Laura Noulian Books

Humoristisk fortælling om forfatterens familie på Korfu

Owls Do Cry is Janet Frames first novel. She describes her ideas behind it in the second volume of her autobiography: "Pictures of great treasure in the midst of sadness and waste haunted me and I began to think, in fiction, of a childhood, home life, hospital life, using people known to me as a base for the main character, and inventing minor characters. For Daphne I chose a sensitive, poetic frail person, who, I hoped, would give depth to inner worlds and perhaps a clearer, at least an individual, perception of outer worlds. The other characters, similarly fictional, were used to portray aspects of my 'message' - the excessively material outlooks of 'Chicks', the confusion of Toby, the earthy make-up of Francie, and the toiling parents, the nearest characters to my own parents.

Is it possible to share your life with someone whose record collection is incompatible with your own? Can people have terrible taste and still be worth knowing? For Rob Fleming, thirty-five years old, a pop addict and owner of a failing record shop, these are the sort of questions that need an answer, and soon.

'One of our finest living authors ... propulsively entertaining' New York Times 'Sly, profound ... Electrifying' Observer 'Wonderfully strange and alive' Jon McGregor

Written with sinuous grace and intellectual acuity, "The Horned Man" is an unforgettable excursion into the lethal battleground of desire and repression.

With critical raves from Britain and film rights already sold to Steven Spielberg, this tour de force set in 1630s Amsterdam tells of the smoldering passion that develops between a married woman and the artist painting her portrait.

The 1993 Booker Prize winner. Paddy Clarke, a ten-year-old Dubliner, describes his world, a place full of warmth, cruelty, love, sardines and slaps across the face. He's confused; he sees everything but he understands less and less.

Si può continuare a essere vivi anche da morti? Bibi Chen, un'antiquaria di origini cinesi, è morta a San Francisco in circostanze misteriose. Ricorda tutto, tranne il proprio decesso, sul quale indaga la polizia. Osserva il suo funerale e gli amici affranti, tra cui dodici persone che avrebbe dovuto guidare in un viaggio culturale in Cina e Birmania. Bibi percepisce tutto, compresi i pensieri altrui, grazie ai "doni del Buddha", una sorta di compensazione per la sua perdita fisica. I dodici amici decidono di partire comunque e Bibi li accompagna, proteggendoli senza che se ne accorgano. Tuttavia, devono lasciare la Cina prematuramente a causa dei guai causati dalla loro ignoranza di turisti occidentali. Arrivano in Birmania e, la mattina di Natale, undici dei dodici viaggiatori s'imbarcano per una gita sul Lago Inle e spariscono. Mescolando ironia e dimensione metafisica con il realismo del sequestro dei turisti, il romanzo esplora le storie personali dei protagonisti - dal playboy onesto all'attivista ingenua - e affronta temi come l'autoritarismo dei regimi illiberali e l'individualismo narcisistico del nostro mondo.

Praised in the highest terms by reviewers, the story of a charming, romantic Irish American explores the impact of his life and death on his family and his close-knit New York City neighborhood. Reprint.