In the Beginning Was the Sea - Brossura

Gonzalez, Tomas

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1782270418 ISBN 13: 9781782270416

Casa editrice: Pushkin Pr Ltd, 2014

Riassunto

The young intellectuals J. and Elena leave behind their comfortable lives, the parties and the money in Medellín to settle down on a remote island. Their plan is to lead the Good Life, self-sufficient and close to nature. But from the very start, each day brings small defeats and imperceptible dramas, which gradually turn paradise into hell, as their surroundings inexorably claim back every inch of the 'civilisation' they brought with them. Based on a true story, In the Beginning Was the Sea is a dramatic and searingly ironic account of the disastrous encounter of intellectual struggle with reality - a satire of hippyism, ecological fantasies, and of the very idea that man can control fate.

Pushkin Collection editions feature a spare, elegant series style and superior, durable components. The Collection is typeset in Monotype Baskerville, litho-printed on Munken Premium White Paper and notch-bound by the independently owned printer TJ International in Padstow. The covers, with French flaps, are printed on Colorplan Pristine White Paper. Both paper and cover board are acid-free and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

'Taut, uncompromising study of the faultlines in all of us' Juan-Gabriel Vasquez, Guardian

'The lauded Colombian novelist lives up to the hype...extraordinarily evocative' Independent

'A novel that lingers' Four-star review Telegraph

'With sharp imagery, menace and sensuality nestling together in its luxuriant Caribbean setting'Financial Times

'Smoothly intriguing narrative, with its touches of sinister, Patricia Highsmith-like menace' Irish Times

'A brief, pungent, powerful and unusual tale' Monocle

'Haunting' Metro

'Skilfully planted with narrative bombs... you can hear it ticking' Intelligent Life

'Quietly unsettling, elegantly written' Sunday Express

'Extremely potent: sly, voyeuristic, ominously poetic... a clever riff on the Rousseaus (both Henri and Jean-Jacques), a cautionary tale about choosing to defy the laws of nature and man, and ultimately discovering that idealism can't replace them' Jessica Loudis, TLS

'Tomás González has the potential to become a classic of Latin American literature... a very pure writer' Elfriede Jelinek, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature

'Through the sparse language and the handpicked metaphors, the exotic island that J. and Elena inhabit and the realities of mainland South America come to life... lean and severe but still ultimately artistic' Bookbag

'A fascinatingly dark character study. It is an unflinching, and pitch perfect trip into the dark heart of Colombia and hippy culture in general. It is above all a powerful debut' Upcoming4Me

'Gonzalez's sharp and succinct delivery, combined with his crisp and startling imagery, leaves an impression upon a reader that takes time to fade.' Litro

'As menacingly taut as Hemingway's, and his superlative telling of an idealistic couple's relationship coming apart at the seams brings to mind any number of US fiction's modern heroes, from Richard Yates to Jhumpa Lahiri' Quadrapheme

'A fascinating sociological experiment...Tomás González writes with descriptive beauty and subtle irony' The Literateur

'A revelation...a book of exceptional intensity' Le Monde

'Concentrated and perfect' Liberation

'Tomás González is a storyteller of universal range.' Die Zeit

'Not a sad or depressing story, but an absolutely coherent and consistent, plausible, deeply human, even comforting one' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

'If García Márquez is Wagner, Tomás González is Bob Dylan.' --Arcadia

L'autore:

Tomás González (b. 1950 in Medellin, Colombia) studied philosophy, then became barman in a Bogotá nightclub, whose owner published González's In the Beginning Was the Sea (translated into German, French and now for the first time into English) in 1983. He also lived in Miami and New York, where he wrote much of his work, while making a living as a translator. After twenty years in the US, he returned to Colombia where he now lives. His many novels include La Storia de Horacio (translated into French) and La Luz Difficil (translated into German, French and Dutch).

 Frank Wynne is an Irish translator and writer. His translation of Frédéric Beigbeder's Windows on the World won the 2005 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. He has also won the 2008 Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize for translation from the French and the 2012 Premio Valle Inclán for Spanish Translation.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Pushkin Pr Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1782270418
• ISBN 13: 9781782270416
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 172