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Maylis de Kerangal

    June 16, 1967

    Maylis de Kerangal is a contemporary French author whose works are known for their deep exploration of human experience, particularly within the context of physical labor and its profound meanings. Her style is characterized by precise, almost surgical observation of the body and its actions, which she intertwines with existential questions of life and death. She often examines how work shapes our identity and its impact on relationships and society. Kerangal's approach to writing is marked by great craftsmanship, creating rich and layered texts that draw readers into the world of her characters and their environments.

    Maylis de Kerangal
    Birth of a Bridge
    Painting Time
    The Cook
    The Heart
    Mend the Living. Die Lebenden reparieren, englische Ausgabe
    Eastbound
    • 2024

      "Finalement, il vous dit quelque chose, notre homme ? Nous arrivions à hauteur de Gonfreville-l’Orcher, la raffinerie sortait de terre, indéchiffrable et nébuleuse, façon Gotham City, une autre ville derrière la ville, j’ai baissé ma vitre et inhalé longuement, le nez orienté vers les tours de distillation, vers ce Meccano démentiel. L’étrange puanteur s’engouffrait dans la voiture, mélange d’hydrocarbures, de sel et de poudre. Il m’a intimé de refermer, avant de m’interroger de nouveau, pourquoi avais-je finalement demandé à voir le corps ? C’est que vous y avez repensé, c’est que quelque chose a dû vous revenir. Oui, j’y avais repensé. Qu’est-ce qu’il s’imaginait. Je n’avais pratiquement fait que penser à ça depuis ce matin, mais y penser avait fini par prendre la forme d’une ville, d’un premier amour, la forme d’un porte-conteneurs."

      Jour de ressac
    • 2024
    • 2024
    • 2023

      Život za život

      • 224 pages
      • 8 hours of reading
      4.4(61)Add rating

      Po ranním výletu k moři má skupina mladých surfařů nehodu v dodávce, která se pro jednoho z nich stává smrtelnou. Jeho rodiče se musí vyrovnat nejen s faktem, že syn se nachází na přístrojích ve stavu mozkové smrti, ale jsou zároveň postaveni před těžkou volbu – zda svolit k transplantaci orgánů a pomoci tak zachránit životy jiných.Román význačné francouzské autorky je podán mimořádně originálním a čtivým stylem. Čtenář je v proudu vědomí všech zúčastněných, od kamarádů přes rodiče až po ošetřující personál a čekatele na transplantaci, bezprostředně vtažen do děje a prožívání aktérů. Autorka přitom čerpá z nejlepší francouzské stylistické tradice a jejímu poetickému obrazu lidských prožitků ve vypjatém okamžiku se dostalo velkého uznání kritiky i mnoha nadšených čtenářů jak ve Francii, tak v zahraničí. Kerangal virtuózně uchopuje bohatý rejstřík témat – od lidských emocí přes mravní dilemata až po reflexi toho, jak nové možnosti lékařství mění náš vztah k tělu a jeho důstojnosti či jak se proměňují rituály obklopující v naší kultuře smrt. Kniha byla přeložena do více než 30 jazyků a mimo jiné byl na jejím základě natočen úspěšný film Život za život v režii Katell Quillévéré.

      Život za život
    • 2021

      A beautiful collection of seven short stories and a novella themed around women's voices from the author of Mend the Living and Painting Time

      Canoes
    • 2019

      The Cook

      • 112 pages
      • 4 hours of reading
      3.6(1414)Add rating

      "A slim, bountiful, beautifully written (and gorgeously translated) 'Portrait of the Chef as a Young Man.'" --Nancy Klinke, The New York Times Book Review One of BBC Culture's Ten Books to Read this March and The Rumpus Book Club Pick for March Maylis de Kerangal follows up her acclaimed novel The Heart with a dissection of the world of a young Parisian chef More like a poetic biographical essay on a fictional person than a novel, The Cook is a coming-of-age journey centered on Mauro, a young self-taught cook. The story is told by an unnamed female narrator, Mauro’s friend and disciple who we also suspect might be in love with him. Set not only in Paris but in Berlin, Thailand, Burma, and other far-flung places over the course of fifteen years, the book is hyperrealistic—to the point of feeling, at times, like a documentary. It transcends this simplistic form, however, through the lyricism and intensely vivid evocative nature of Maylis de Kerangal’s prose, which conjures moods, sensations, and flavors, as well as the exhausting rigor and sometimes violent abuses of kitchen work. In The Cook, we follow Mauro as he finds his path in life: baking cakes as a child; cooking for his friends as a teenager; a series of studies, jobs, and travels; a failed love affair; a successful business; a virtual nervous breakdown; and—at the end—a rediscovery of his hunger for cooking, his appetite for life.

      The Cook
    • 2018

      Painting Time

      • 240 pages
      • 9 hours of reading
      3.5(437)Add rating

      An aesthetic and existential coming-of-age novel exploring the apprenticeship of a young female painter, Paula Karst, who is enrolled at the famous Institut de Peinture in Brussels. With the attention of a documentary filmmaker, de Kerangal follows Paula's apprenticeship, punctuated by brushstrokes, hard work, sleepless nights, sore muscles, and long, festive evenings. After completing her studies at the Institute, Paula continues to practice her art in Paris, in Moscow, then in Italy on the sets of great films, all as if rehearsing for a grand finale: at a job working on Lascaux IV, a facsimile reproduction of the world's most famous paleolithic cave art and the apotheosis of human cultural expression.

      Painting Time
    • 2016

      A twenty-four-hour whirlwind of death and life. This is the heart of Simon Limbeau. This is the black box of his twenty-year-old body, circulating five litres of blood each minute, compressing itself a hundred thousand times each day. No bigger than a fist, yet it is capable of pumping blood through sixty thousand miles of blood vessels. This heart has leaped, swelled, melted, sunk, and now, on this glacial winter night, it rests and recharges, readying itself for the day ahead. 5.50 a.m. This is his heart. And here is its story.

      Mend the Living. Die Lebenden reparieren, englische Ausgabe
    • 2015

      The Heart

      • 242 pages
      • 9 hours of reading
      3.9(3465)Add rating

      "An audacious novel about the 24 hours surrounding a heart transplant"--

      The Heart
    • 2015

      Dans Folioplus classiques, le texte intégral, enrichi d'une lecture d'image, écho pictural de l'oeuvre, est suivi de sa mise en perspective organisée en six points : vie littéraire, la matière du réel ; genre et registre, corps, gestes et voix, une écriture du mouvement ; l'écrivain à sa table de travail, le paysage de la fiction ; groupement de textes, éclats de la jeunesse ; chronologie, Maylis de Kerangal et son temps ; fiche, des pistes pour rendre compte de sa lecture.

      Corniche Kennedy