Life: A User’s Manual
3.690 kr.In this ingenious book Perec creates an entire microcosm in a Paris apartment block. Serge Valene wants to make an elaborate painting of the building he has made his home for the last sixty years. As he plans his picture, he contemplates the lives of all the people he has ever known there. Chapter by chapter, the narrative moves around the building revealing a marvellously diverse cast of characters in a series of every more unlikely tales, which range from an avenging murderer to an eccentric English millionaire who has devised the ultimate pastime…
The Iliad
5.490 kr.A stunning Penguin clothbound edition of Homer’s great epic, in E. V. Rieu’s classic translation.
The Iliad is the first and the greatest literary achievement of Greek civilization – an epic poem without rival in the literature of the world, and the cornerstone of Western culture. The story centres on the critical events in the last year of the Trojan War, which lead to Achilleus’ killing of Hektor and determine the fate of Troy. But Homer’s theme is not simply war or heroism. With compassion and humanity, he presents a universal and tragic view of the world, of human life lived under the shadow of suffering and death, set against a vast and largely unpitying divine background..
Seven Greek cities claim the honour of being the birthplace of Homer (c. 8th-7th century BC), the poet to whom the composition of The Iliad and The Odyssey was attributed. The Iliad is the oldest surviving work of Western literature, but the identity – or even the existence – of Homer himself is a complete mystery, with no reliable biographical information having survived.
E. V. Rieu initiated Penguin Classics with Allen Lane and his famous translation of The Odyssey was the first book published in the series in 1947. The Iliad followed in 1950.
Froid comme l’enfer
3.490 kr.Deux sœurs. Un thriller original et captivant où tout se joue dans l’atmosphère et les détails.
Aurora vit en Angleterre et sa sœur Isafold en Islande, elles sont très différentes et ont des relations compliquées. Isafold disparaît et leur mère, ne faisant pas la différence entre enquêtrice financière et enquêtrice policière, supplie Aurora d’aller chercher sa sœur.
Aurora ne peut pas s’empêcher de pratiquer ce qu’elle fait de mieux, démasquer les fraudeurs et les faire payer. Elle va donc profiter de ce voyage pour examiner de près certains investissements financiers douteux, et analyser la corruption islandaise tout en testant ses capacités de séduction sur deux hommes.
Elle découvrira surtout la violence domestique à laquelle était soumise Isafold et qu’elle niait farouchement subir ; au cours des témoignages qu’elle reçoit, elle voit évoluer les nuances de ses sentiments pour sa sœur. En même temps, des personnages inquiétants émergent peu à peu.
Nous suivons son enquête au fil des détails qu’elle nous donne sur les façons de vivre et de se parler, et par ce travail de dentellière elle nous fait entrer dans un monde plus complexe que ce dont il a l’air.
Rouge comme la mer
3.490 kr.Lorsque l’entrepreneur Flosi arrive chez lui pour dîner, il découvre que sa maison a été mise à sac et que sa femme Gudrún a disparu. Une lettre posée sur la table de la cuisine confirme qu’elle a été enlevée. Si Flosi n’accepte pas de payer une énorme rançon, Gudrún sera tuée. Effrayé, il prend contact avec Aurora, qui gagne sa vie en faisant des enquêtes financières et qui est spécia-liste de la discrétion. Alors que le brouillard s’installe, dans un automne islandais froid et pluvieux, les suspects se multiplient, les cheminements de l’argent créent des surprises, comme toujours, les mafias se rapprochent et tout prend un tour de plus en plus trouble. Dans le même temps, Aurora poursuit la recherche déroutante et dévastatrice de sa sœur, Ísafold, qui a disparu sans laisser de traces.
Un roman d’atmosphère prenant, des personnages attachants, un vrai suspense et un humour délectable, bref, un bon livre à la fois exotique et familier.
Iceland: A Literary Guide for Travellers
4.990 kr.A guide to Iceland’s rich literary heritage – from Norse witches to contemporary crime fiction. Iceland is an island of multiple identities in constant flux, just like its unruly, volcanic ground. Shaped as much by storytelling as it is by tectonic activity, Iceland’s literary heritage is one of Europe’s richest – and most ancient.
Iceland: A Literary Guide for Travellers takes the literary-minded traveller (either in person or in an armchair) on a vivid and illuminating journey. It follows Iceland’s many stories that have been passed down through the generations: told and retold by sheep farmers, psalm-writers, travelling reverends, independence fighters, scholars and hedonists. From the captivating Norse myths, which continue to inspire contemporary authors such as A. S. Byatt, to gripping Scandinavian crime fiction and Game of Thrones, via Jules Verne and J. R. R. Tolkien, W. H. Auden and Seamus Heaney, Iceland’s influence has spread far beyond its frozen shores. Peopled by Norse maidens and witches, elves and outlaws, and taking the reader and traveller from Reykjavik and the Bay of Smokes to the remote Westfjords and desolate highlands, this is an enthralling portrait of the Land of Ice and Fire.
Ariel
3.990 kr.‘The world is blood-hot and personal’: in her moving and illuminating introduction, the poet Emily Berry remembers her own teenage encounters with Ariel and offers a personal way into this definitive collection. She shows us how Plath can crystallize our most volatile emotions, transforming them into images so potent and precise that they resonate with us all. Plath has been an inspiration to successive generations; her influence, enduring and profound.
‘If the poems are despairing, vengeful and destructive, they are at the same time tender, open to things, and also unusually clever, sardonic, hardminded . . . They are works of great artistic purity and, despite all the nihilism, great generosity . . . the book is a major literary event.’ A. Alvarez, Observer, 1965
Seiglazine
1.800 kr.Seiglazine er árlegt tímarit gefið út í tengslum við tónlistarhátíðina Seiglu, sem fer fram í Hörpu aðra helgina í ágúst á hverju ári. Þetta er fyrsta tölublað ritsins en það kemur út í ágúst á hverju ári.
Í ritinu má finna aðsendar greinar, smásögur, ljóð, myndir og teikningar, hugleiðingar, slúður, verkalista og ýmislegt fleira sem barst ritinu í opnu kalli fyrr á árinu, og auk þess er þar að finna hátíðardagskrá Seiglu og upplýsingar um viðburði og flytjendur hátíðarinnar.
Höfundar efnis eru Ásta Kristín Pjetursdóttir, Edda Oskars, Erna Vala Arnardóttir, Guja Sandholt, Hlín Pétursdóttir Behrens, Kristín Einarsdóttir Mäntylä, Lee Marable, Þórgunnur Anna Örnólfsdóttir, Zygmund de Somogyi.
Meet the Elves
3.690 kr.Those who travel around Iceland with an open mind will have a colourful and enjoyable journey ahead of them. With a bit of luck (and GPS navigation) travelers might even encounter an elf – almost no Icelandic farm is without stories of elfdwellings located somewhere on the property.
This book contains a collection of stories and sources that shed light on the relationship between humans and elves in Iceland, from ancient to relatively recent times.
Parade
3.490 kr.Midway through his life, an artist begins to paint upside down.
In Paris, a woman is attacked by a stranger in the street.
A mother dies. A man falls to his death. Couples seek escape in distant lands.
The new novel from one of the most distinctive writers of the age, Parade sets loose a carousel of lives. It surges past the limits of identity, character, and plot, to tell a true story – about art, family, morality, gender, and how we compose ourselves.
The Latehomecomer: Essential Stories
3.990 kr.In stories of astonishing compression and insight, Mavis Gallant wrote of characters severed from their home, exiles disconnected from each other and from themselves. Tracing the fault lines of the post-war world in the intimate lives of her characters, she could conjure an entire worldview in a telling gesture or passing comment. This new volume, selected and introduced by Tessa Hadley, collects the finest work from across Gallant’s career.
mavisHere are stories of young men returning from wartime internment to changed families, snobbish social climbers haunted by the words of their downtrodden colleagues, and children peering through glass at the secrets and infidelities of their parents. Complex, moving and painfully true, they secure her position among the world’s great short story writers.
Still Born
4.390 kr.Still Born, Guadalupe Nettel’s fourth novel, explores one of life’s most consequential decisions – whether or not to have children – with her signature charm and intelligence. Alina and Laura are independent and career-driven women in their mid-thirties, neither of whom have built their future around the prospect of a family. Laura has taken the drastic decision to be sterilized, but as time goes by Alina becomes drawn to the idea of becoming a mother. When complications arise in Alina’s pregnancy and Laura becomes attached to her neighbour’s son, both women are forced to reckon with the complexity of their emotions. In prose that is as gripping as it is insightful, Still Born explores maternal ambivalence with a surgeon’s touch, carefully dissecting the contradictions that make up the lived experiences of women.
Vaxtarræktarkonan einmana
4.390 kr.Frumlegar smásögur úr japönskum samtíma sem fjalla um tengsl og samskipti á óvæntan hátt. Sögupersónurnar takast á við hið gróteska, framandi og ævintýralega í hversdeginum og frelsast úr viðjum vanans.
Yukiko Motoya (f. 1979) er ein ferskasta rödd japanskra samtímabókmennta. Hún skrifar skáldverk og leikrit og stýrir eigin leikfélagi, auk þess sem gerðar hafa verið kvikmyndir eftir verkum hennar. Motoya hefur unnið til virtra bókmennta- og leiklistarverðlauna í heimalandi sínu.