New Releases by George Saunders

An electric novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling, Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo, taking place at the bedside of an oil company CEO in the twilight hours of his life as he is ferried from this world into the next Not for the first time, Jill “Doll” Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion. She has performed this sacred duty 343 times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the others. The powerful K. J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold, epic life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it? Vigil transports us, careening, through the wild final evening of a complicated man. Visitors begin to arrive (worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead), clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man’s room; a black calf grazes on the love seat; a man from a distant, drought-ravaged village materializes; two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for Boone’s postdeath future. With the wisdom, playfulness, and explosive imagination we’ve come to expect, George Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time—the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress—and, in the process, spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.

Une fable tendre, amusante, poignante et teintée d’humour noir sur la cupidité humaine et la nature, de la plume de George Saunders (lauréat du Man Booker Prize).

Nove racconti, nove mondi evocati attraverso voci che fanno emergere l’assurdo nella normalità e rivelano le prigioni fisiche, psicologiche e spirituali in cui sono rinchiusi i personaggi che li popolano. Ancorati a una visione delle cose che danno per scontata, bloccati in una condizione esistenziale rassicurante nella sua terribile immutabilità, tutti giungono alla “liberazione”, ovvero scoprono che la realtà è tutt’altro che stabile, acquisita e definibile. Nel lungo racconto eponimo, un gruppo di moderni schiavi senza memoria agganciati a una parete è costretto a esibirsi per il facoltoso padrone di casa e i suoi ospiti; in Lettera d’amore un nonno spiega al nipote come gli americani abbiano perso le loro libertà facendo piccole concessioni a un governo sempre più autoritario. In Elliott Spencer i derelitti della società vengono sottoposti al lavaggio del cervello, riprogrammati e sfruttati come manifestanti politici. L’indefesso lavoratore di un parco a tema sotterraneo (Ghoul) scopre la verità della sua condizione, su cui fino ad allora non si era mai fatto domande. Accanto a queste scene di ambientazione fantastica o distopica troviamo vicende più realistiche come quelle narrate ne L’audace mamma d’azione o La mia casa, inquietante storia di un’ossessione che si dimostra vana. Suggestioni diverse e apparentemente contraddittorie, le stesse che in fondo la vita ci propone, ci regalano una lettura imperdibile e sollevano interrogativi sempre più cruciali e incalzanti. George Saunders, vincitore del Booker Prize con Lincoln nel Bardo, torna con una raccolta di racconti dopo il bestseller Dieci dicembre. “Nove storie, di volta in volta esilaranti, tristi, curiose e perfidamente divertenti. Tutte portano l’impronta della sensibilità bizzarra di Saunders e della sua furia nei confronti della repressione e della coercizione.” The Sunday Times

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “One of our most inventive purveyors of the form returns with pitch-perfect, genre-bending stories that stare into the abyss of our national character. . . . An exquisite work from a writer whose reach is galactic.”—Oprah Daily Booker Prize winner George Saunders returns with his first collection of short stories since the New York Times bestseller Tenth of December. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Oprah Daily, NPR, Time, USA Today, The Guardian, Esquire, Newsweek, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Library Journal The “best short-story writer in English” (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose—wickedly funny, unsentimental, and exquisitely tuned—Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: Here is a collection of prismatic, resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality. “Love Letter” is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the (not too distant, all too believable) future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and one another. “Ghoul” is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his reality. In “Mother’s Day,” two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. In “Elliott Spencer,” our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed, his memory “scraped”—a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters. And “My House”—in a mere seven pages—comes to terms with the haunting nature of unfulfilled dreams and the inevitability of decay. Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.

Depois do premiado Lincoln no limbo, o mestre do conto contemporâneo está de volta com uma nova coleção de fantasias sombrias e narrativas cheias de humor e absurdo. Em Dia da libertação, George Saunders volta a empregar seu talento elástico para criar composições ficcionais incomuns. São nove textos de estilo e arranjo variados, que tratam de quem somos nós nesse mundo incompreensível em que vivemos. Tal os personagens deste livro, somos aqueles incapazes de perceber as construções sociais e familiares que nos obrigam a cumprir tarefas que nunca se completam, vivendo numa espécie de atuação permanente para uma suposta audiência que nunca chega. Somos também aqueles que, ao tentar fazer o que é certo, descobrem que a cada ação embrenha-se mais e mais numa cadeia de efeitos que só nos afasta da certeza e da correção. Vivemos num mundo onde as relações estão contaminadas pelo uso inescrupuloso e automatizado da linguagem, em que todos os dias se viola "mais uma norma de decoro" a ponto de não restar "nenhuma forma de indignação". Somos trabalhadores lobotomizados para a satisfação de uma "companhia", escravizados num parque de diversões, ou então temos nossas memórias apagadas e nos tornamos zumbis extremistas. Mas somos também mães e pais de família protetores, com histórias de trabalho, de traição, ganância e ciúmes. Ao percorrermos estes contos, Saunders nos faz sentir um prazer estranho, como o de "um fantoche que, apanhado no chão, desfruta das mãos que repentinamente o manipulam". Um livro desconcertante e libertador. "Num futuro próximo, um avô explica como os americanos perderam suas liberdades por meio de pequenas concessões a um governo autoritário. Pessoas vulneráveis sofrem lavagem cerebral e são reprogramadas como manifestantes políticos. Pobres são escravizados para entreter os ricos e forçados a recriar cenas da história americana. Nestes relatos poderosos e perspicazes, George Saunders evoca uma nação em declínio moral e espiritual, onde atos de bondade cintilam como luzes na escuridão." — Esquire

I "Befrielsedagen" fortsätter novellmästaren George Saunders att utmana och överraska läsaren med sin lekfulla dekonstruktion av värderingar, språk och genre. Det handlar om historieberättande och ansvar, om mod och medmänsklighet, och om det utsiktslösa men ändå nödvändiga motståndet mot makten. När verkligheten alltmer närmar sig dystopin lämnar Saunders berättelser ett djupare avtryck än någonsin. "Språkligt och berättartekniskt är Saunders en fröjd att läsa, och Niclas Nilssons översättning magnifik - ordval, stilnivå, allt sitter. Sammantaget går det inte att kalla Befrielsedagen för något annat än en av årets bästa, mest angelägna böcker." Sydsvenskan "Jag bönfaller er att läsa George Saunders. Han är en av världens skickligaste författare och jag försäkrar er - hans ord älskar er läsning." Norrbottens-Kuriren ”Saunders skriver så det både svänger och viner om texten ... Det hela är gripande utan att vara sentimentalt eller övertydligt, men också en mörbultande skräckfärd. Saunders cyniska och absurda versioner av framtiden känns trots allt som att de kryper allt närmare.” Sveriges Radio "Herregud, så bra han är, Saunders! Äntligen en bok som är angelägen! Och skriven på ett språk som etsar sig in hos läsaren." Västerbottens-Kuriren

The American Civil Liberties Union partners with award-winning authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman in this “forceful, beautifully written” (Associated Press) collection that brings together many of our greatest living writers, each contributing an original piece inspired by a historic ACLU case. On January 19, 1920, a small group of idealists and visionaries, including Helen Keller, Jane Addams, Roger Baldwin, and Crystal Eastman, founded the American Civil Liberties Union. A century after its creation, the ACLU remains the nation’s premier defender of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. In collaboration with the ACLU, authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have curated an anthology of essays “full of struggle, emotion, fear, resilience, hope, and triumph” (Los Angeles Review of Books) about landmark cases in the organization’s one-hundred-year history. Fight of the Century takes you inside the trials and the stories that have shaped modern life. Some of the most prominent cases that the ACLU has been involved in—Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona—need little introduction. Others you may never even have heard of, yet their outcomes quietly defined the world we live in now. Familiar or little-known, each case springs to vivid life in the hands of the acclaimed writers who dive into the history, narrate their personal experiences, and debate the questions at the heart of each issue. Hector Tobar introduces us to Ernesto Miranda, the felon whose wrongful conviction inspired the now-iconic Miranda rights—which the police would later read to the man suspected of killing him. Yaa Gyasi confronts the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the ACLU submitted a friend of- the-court brief questioning why a nation that has sent men to the moon still has public schools so unequal that they may as well be on different planets. True to the ACLU’s spirit of principled dissent, Scott Turow offers a blistering critique of the ACLU’s stance on campaign finance. These powerful stories, along with essays from Neil Gaiman, Meg Wolitzer, Salman Rushdie, Ann Patchett, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Louise Erdrich, George Saunders, and many more, remind us that the issues the ACLU has engaged over the past one hundred years remain as vital as ever today, and that we can never take our liberties for granted. Chabon and Waldman are donating their advance to the ACLU and the contributors are forgoing payment.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December comes a literary master class on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves—and our world today. LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Time, San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Town & Country, The Rumpus, Electric Lit, Thrillist, BookPage • “[A] worship song to writers and readers.”—Oprah Daily For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We’re going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn’t fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?” He approaches the stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster. The process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is a technical craft, but also a way of training oneself to see the world with new openness and curiosity. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.

Trước khi mở cuốn tiểu thuyết đầu tay của George Saunders, hãy dọn sạch khỏi tâm trí tất cả những khái niệm bạn từng biết về tiểu thuyết. Hãy chuẩn bị cho một thứ cấu trúc và giọng kể phi truyền thống, có phần “thể nghiệm”, thường xuyên làm ta mất phương hướng, nhưng sau rốt lại khiến ta vô cùng thỏa mãn. Hãy cởi mở đón nhận, bạn sẽ không những quen với nó, mà còn trọn vẹn tận hưởng cách kể chuyện này. Năm 1862, nước Mỹ bắt đầu những ngày tháng đau đớn, chia rẽ, đẫm máu nhất của cuộc Nội chiến. Giữa bối cảnh u ám đó, Willie, con trai Abraham Lincoln, qua đời vì một cơn bạo bệnh. Báo chí tường thuật lại việc tổng thống đã vài lần quay lại hầm mộ, một mình, để ôm thi hài cậu con trai bé nhỏ. Bắt nguồn từ hạt mầm sự thật nhỏ nhoi đó, Saunders đã dệt nên một câu chuyện đầy cảm xúc về tình cảm gia đình và mất mát, phá vỡ cái khung lịch sử để bước vào địa hạt siêu nhiên vừa khôi hài vừa đáng sợ, khi Willie Lincoln thấy mình ở cõi “trung ấm” - nơi những linh hồn vật vờ không thể siêu thoát vì còn vấn vương cõi trần. Từ đây dồn dập hàng chục những giọng kể muôn dạng - cả sống lẫn chết, lịch sử lẫn hư cấu – để đặt ra một câu hỏi nền tảng bất diệt: Phải sống và yêu ra sao khi biết mọi thứ ta yêu rồi sẽ kết thúc? Lincoln ở cõi trung ấm là một kỳ công đáng kinh ngạc của trí tưởng tượng, một bước tiến táo bạo từ một trong những nhà văn quan trọng và có sức ảnh hưởng bậc nhất của thế hệ ông.

Washington, nuit du 25 février 1862. Dans le paisible cimetière de Oak Hill, non loin de la Maison-Blanche, quelque chose se prépare... Un peu plus tôt ce même jour, on a enterré un petit garçon prénommé Willie, qui n’est autre que le fils du Président des États-Unis. Ce soir-là, Abraham Lincoln, dévasté de chagrin, s’échappe de son bureau pour venir se recueillir en secret sur la sépulture de son enfant. Il croit être seul – il ne l’est pas. Bientôt, des voix se font entendre, et voici que jaillit des caveaux tout un peuple d’âmes errantes, prises au piège entre deux mondes, dans une sorte de purgatoire (le fameux Bardo de la tradition tibétaine). L’arrivée du jeune Willie va déclencher parmi eux un immense charivari – une bataille épique, reflet d’outre-tombe de la guerre de Sécession qui, au même moment, menace de déchirer la nation américaine. Tour à tour inquiétants, hilarants, attendrissants, les spectres surgis de l’imagination de George Saunders nous offrent un spectacle inouï, qui tient de la farce beckettienne autant que de la tragédie shakespearienne. Magistral chef d’orchestre de ce choeur d’ombres baroques, George Saunders s’amuse à dynamiter tous les registres romanesques, pour mieux nous confronter aux plus profonds mystères de notre existence : qu’est-ce que la mort ? qu’est-ce que la vie ? qu’est-ce que l’amour ? et comment vivre, et aimer, quand nous savons que tout est voué au néant ?

La Casa Blanca, febrero de 1862. Mientras Abraham Lincoln intenta hacer frente a una guerra civil que apenas acaba de comenzar, su hijo Willie fallece con tan sólo once años. Incapaz de dejarlo ir, el presidente visita la tumba en la que descansa el cuerpo, mientras el pequeño, atrapado entre la vida y la muerte, en un limbo habitado por fantasmas que ignoran su destino, se enfrenta a su propia lucha en lo más profundo de su alma. A partir de un hecho real, George Saunders nos invita en su primera novela a un banquete para la imaginación y entrega su trabajo más original hasta la fecha. Desarrollada en un cementerio a lo largo de una sola noche y narrada por un magnífico coro de voces, Lincoln en el Bardo es una experiencia literaria única que habla del amor, la pérdida y los vínculos familiares. Saunders, reconocido internacionalmente como maestro del relato corto, ha sido galardonado con el Premio Man Booker por esta «obra extraordinaria», «única» e «increíblemente gratificante», en palabras del jurado. «Un acto brillante de generosidad y humanismo», Colson Whitehead, The New York Times Book Review

Washington D.C., år 1862. Medan det amerikanska inbördeskriget härjar i landet ligger Abraham Lincolns elvaårige son Willie svårt sjuk i sin säng i Vita huset. På bara några dagar vinner sjukdomen över pojken och han är förlorad. Tidningarna rapporterar att president Lincoln, utom sig av sorg, upprepade gånger har setts återvända till kryptan på kyrkogården i Georgetown för att hålla sitt älskade barn i famnen. Så långt bekräftar historiska källor skeendet. Men i George Saunders händer bryter sig berättelsen om den sörjande fadern loss från historieböckerna och får eget liv i en kör av filosoferande, självömkande, grälsjuka röster. Den bortgångne Willie Lincoln finner sig fången i det som inom buddismen kallas bardo, övergången mellan liv och död – och han är inte ensam. Kyrkogården vimlar av förorättade, vilsekomna spöken som inte är klara med livet, och som tar alla chanser att göra sina röster hörda. Under en natt fylld av skrönor och dramatik utspelar sig en ödesdiger kamp om Willies själ mellan gravstenarna, och den privata tragedin får oväntade konsekvenser för det stora historiska skeendet. George Saunders första roman är en oförglömlig lek med form och konvenans, där det skrämmande på ett ögonblick kan vändas i burlesk komik och komiken i innerlig människokärlek. Saunders låter levande och döda, historiska och fiktiva röster komma till tals i en kalejdoskopisk skildring av ofantlig kärlek, ofattbar sorg och gränslös vänskap.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE The “devastatingly moving” (People) first novel from the author of Tenth of December: a moving and original father-son story featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and invented One of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years • One of Paste’s Best Novels of the Decade Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post, USA Today, and Maureen Corrigan, NPR • One of Time’s Ten Best Novels of the Year • A New York Times Notable Book • One of O: The Oprah Magazine’s Best Books of the Year February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy’s body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul. Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end? “A luminous feat of generosity and humanism.”—Colson Whitehead, The New York Times Book Review “A masterpiece.”—Zadie Smith

This is an astonishing, absolutely absorbing account of the accomplishments of those picked men from the Royal Navy, the British Army, and the Royal Air Force, who work with U.S. Rangers and others of the United Nations in what is known officially as Combined Operations—or, more popularly, the Commandos. So far as possible, without giving aid to the enemy, it is the complete story of the Commandos since the very beginning of their activities, commencing with the experimental attacks on Norwegian islands, and proceeding with more ambitious attempts on the Continent. In quick succession follow highly dramatic accounts of the assault on southern Italy, the evacuation of Crete, the defeat of the French in Syria, the daring penetration of the enemy''s line in Libya—culminating in the suspenseful stalking of Rommel''s headquarters—the assault on St. Nazaire, the capture of Madagascar, the Dieppe raid, the invasion of North Africa. The book is utterly without heroics, and yet is all heroism. The reader marvels at the terrible efficiency, the terrible simplicity, the terrible courage and the awesome nonchalance of the British Royal Navy and Army and R.A.F. men who participate in these raids. The author has the true narrator''s gift—a style which is direct, authentic, episodic in a high degree, and stirring from beginning to end. The inspiring scenes he describes keep recurring to the reader long after the book has been laid aside.

"I am not worried about the fighting. I know you''re fairly bloody-minded. But I want to speak of discipline during the battle." "You must get ashore, if you have to swim, and I hope some of you will return as you''ll be very useful for the next show." The words of a Commando officer to his men before they stormed the beaches of Sicily under heavy machine-gun fire sum up the swashbuckling, devil-may-care spirit of the toughest fighting men produced—the Commandos. For their raids and battles far behind enemy lines in France, North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Burma the men in the Green Beret have become a legend. This book shows how this legend was forged.

”George Saunders har skrivit den bästa boken du kommer att läsa i år”, deklarerade New York Times söndagsmagasin på sin förstasida när Tionde december kom ut i USA. Den djärva rubriken följdes av kritikerhyllningar, topplaceringar på bästsäljarlistorna och litterära utmärkelser som Folio Prize and Story Prize. De tio novellerna i Tionde december beskriver en urflippad men igenkännbar samtid: avtrubbande kontorsmiljöer, statusstress och livscoachplattityder dragna till sin spets. Samtidigt lyfter Saunders moralfilosofiska frågor om civilkurage och ansvar; vid sidan av hans karakteristiska satir och skruvade science fiction-influenser finns ett modigt stråk av medkänsla. Som i novellen ”Ärevarv”, där en tonårskille står vid köksfönstret och ser tjejen i grannhuset bli kidnappad, och kämpar mot instinkten att gå in på sitt rum och låtsas som ingenting. Tionde december är stilistiskt innovativ, originell, smart, svart och rolig – och den förskjuter gränserna för läsarens föreställningsvärld. Efter att i åratal ha varit en hemlig favorit med fans som författarna Zadie Smith och Junot Díaz introduceras nu George Saunders på svenska med boken som blivit hans stora internationella genombrott.

From the bestselling author of Tenth of December comes a splendid new edition of his acclaimed collaboration with the illustrator behind The Stinky Cheese Man and James and the Giant Peach! Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious images, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a modern fable for people of all ages that touches on the power of kindness, generosity, compassion, and community. In the seaside village of Frip live three families: the Romos, the Ronsens, and a little girl named Capable and her father. The economy of Frip is based solely on goat’s milk, and this is a problem because the village is plagued by gappers: bright orange, many-eyed creatures the size of softballs that love to attach themselves to goats. When a gapper gets near a goat, it lets out a high-pitched shriek of joy that puts the goats off giving milk, which means that every few hours the children of Frip have to go outside, brush the gappers off their goats, and toss them into the sea. The gappers have always been everyone’s problem, until one day they get a little smarter, and instead of spreading out, they gang up: on Capable’s goats. Free at last of the tyranny of the gappers, will her neighbors rally to help her? Or will they turn their backs, forcing Capable to bear the misfortune alone? Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious illustrations by Lane Smith and a brilliant story by George Saunders that explores universal themes of community and kindness, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a rich and resonant story for those that have all and those that have not. Praise for The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip “In a perfect world, every child would own a copy of this profound, funny fable. . . . Every adult would own a copy too, and would marvel at how this smart, subversive little book is even deeper and more hilarious than any child could know.”—Entertainment Weekly “Saunders’s idiosyncratic voice makes an almost perfect accompaniment to children’s book illustrator Smith’s heightened characterizations and slightly surreal backdrops.”—Publishers Weekly “A riveting, funny, and sly new fairy tale.”—Miami Herald

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Traduit de l''anglais (États-Unis) par Olivier Deparis Ami intime de David Foster Wallace et de Jonathan Franzen, adulé par une génération d''écrivains (Lorrie Moore, Junot Diaz, etc.) à qui il a enseigné la fiction à l''université de Syracuse, George Saunders est encore largement inconnu en France. Dix décembre devrait contribuer à corriger cette anomalie. Un homme-cobaye prisonnier d''un laboratoire, un lycéen rêveur, un manager, un employé d''un parc d''attractions et quelques femmes au bord de la crise de nerfs, tels sont les (anti-)héros de ce livre dans lequel l''absurde règne en maître. Car le monde est absurde, nous dit George Saunders. Pour lui, l''écrivain, tel le canari dans la mine célébré jadis par Kurt Vonnegut, est celui qui avertit ses semblables que le coup de grisou est imminent. C''est pourquoi il est plus que jamais urgent de le lire.

Uma visão alucinante e sarcástica da vida contemporânea nos contos inventivos e emocionantes de um mestre da narrativa norte-americana. Eleito um dos melhores livros do século XXI pelo The New York Times. Premiado, aclamado pela crítica, arrastando para si uma legião de adoradores da melhor ficção, Dez de dezembro é um verdadeiro acontecimento na narrativa breve de nossos dias. Seus dez contos formam um vasto painel da vida contemporânea, apresentando nossas neuroses, comédias de erros, relações amorosas e outros traços da realidade do século XXI. Com este livro que retoma a melhor tradição de contistas como John Cheever, Raymond Carver e David Foster Wallace, George Saunders, autor de romances, ensaios e outros volumes de contos, foi catapultado - merecidamente - para o centro da cena literária de seu país. Pudera: seus contos, escritos com virtuosismo linguístico e formal e mesmo assim intensamente divertidos, tocantes e humanos, são um olhar a partir do cotidiano de todos nós. Os dramas e as delícias da classe média urbana, a relação entre pais e filhos, as pequenas imposturas que cometemos quando queremos agradar um desconhecido, tudo isso perpassa esse conjunto de narrativas inesquecíveis.

An inspiring message from the inaugural Folio Prize winner, George Saunders, one of today''s most influential and original writers

Een onbeholpen antiquair die zichzelf voor de gek houdt; twee moeders die allebei het beste willen voor hun kinderen; een jongeman die het zwaar te verduren krijgt als hij wordt onderworpen aan een reeks farmaceutische experimenten die hem opgeilen, doen liefhebben en doen doden dat zijn slechts enkele van de onvergetelijke personages die Tien december bevolken. George Saunders schrijft over klassenverschillen, seks, liefde, verlies, vertwijfeling en oorlog. Tien december is de meest integere, meest toegankelijke en meest ontroerende bundel die George Saunders tot dusver heeft gepubliceerd. George Saunders is een van de belangrijkste en oorspronkelijkste schrijvers uit het Engelse taalgebied en een onbetwiste meester van het korte verhaal. Eerder verschenen van hem de verhalenbundels CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, Pastoralia en In Persuasion Nation. Saunders publiceert onder andere in The New Yorker en McSweeneys en werd in 2013 door Time Magazine opgenomen in de lijst van de 100 meest invloedrijke mensen ter wereld. `Al jaren probeer ik iedereen aan George Saunders te krijgen. Dave Eggers `Tien december is een warm en grappig boek. [...] Sommige verhalen dansen bijna van plezier. De Groene Amsterdammer `Tien december toont George Saunders op zijn grappigst, meest revolutionair en indringendst. Authentiek, altijd vindingrijk, en tegelijk diep menselijk. Jennifer Egan

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo, a darkly comic short story about the unintended consequences unleashed by our quest to tame the natural world—featuring gorgeous black-and-white illustrations by Chelsea Cardinal. Fox 8 has always been known as the daydreamer in his pack, the one his fellow foxes regard with a knowing snort and a roll of the eyes. That is, until he develops a unique skill: He teaches himself to speak “Yuman” by hiding in the bushes outside a house and listening to children’s bedtime stories. The power of language fuels his abundant curiosity about people—even after “danjer” arrives in the form of a new shopping mall that cuts off his food supply, sending Fox 8 on a harrowing quest to help save his pack. Told with his distinctive blend of humor and pathos, Fox 8 showcases the extraordinary imaginative talents of George Saunders, whom The New York Times called “the writer for our time.”

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST FICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY AND BUZZFEED • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: People, The New York Times Magazine, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, New York, The Telegraph, BuzzFeed, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage, Shelf Awareness Includes an extended conversation with David Sedaris One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet. In the taut opener, “Victory Lap,” a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice: Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from his parents and act? In “Home,” a combat-damaged soldier moves back in with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the one to which he has returned. And in the title story, a stunning meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the dying man a final chance to recall who he really is. A hapless, deluded owner of an antiques store; two mothers struggling to do the right thing; a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush with reality; a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments that force him to lust, to love, to kill—the unforgettable characters that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly infused with Saunders’s signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic innovation. Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human. Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, the stories in Tenth of December—through their manic energy, their focus on what is redeemable in human beings, and their generosity of spirit—not only entertain and delight; they fulfill Chekhov’s dictum that art should “prepare us for tenderness.” GEORGE SAUNDERS WAS NAMED ONE OF THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD BY TIME MAGAZINE

Since its publication in 1996, George Saunders’s debut collection has grown in esteem from a cherished cult classic to a masterpiece of the form, inspiring an entire generation of writers along the way. In six stories and a novella, Saunders hatches an unforgettable cast of characters, each struggling to survive in an increasingly haywire world. With a new introduction by Joshua Ferris and a new author’s note by Saunders himself, this edition is essential reading for those seeking to discover or revisit a virtuosic, disturbingly prescient voice. Praise for George Saunders and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline “It’s no exaggeration to say that short story master George Saunders helped change the trajectory of American fiction.”—The Wall Street Journal “Saunders’s satiric vision of America is dark and demented; it’s also ferocious and very funny.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “George Saunders is a writer of arresting brilliance and originality, with a sure sense of his material and apparently inexhaustible resources of voice. [CivilWarLand in Bad Decline] is scary, hilarious, and unforgettable.”—Tobias Wolff “Saunders makes the all-but-impossible look effortless.”—Jonathan Franzen “Not since Twain has America produced a satirist this funny.”—Zadie Smith “An astoundingly tuned voice—graceful, dark, authentic, and funny—telling just the kinds of stories we need to get us through these times.”—Thomas Pynchon

In the same vein as his much-loved weekly column for the Guardian Magazine, this is a hilarious and incisive collection of essays from George Saunders.

From the highly acclaimed cult author of Pastoralia, comes a novella and short-story collection.