A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies - Couverture souple

Murray, John

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0141017600 ISBN 13 : 9780141017600

Editeur : Penguin Books Ltd, 2004

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

“Writing that bristles with emotive power.” (Library Journal)

“Brilliant.... How lucky for all of us that he chose to write fiction.” (Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto)

“These stories linger with you like a delicious aftertaste.” (Abraham Verghese, author of My Own Country and The Tennis Partner)

“Vibrant debut story collection...Murray’s prose is strong and agile...the affecting portraits make this collection emotionally resonant and enormously gratifying” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))

“Stunning short story collection...writer to watch.” (Booklist (starred))

“Remarkable...marks the debut of an extraordinary American writer.” (Buffalo News)

“As gorgeous and breathtaking as the winged marvels of the title...stories such as these remind us what constitutes humanity.” (San Francisco Chronicle Book Review)

“The eight stories in John Murray’s first short-story collection achieve, individually and - collectively, an extraordinary impact and depth.” (San Diego Tribune)

“Murray’s stories are a genuine cultural breakthrough....Adventures of the mind, rich in human feeling...departures from any other...fiction. (Muriel Spark)

“Teeming with...high-stakes wisdom, Murray’s stories offer a map of possibility where anything can happen.” (Boston Globe)

Murray’s stories are what you might get if you combined Ethan Canin, Andrea Barrett and Jhumpa Lahiri with Anton Chekhov. (San Francisco Chronicle Book Review)

“Elegant...sensitive. His writing talent has no limit.” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

“Brilliant...Murray weaves his experience...into gorgeous narratives.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

“Beguiling...an astute debut collection.” (Book Forum)

“A terrific collection. (Washington Post Book World)

“This wise, compassionate and exquisite book valiantly wrestles with the eternal dichotomy of mind and body.” (Los Angeles Times)

“Remarkable. These are intelligent, sensitive stories. Readers will do well to watch for more from this gifted writer.” (Charlotte Observer)

“Stories that are as affecting as they are suspenseful....Mr. Murray has made an impressive and assured debut.” (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times)

“Compelling, compassionate, and quietly inspirational, each of these modest tales is as satisfying as a novel ...exquisite.” (Daily Mail (London))

“You leave his stories feeling you have been in the company....of an impressive writer [and] human being.” (Jack Kemp, Sunday Times (London))

“Iridescent” (The Observer (UK))

“Fiction that holds firmly to scientific principles and comes with a harrowing edge of reality.” (International Herald Tribune)

“Ambitious, varied, and strong.... To say that Murray...is a prodigious talent is something of an understatement.” (Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books)

Présentation de l'éditeur :

In this remarkably assured and satisfying debut collection, John Murray seamlessly meshes fact with fiction, taking his inspiration from the worlds of science, medicine, and nature. The stories are set in intriguing locations across the globe -- a cholera tent in the slums of Bombay, a United Nations refugee camp in the mountains of Africa, a Key West hideaway -- where his characters, among them doctors, nurses, research scientists, explorers, and collectors, can be found reading The Manual of Clinical Microbiology or Gray's Anatomy or the Complete Textbook of Psychiatry.

And yet, despite the pull of the outer world, these stories are all about the internal world of emotions -- love, loss, obsession, and conflict -- and about families and how they survive. They unfold to tell of moments when people catch glimpses of their real selves, their pasts, and have flashes of understanding about their lives. In "The Hill Station," an American-born scientist is drawn to Bombay, the homeland of her parents, where she breaks free from the confines of her well-ordered life. The title story tells of an aging surgeon who uses his grandfather's collection of butterflies to try and make sense of his past. In "Blue" a young man -- still haunted by the tragic death of his father years earlier -- traverses the Himalayan mountain that would have been his father's last climb. In "Acts of Memory, Wisdom of Man," the son of Indian immigrants relives the summer of 1968, and the events that determined his brother's fate.

Vivid and alive, these stories reveal whole lives -- characters caught between the past and the present, between different cultures, and between their intellects and emotions. Global in scope, classical in form, evocative of place, this rich collection marks an exciting and original debut.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0141017600
• ISBN 13: 9780141017600
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 288