Cloud Sketcher, The - Couverture souple

Richard Rayner

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0007128312 ISBN 13 : 9780007128310

Editeur : Harper Collins, 2001

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

As the liner Ile de France docks in New York harbor, passengers notice with surprise the policemen gathered below and speculate as to which criminal among them will soon be apprehended. Here and there a single word floats above the general din: murder. Now and then a sage head tips knowingly in the direction of a flamboyant bootlegger: a crime of passion. But when the crowd begins to make its way down the gangplank, the notorious gangster slips through unmolested. Instead it's a celebrated architect with bums from a childhood accident partly covered by the patch over one eye -- who submits to authorities and is taken away in handcuffs.

So begins The Cloud Sketcher, a passionate tale of love and war and art that ranges from the ice fields of the Arctic Circle at the dawn of the last century to the ruthless world of New York real estate speculation in the 1920s. In a tiny village in the northernmost reaches of Finland, a young boy named Esko Vaananen mourns the death of his mother, who died in the same fire that so horribly scarred his face. Miserably, impossibly in love with the beautiful daughter of a Russian aristocrat, Esko is at the brink of despair when, in the magical light of the aurora borealis, he has a vision of an impossibly tall building rising gracefully from the frozen lake and disappearing into the clouds above him.

This pilvenpiirtaja--"cloud sketcher," or skyscraper sparks Esko's lifelong quest for beauty. He becomes an architect, believing that if he can create something of unparalleled loveliness, surely then he will be worthy of the love of Katerina Malysheva. This obsessive desire will cause Esko to risk everything time and again: as a reluctant hero in the bloody Battle of Tampere (the defining battle in the Finnish Civil War); as a laborer on the treacherous high steel of a riveting gang, hundreds of feet above Manhattan's city streets; as a player in the ruthless world of New York real estate speculation; and, finally, as a man accused of murdering the husband of the woman he loves.

The Cloud Sketcher is a transforming journey into the heart of beauty and the peril of love, a romantic, lyrical epic that resurrects history with such authenticity and drama as to place Richard Rayner in the company of our very best novelists.

Présentation de l'éditeur :

The Cloud Sketcher is a passionate tale of love, war and art that ranges from the icefields of the Arctic Circle at the dawn of the last century to the ruthless world of 1920'2 New York.

In a tiny Finnish village, Esko Vaananen mourns the death of his mother, who died in the same fire that so horribly scarred his face. At the brink of despair, he has a vision of an impossibly tall building rising gracefully from a frozen lake, disappearing into the clouds above. This "cloud sketcher," or skyscraper, sparks Esko's livelong quest for beauty. He becomes an architect, believing that if he can create something of unparalleled loveliness, surely he will be worthy of his true love, Katerina. This obsessive desire causes Esko to risk everything time and again: as a reluctant hero in the Finnish civil war; as a laborer on the treacherous high steel of a Manhattan riveting gang; and finally, as a man accused of murdering the husband of the woman he loves.

Preformed by Simon Jones

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Harper Collins
• Date d'édition: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0007128312
• ISBN 13: 9780007128310
• Reliure: Broché