The Long Dry - Couverture souple

Jones, Cynan

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1566894654 ISBN 13 : 9781566894654

Editeur : Coffee House Press, 2017

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

"The best book I've read this year" Andrew Davies --Andrew Davies

"Jones' first novel takes place over the course of a hot summer day on a cattle farm somewhere in rural Wales. From a simple plot Gareth, a farmer, searches for a missing calving cow a series of interactions and accidents emerges to shape the lives of the farmer s family, his neighbours, and the domestic animals and wildlife coexisting in this landscape steeped in history. As in William Faulkner s most moving work, Jones seemingly surveys the whole of existence by describing the humblest details of life on this postage-stamp of unnamed Welsh soil; the sound of machinery in the distance, the flight of damselflies, digging a grave in hard ground. The relentless heat and drought express the thirsts literal, emotional, and spiritual that oppress this landscape and its inhabitants. In this wounded place, tragedy is persistent and immanent. Jones suggests, however, that redemption, fulfillment, and peace, though infrequent as a summer rain, are as inevitable as the sunrise. Winner of the 2007 Betty Trask Award, this is a powerful and highly recommended debut." J.G.Matthews, Washington State Univ., Pullman --Library Journal US

"A wee wonderful book" Niall Griffiths --Niall Griffiths

"Cynan Jones's lovely, poignant short novel The Long Dry (Parthian Books) is set in coastal west Wales. The action is confined to a single day near the end of parched summer, in which a calving cow wanders off from its herd and must be tracked down by its farmer, Gareth. This makes the book sound rather mundane, but there is nothing mundane about it. Its focus is on the interior lives of its characters - Gareth himself, his troubled wife Kate, his teenage son, his young daughter, Emmy - and its themes are weighty ones: loss, decay, ambition and disappointment, the pull of the land and the hardness of living on it. This is not a novel that encourages tourism. Gareth has the farmer's disdain both for visitors, who think the country is a "park", and for incomers, who mispronounce Welsh words and let their dogs run wild in the fields. But Jones's sense of place is acute, and his passion for the landscape - for its colours, its creatures, its textures, its scents - is absolutely magnetic. The book is an especially resonant one for me: though set in Ceredigion it conjures up the exact feel of my home county, neighbouring Pembrokeshire, with its dusty summer lanes, its flower-crowded hedges, its sweeping vistas of pasture and ploughland - "and the sea before you," as Jones puts it, "silk and blue above a line of thick gorse, bursting into yellow". Sarah Waters, The Guardian --The Guardian
--Niall Griffiths

Cynan Jones's lovely, poignant short novel The Long Dry (Parthian Books) is set in coastal west Wales. The action is confined to a single day near the end of parched summer, in which a calving cow wanders off from its herd and must be tracked down by its farmer, Gareth. This makes the book sound rather mundane, but there is nothing mundane about it. Its focus is on the interior lives of its characters - Gareth himself, his troubled wife Kate, his teenage son, his young daughter, Emmy - and its themes are weighty ones: loss, decay, ambition and disappointment, the pull of the land and the hardness of living on it. This is not a novel that encourages tourism. Gareth has the farmer's disdain both for visitors, who think the country is a "park", and for incomers, who mispronounce Welsh words and let their dogs run wild in the fields. But Jones's sense of place is acute, and his passion for the landscape - for its colours, its creatures, its textures, its scents - is absolutely magnetic. The book is an especially resonant one for me: though set in Ceredigion it conjures up the exact feel of my home county, neighbouring Pembrokeshire, with its dusty summer lanes, its flower-crowded hedges, its sweeping vistas of pasture and ploughland - "and the sea before you," as Jones puts it, "silk and blue above a line of thick gorse, bursting into yellow". Sarah Waters, The Guardian --The Guardian

A wee wonderful book Niall Griffiths --Niall Griffiths

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Gareth wakes early to find a calving cow is missing and sets off across his farm to find her as the day breaks again to relentless summer sun. Written with clarity and power, Jone's first remarkable book explores the paradox of emotional isolation suffered by those living close together, the conflicting demands of family and farm, and the disruption of old ways by the new. Winner of the Bettry Trask Award 2007, this acclaimed debut novel has been translated into French, Arabic, Italian and Turkish.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Coffee House Press
• Date d'édition: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1566894654
• ISBN 13: 9781566894654
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 136