Bøger af James Lasdun

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY BEST BOOKS OF 2009THE WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST FICTION OF 2009LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOKS OF 2009FAVORITE FICTION OF 2009 FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMESJames Lasdun's great gift is his instinct for the vertiginous moments when the essence of a life discloses itself. In sharply evoked settings that range from the wilds of northern Greece to the beaches of Cape Cod, these intensely dramatic tales in It's Beginning to Hurt chart the metamorphoses of their characters as they fall prey to the range of human passions. As James Wood has written, "James Lasdun seems to me to be one of the secret gardens of English writing. . . . When we read him we know what language is for."

When an old flame accuses him of sexual assault, expat English journalist Marco Rosedale is brought rapidly to the brink of ruin. Marco confides in a close friend, the unnamed narrator, who finds himself caught between the obligations of friendship and an increasingly urgent desire to uncover the truth-until the question of his own complicity becomes impossible to avoid.

Taut, stylish, and psychologically acute, Afternoon of a Faun dramatizes the search for truth as an accusation of sexual assault plunges a journalist into a series of deepening crises.

Who is the real victim here? Who is the perpetrator? And who, ultimately, is the fall guy? It is summer, 2012. Charlie, a wealthy banker with an uneasy conscience, invites his troubled cousin Matthew to visit him and his wife in their idyllic mountain-top house.

In this taut psychological thriller, a couple and their houseguest find themselves caught in a deadly web of secrets, obsession, and revenge.

These narratives are set against a variety of backdrops - from the teeming banks of the Ganges to a homeless shelter in New York. In "Ate/Menos" or "The Miracle", a young man takes advantage of a woman who mistakes him for someone else. In "The Siege", a wealthy recluse falls in love.

A true story of obsessive love turning to obsessive hate, Give Me Everything You Have chronicles the author's strange and harrowing ordeal at the hands of a former student, a self-styled 'verbal terrorist', who began trying, in her words, to 'ruin him'.

"Superb... Every page of this narration bears examples of Lasdun's own poetic mastery... Shockingly vivid."-Time Out

Lawrence Miller, English expatriate and professor of gender studies, tells the story of what appears to be an elaborate conspiracy to frame him for a series of brutal killings a world of subtly deceptive appearances where the most nightmarish acts occur.

"American readers who want to see rejuvenated form in untroubled action, giving brisk shape to contemporary and classical events, will find it in Lasdun." -Helen Vendler

James Lasdun's new book of poems, his first since his acclaimed collection Landscape with Chainsaw, applies his characteristic blend of the celebratory and the elegiac to a rich variety of new themes and old obsessions.

Concerned with transformations and dislocations - both physical and emotional - the poems in James Lasdun's second collection speak exquisitely of desire and loss. Jetlagged, estranged, out of synch or out of kilter, the figures in these poems sometimes just miss each other, sometimes connect explosively.

"Brilliant ...certainly among the most gifted, vivid, and deft poets now writing in English."-Anthony Hecht, author of The Darkness and the Light

In sharply evoked settings that range from the wilds of Northern Greece to the beaches of Cape Cod, these intensely dramatic tales chart the metamorphoses of their characters as they fall prey to the gamut of human passions.

Part political thriller, part meditation on the nature of desire and betrayal, this book tells the story of Stefan Vogel, a young man growing up in the former East Germany, whose yearnings for love, glory and freedom express themselves in a lifelong fantasy of going to America. It offers an examination of the architecture of deceit.

Offers a wide variety of half-day and full-day walks, incorporating the scenery and culture of the Italian regions of Tuscany and Umbria, and includes information about local food and wine, overnight itineraries, easy-to-follow maps, the best restaurants and accommodations, transportation, and more

This excursion into panic and urban paranoia opens with a man losing his place in a book, then deepens into a dark and terrifying story of a man losing his place in the world.