Great House - Couverture souple

Krauss, Nicole

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0393340643 ISBN 13 : 9780393340648

Editeur : W. W. Norton & Company, 2011

Synopsis

For twenty-five years, a reclusive American novelist has been writing at the desk she inherited from a young Chilean poet who disappeared at the hands of Pinochet's secret police; one day a girl claiming to be the poet's daughter arrives to take it away, sending the writer's life reeling. Across the ocean, in the leafy suburbs of London, a man caring for his dying wife discovers, among her papers, a lock of hair that unravels a terrible secret. In Jerusalem, an antiques dealer slowly reassembles his father's study, plundered by the Nazis in Budapest in 1944. Connecting these stories is a desk of many drawers that exerts a power over those who possess it or have given it away. As the narrators of Great House make their confessions, the desk takes on more and more meaning, and comes finally to stand for all that has been taken from them, and all that binds them to what has disappeared. Great House is a story haunted by questions: What do we pass on to our children and how do they absorb our dreams and losses? How do we respond to disappearance, destruction, and change? Nicole Krauss has written a soaring, powerful novel about memory struggling to create a meaningful permanence in the face of inevitable loss. "This is a novel about the long journey of a magnificent desk as it travels through the twentieth century from one owner to the next. It is also a novel about love, exile, the defilements of war, and the restorative power of language."-National Book Award citation

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

During the winter of 1972, a woman spends a single night with a young Chilean poet before he departs New York, leaving her his desk. It is the only time they ever meet. Two years later, he is arrested by Pinochet's secret police and never seen again. Across the ocean, in the leafy suburbs of London, a man caring for his dying wife discovers a lock of hair among her papers that unravels a terrible secret. In Jerusalem, an antiques dealer has spent a lifetime reassembling his father's study, plundered by the Nazis from Budapest in 1944; now only one item remains to be found. Connecting these lives is a desk of many drawers that exerts a power over those who possess it or give it away. And as the narrators of Great House make their confessions, this desk comes finally to stand for all that has been taken from them, and all that binds them to what has disappeared. Great House is a story haunted by questions: What do we pass on to our children and how do they absorb our dreams and losses? How do we respond to disappearance, destruction, and change? Nicole Krauss has written a soaring, powerful novel about memory struggling to create a meaningful permanence in the face of inevitable loss.

Revue de presse :

Moving, haunting, overwhelmingly poignant (Sunday Times)

The History of Love was very good indeed. Great House ... is even better. A heartbreaking meditation on loss and memory and how they construct out lives (Guardian)

Full of mystery and suspense, building towards one of the great climaxes in contemporary fiction. It is hard to imagine a better book of fiction being published this year ... one of the finest writers of our time (Jewish Chronicle)

Extraordinary, unforgettable, mesmeric (Daily Mail)

Exquisitely measured ... coheres in a stunning conclusion (Independent)

Bewitching, mysterious and deeply moving. One of 2011's must-reads (Harper's Bazaar)

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: W. W. Norton & Company
• Date d'édition: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0393340643
• ISBN 13: 9780393340648
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 304