleeping, or choosing to be reborn as an insignificant spider. The still-living aren't much better off, making a mess of things in their own ways, such as erroneously reciting a Tibetan cookbook to a lost comrade instead of the holy book.
Once again, Volodine has demonstrated his range and ambition, crafting a moving, hysterical work about transformations and the power of the book.
Antoine Volodine is the primary pseudonym of a French writer who has published twenty books under this name, several of which are available in English translation, such as Minor Angels, and Writers. He also publishes under the names Lutz Bassmann and Manuela Draeger.
J. T. Mahany is a graduate of the Master of Arts in Literary Translation Studies program at the University of Rochester and is currently studying for his MFA at the University of Arkansas.
Мейлис де Керангаль3.7 Действие романа укладывается всего в 24 часа, но какие это часы! Симон Лимбр, молодой серфингист, попал в автомобильную аварию, возвращаясь домой после катания по Ламаншу. Его череп раздавлен, мозг умер. Но современная аппаратура все еще поддерживает жизнь в бессознательном теле. Срочно вызванные мать, отец и невеста юноши не желают мириться с потерей. Ведь Симон еще с ними, он дышит, а главврач больницы просит отдать его сердце и другие органы больным, нуждающимся в операциях. Как можно решиться отдать сердце сына совершенно незнакомой женщине, Клер Межан, пусть даже она - мать троих детей? Как вынести страшный приговор?..
Керангаль описывает очень разных героев, у каждого из них своя история жизни, и все они связаны одним - пока еще бьющимся сердцем уже умершего серфингиста. Перед читателем мелькают самые разные картины: охота и разведение щеглов в Алжире; футбольные матчи; смерть Жанны д'Арк на костре; изготовление байдарок; занятия серфингом. На самом деле в жизни всё взаимосвязано - и серфинг, и трансплантация органов...
Эта книга о ценности человеческой жизни, о споре разума с сердцем, о живом сердце… Недаром в конце романа хирург, пересаживающий сердце Симона Лимбра Клер Межан, кричит, словно командир, идущий в атаку: "Огонь! Огонь!". Ведь этот огонь возвращает жизнь.
Ananda Devi3.5 With brutal honesty and poetic urgency, Ananda Devi relates the tale of four young Mauritians trapped in their country's endless cycle of fear and violence: Eve, whose body is her only weapon and source of power; Savita, Eve's best friend, the only one who loves Eve without self-interest, who has plans to leave but will not go alone; Saadiq, gifted would-be poet, inspired by Rimbaud, in love with Eve; Clélio, belligerent rebel, waiting without hope for his brother to send for him from France.
Eve out of Her Ruins is a heartbreaking look at the dark corners of the island nation of Mauritius that tourists never see, and a poignant exploration of the construction of personhood at the margins of society. Awarded the prestigious Prix des cinq continents upon publication as the best book written in French outside of France, Eve Out of her Ruins is a harrowing account of the violent reality of life in her native country by the figurehead of Mauritian literature.
The book featurues an original introduction by Nobel Prize winner J.M.G. Le Clézio, who declares Devi "a truly great writer."
Нелли Алар0.0 At once sexy and feminist, this is a story of a woman who decides to fight for her marriage after her husband confesses to an affair with a notable politician
Juliette, a computer engineer, and Olivier, a journalist, have two young children and the busy lives of a modern Parisian couple. On a beautiful spring day, while sitting by the river watching her children play, Juliette’s cell phone rings. It is her husband. When Olivier confesses to having an affair, Juliette’s world is shattered.
How do you survive betrayal? Can a couple ever be united again? What lengths would you go to in order to save your marriage? These are the questions that this novel, with great intelligence, honesty, and humor, tries to answer. In its acute depiction of intimacy, Couple Mechanics exposes the system of forces at work in a marriage, the effects of the inevitable ebb and flow of desire, and the difficulty of being a man today.
Адриен Боск5.0 Le 27 octobre 1949, le nouvel avion d’Air France, le Constellation, lancé par l’extravagant M. Howard Hughes, accueille trente-sept passagers. Le 28 octobre, l’avion ne répond plus à la tour de contrôle. Il a disparu en descendant sur l’île Santa Maria, dans l’archipel des Açores. Aucun survivant. La question que pose Adrien Bosc dans cet ambitieux premier roman n’est pas tant comment, mais pourquoi ? Quel est l’enchaînement d’infimes causalités qui, mises bout à bout, ont précipité l’avion vers le mont Redondo ? Quel est le hasard objectif, notion chère aux surréalistes, qui rend « nécessaire » ce tombeau d’acier ? Et qui sont les passagers ? Si l’on connaît Marcel Cerdan, l’amant boxeur d’Édith Piaf, si l’on se souvient de cette musicienne prodige que fut Ginette Neveu, dont une partie du violon sera retrouvée des années après, l’auteur lie les destins entre eux. « Entendre les morts, écrire leur légende minuscule et offrir à quarantehuit hommes et femmes, comme autant de constellations, vie et récit. »
Лола Лафон3.5 Книга Лолы Лафон – роман о звезде спортивной гимнастики, иконе восточноевропейского коммунизма и символе его краха. Надя Команечи – знаменитая румынская гимнастка, пятикратная олимпийская чемпионка, двукратная чемпионка мира, девятикратная чемпионка Европы. Ее взлет пришелся на закат коммунистической эпохи в Румынии и остальной части Восточной Европы. Судьба Нади стала символом взлета и стремительного краха коммунистической идеологии. Книга Лоры Лафон – это не биография в чистом виде, это и потрет времени, и аналитическая картина беспощадного режима, перемалывавшего не только обычных людей, но и тех, кого вознес на вершину. Автор провела огромную работу с самыми разными источниками, от закрытых прежде материалов до детальных интервью с самой Надей Команечи. Для российского читателя имя Нади Команечи также является символом эпохи, и сегодня книга о ней будет как никогда актуальна. Политические настроения и в мире, и в России явно возвращаются ко временам холодной войны, а потому правдивая и документальная книга о том, что происходит с людьми за железным занавесом, очень ко времени. Но книга Лоры Лафон не только о жизни знаменитой гимнастки, это еще и размышление о том, что каждый несет ответственность за происходящее в стране. Роман рисует четкую, сфокусированную картину коммунистической Румынии и беспощадного режима Чаушеску. И одновременно это тонкий психологический портрет хрупкой, истерзанной нечеловеческими физическим нагрузками, политическими играми и славой женщины.
Натали Леже5.0 Fiction. Translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer and Cécile Menon. "I believe there is a miracle in Wanda," wrote Marguerite Duras of the only film American actress Barbara Loden ever wrote and directed. "Usually, there is a distance between representation and text, subject and action. Here that distance is completely eradicated." It is perhaps this "miracle"―the seeming collapse of fiction and fact―that has made Wanda (1970) a subject of fascination for artists from Isabelle Huppert to Rachel Kushner to Kate Zambreno, and that set acclaimed French writer Nathalie Léger on an obsessive quest across continents, into archives, and through mining towns of Pennsylvania trying to get closer to the film and its maker. SUITE FOR BARBARA LODEN is the magnificent result. Moving contrapuntally between biography and auto-fiction, film criticism and anecdote, fact and speculation, SUITE FOR BARBARA LODEN is a stunning meditation on knowledge and self-knowledge, on the surfaces of life and art, and how we come to truth―a kind of truth―not through facts alone but through acts of the imagination.
Marie NDiaye0.0 From the hugely acclaimed author of Three Strong Women—“a masterpiece of narrative ingenuity and emotional extremes” (The New York Times)—here is a harrowing and subtly crafted novel of a woman captive to a secret shame.
On the first Tuesday of every month, Clarisse Rivière leaves her husband and young daughter and secretly takes the train to Bordeaux to visit her mother, Ladivine. Just as Clarisse’s husband and daughter know nothing of Ladivine, Clarisse herself has hidden nearly every aspect of her adult life from this woman, whom she dreads and despises but also pities. Long ago abandoned by Clarisse’s father, Ladivine works as a housecleaner and has no one but her daughter, whom she knows as Malinka.
After more than twenty-five years of this deception, the idyllic middle-class existence Clarisse has built from scratch can no longer survive inside the walls she’s put up to protect it. Her untold anguish leaves her cold and guarded, her loved ones forever trapped outside, looking in. When her husband, Richard, finally leaves her, Clarisse finds comfort in the embrace of a volatile local man, Freddy Moliger. With Freddy, she finally feels reconciled to, or at least at ease with, her true self. But this peace comes at a terrible price. Clarisse will be brutally murdered, and it will be left to her now-grown daughter, who also bears the name Ladivine without knowing why, to work out who her mother was and what happened to her.
A mesmerizing and heart-stopping psychological tale of a trauma that ensnares three generations of women, Ladivine proves Marie NDiaye to be one of Europe’s great storytellers.
Жан-Филипп Туссен0.0 La robe en miel était le point d'orgue de la collection automne-hiver de Marie. A la fin du défilé, l'ultime mannequin surgissait des coulisses vêtue de cette robe d'ambre et de lumière, comme si son corps avait été plongé intégralement dans un pot de miel démesuré avant d'entrer en scène. Nue et en miel, ruisselante, elle s'avançait ainsi sur le podium en se déhanchant au rythme d'une musique cadencée, les talons hauts, souriante, suivie d'un essaim d'abeilles qui lui faisait cortège en bourdonnant en suspension dans l'air, aimanté par le miel, tel un nuage allongé et abstrait d'insectes vrombissants qui accompagnaient sa parade.
Nue est le quatrième et dernier volet de l'ensemble romanesque Marie Madeleine Marguerite de Montalte, qui retrace quatre saisons de la vie de Marie, créatrice de haute couture et compagne du narrateur (Faire l'amour, hiver, 2002 ; Fuir, été, 2005 ; La Vérité sur Marie, printemps-été, 2009 ; Nue, automne-hiver, 2013).
Абделла Тайя0.0 Set in Salé, Morocco—the hometown Abdellah Taïa fled but to which he returns again and again in his acclaimed fiction and films—Infidels follows the life of Jallal, the son of a prostitute witch doctor—"a woman who knew men, humanity, better than anyone. In sex. Beyond sex." As a ten-year-old sidekick to his mother, Jallal spits in the face of her enemies both real and imagined.
The cast of characters that rush into their lives are unforgettable for their dreams of love and belonging that unravel in turn. Built as a series of monologues that are emotionally relentless—a mix of confession, heart's murmuring, and shouting match—the book follows Jallal out of boyhood on the path to Jihad. It's a path that surprises even him.
