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.
The City and The House
3.690 kr.Giuseppe is leaving his flat in the city of Rome, where he has lived for more than twenty years, to go and live with his brother in America. He must say goodbye to his cousin Roberta; to his former lover Lucrezia and her husband Piero; and to all his friends who used to gather for weekends at Le Margherite, Lucrezia’s splendid house in the country. But even before Giuseppe’s departure, friendships have begun to fracture as frustrated yearnings and past infidelities strain the bonds.
The sale of Le Margherite marks the end of an era and its old inhabitants and visitors are left to pursue happiness on their own. Their stories unfold through an exchange of letters that reveal with great poignancy the thoughts, passions and desires of the protagonists.
Valentino
3.490 kr.So there is no one to whom I can speak the words that most need to be spoken, about the events which most closely concern our family and what has happened to us; I have to keep them bottled up inside me and there are times when they threaten to choke me.
Valentino is the spoiled child of doting parents who have no doubt he will be ‘a man of consequence’. His sisters, however, see him for what he truly is: lazy, apathetic, self-absorbed and far more interested in partying than applying himself to his studies at medical school.
His parents’ dreams begin to unravel when, out of the blue, Valentino becomes engaged to the wealthy yet strikingly ugly Maddalena. The family is scandalised by his choice of bride – and suspicious of his motives.
In Valentino, class, social expectations, wealth and marriage come under Natalia Ginzburg’s forensic scrutiny, her unflinching moral realism and her keen psychological insight resulting in a work of quiet devastation.
Flóra
5.990 kr.Flóra geymir myndir af flestöllum tegundum íslenskra blómplantna og byrkninga, alls um 460. Hér er megináherslan á að sýna plönturnar sjálfar, fegurð þeirra og sérkenni, fremur en vistfræði, útbreiðslu og flokkunarfræði – því hlutverki gegna fjölmörg önnur verk. Langflestar myndanna eru gerðar eftir lifandi eintökum en annars byggt á bestu heimildum sem völ er á til að gefa sem sannferðugasta mynd af hverri tegund auk þess sem ýmis einkenni eru dregin fram.
Myndir listamannsins Jóns Baldurs Hlíðberg af íslenskri náttúru, dýrum og foldarskarti, eru löngu kunnar hér á landi auk þess að hafa birst víða erlendis og hlotið þar margháttaða viðurkenningu.
Fátt jafnast á við að njóta skrúðs og fjölbreytileika blómanna í náttúrunni sjálfri en þegar því verður ekki við komið er gott að geta notið þeirra í myndasafni eins og því sem hér birtist.
Strange Houses
4.390 kr.A sinister hidden room. A dead space between two walls. A sealed cellar.
A child’s face glimpsed at a window. Every house hides secrets. But some secrets are far darker than others.
More than a million readers have discovered the terrible truth behind these strange houses. Now it’s your turn.
On Cats: An Anthology
4.390 kr.In these pages, writers reflect on the curious feline qualities that inspire such devotion in their owners, even when it seems one-sided. Cats’ affections are hard-won and often fickle. Freud considered his cat an embodiment of true egoism; Hilaire Belloc found peace in his feline companion’s complacency; and Hemingway—a famous cat-lover—wrote of drinking with his eleven cats and the pleasant distraction they gave him.
Edward Gorey can’t turn down a stray despite the trouble they cause him, and admits he has no idea what they’re thinking about; Muriel Spark gives practical advice on how to teach a cat to play ping-pong; Nikola Tesla, who helped design the modern electricity supply system, describes a seminal experience with a cat that first sparked his fascination with electricity; and Caitlin Moran considers the unexpected feelings of loss after the death of her family cat.
These writers, and many others (including Mary Gaitskill, Alice Walker, Ursula K. Le Guin, John Keats, James Bowen, Lynne Truss, and more), paint a joyful portrait of cats and their mysterious and loveable ways. As Hemingway wrote, “one cat leads to another.” The book features six black-and-white cat portraits by photographer Elliot Ross.
In the Garden: Essay on Nature and Growing
3.490 kr.Outdoor space is something everyone should have access to. But you don’t need a garden to become a gardener.
Growing plants and vegetables forces us to pause, pay attention and look more closely. From the vantage point of even the smallest windowsill garden we can observe the passing of time through the shifting of the seasons, as well as the environmental changes the planet is undergoing.
In this collection of essays, fourteen writers go beyond simply considering a plot of soil to explore how gardening is a shared language, an opportunity for connection, something that is always evolving. Penelope Lively trains her gardening eye on her gardens past and present; Paul Mendez reflects on the image of the paradisal garden; Jon Day asks whether an urban community garden can be a radical place; and Victoria Adukwei Bulley considers the power of herbs and why there is no such thing as a weed.
A collection about gardening unlike any other, In the Garden brings together fourteen brilliant writers to interrogate what is most important and pressing about growing today.
Creation Lake
3.490 kr.This summer, meet Sadie Smith: seductive, cunning and going undercover – the Booker-shortlisted, wickedly entertaining New York Times bestseller.
The Mark
3.490 kr.The Icelandic Psychological Association has prepared a test. They call it a sensitivity assessment: a way of measuring a person’s empathy and identifying the potential for anti-social behaviour.
In a few days’ time, Iceland will vote on whether to make the test compulsory for every citizen. The nation is bitterly divided. Some believe the test makes society safer; others decry it as a violation.
As the referendum draws closer, four people – Vetur, Eyja, Tristan and Ólafur – find themselves caught in the teeth of the debate. Each of them will have to reckon with uncomfortable questions: Where do the rights of society end and the rights of the individual begin? When does utopia become dystopia?No matter which side wins, they will all have to find a way to live with the result.