New Releases by Alan Hollinghurst

« Nos soirées est le meilleur roman qui ait été écrit sur la Grande-Bretagne contemporaine au cours des dix dernières années. C''est drôle, mais aussi désespérément émouvant. » The Sunday Times Dave Win, enfant métis de la classe ouvrière, a treize ans lorsqu''il est invité pour la première fois au domaine des Hadlow, les mécènes qui ont financé sa bourse d''études dans la prestigieuse Bampton School. Le week-end qui se présente, avec ses défis et ses rencontres surprenantes, va lui ouvrir les portes d''un monde nouveau et l''exposer à la violence du fils Hadlow, Giles. Tandis que le récit, embrassant un demi-siècle, s''achemine vers le présent, les valeurs et les existences respectives de Dave et de Giles divergent radicalement jusqu''à entrer en collision : l''un, devenu un acteur de théâtre talentueux, est toujours prêt à s''élever contre les conventions et la discrimination ; l''autre, puissant politicien de droite, cherche à imposer une vision de l''Angleterre profondément réactionnaire. Sous la plume de l''un des plus brillants romanciers anglais contemporains, lauréat du Booker Prize, Nos soirées est une peinture remarquable de l''Angleterre, des années 1960 au Brexit. Une histoire de classe et de racisme, d''art et de sexualité, d''amour et de violence.

Dave Win is dertien jaar als hij voor het eerst uit logeren gaat bij de Hadlows, die zijn beurs voor de lokale kostschool financieren waar hij met hun zoon Giles in de klas zit. Voor Dave betekent dit een wereld aan onstuimige nieuwe mogelijkheden, maar die stelt hem ook bloot aan Giles'' jaloezie en gewelddadige gedrag. Onze avonden omspant een halve eeuw en laat zien hoe de jongens ieder hun eigen weg gaan - Dave wordt een getalenteerde acteur die worstelt met conventies en discriminatie, Giles een steeds machtiger en gevaarlijker politicus. Onze avonden is Dave Wins eigen vertelling van zijn leven als schooljongen en student, zijn eerste liefdes, in Londen en op tournee met een experimentele theatergroep, en een liefde op latere leeftijd, die hem zowel een nieuw gevoel van geluk als van kwetsbare veiligheid geeft. Duister en stralend, schrijnend en duivels grappig: de nieuwe roman van Alan Hollinghurst schetst een portret van het moderne Engeland door de lens van de scherpzinnig geobserveerde en vaak verontrustende ervaringen van één man. Het is een verhaal over ras en klasse, theater en seksualiteit, liefde en geweld, van een van de grootste schrijvers van onze tijd. Alan Hollinghurst (1954) is de auteur van zeven romans, waaronder De zwembadbibliotheek (winnaar Somerset Maugham Award), De schoonheidslijn (winnaar Booker Prize), Kind van een vreemde (longlist Booker Prize) en De Sparsholt-affaire. Hij woont in Londen. ''Onze avonden is een ronduit verbazingwekkende roman, zowel subtiel als meedogenloos, en gedurfd in de wijze waarop kwesties als ras, klassenverschil, seksualiteit en sociale afkomst worden beschreven tegen de chique achtergrond van Londen en de omringende graafschappen. Het is het verhaal van een land dat drastische veranderingen doormaakt, zonder dat de inwoners zich daarvan bewust zijn. De roman beweegt zich zo mooi en gracieus door de tijd dat ik aan het einde een diep gevoel van verlies ervoer.'' Tash Aw

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker • The Winnipeg Free Press • The Guardian • TIME • The Irish Times • Kirkus Reviews • Publishers Weekly • Slate • A New York Times Notable Book of 2024 • From the internationally acclaimed winner of the Booker Prize, a piercing novel that envisions modern England through the lens of one man’s acutely observed and often unnerving experience, as he struggles with class and race, art and sexuality, love and violence. "The finest novel yet from one of the great writers of our time." —The Guardian Did I have a grievance? Most of us, without looking far, could find something that had harmed us, and oppressed us, and unfairly held us back. I tried not to dwell on it, thought it healthier not to, though I’d lived my short life so far in a chaos of privilege and prejudice. Dave Win, the son of a British dressmaker and a Burmese man he’s never met, is thirteen years old when he gets a scholarship to a top boarding school. With the doors of elite English society cracked open for him, heady new possibilities lie before Dave, even as he is exposed to the envy and viciousness of his wealthy classmates, above all that of Giles Hadlow, whose worldly parents sponsored the scholarship and who find in Dave someone they can more easily nurture than their brutish son. Our Evenings follows Dave from the 1960s on—through the possibilities that remained open for him, and others that proved to be illusory: as a working-class brown child in a decidedly white institution; a young man discovering queer culture and experiencing his first, formative love affairs; a talented but often overlooked actor, on the road with an experimental theater company; and an older Londoner whose late-in-life marriage fills his days with an unexpected sense of happiness and security. Moving in and out of Dave’s orbit are the Hadlows. Estranged from his parents, who remain close to Dave, Giles directs his privilege into a career as a powerful right-wing politician, whose reactionary vision for England pokes perilous holes in Dave’s stability. And as the novel accelerates towards the present day, the two men’s lives and values will finally collide in a cruel shock of violence. This is “one of our most gifted writers” (The Boston Globe) sweeping readers from our past to our present through the beauty, pain, and joy of one deeply observed life.

Mit Anfang dreißig entflieht der verhinderte Schriftsteller Edward Manners der Orientierungslosigkeit seines Daseins in der südostenglischen Provinz, um im belgischen Brügge als Privatlehrer zu arbeiten. Bereitwillig lässt er sich vom modrigen Charme der altehrwürdigen Handelsstadt in den Bann ziehen, erkundet ihre engen Gassen, zwielichtigen Kneipen und versteckten Parks, in denen schwule Männer sich zum Sex treffen. Nebenbei findet er Gefallen an den Gemälden des belgischen Symbolisten Edgard Orst. Und er verliebt sich in seinen Schüler Luc. Seine rückhaltlose Bewunde- rung nimmt bald schon obsessive Züge an. Als Edwards Gefühlsleben endgültig zum Abbild der hysterischen Entrücktheit der Orst-Gemälde zu werden droht, erzwingt ein Todesfall seine Rückkehr nach England. Alan Hollinghursts zweiter Roman "The Folding Star" erhielt beim Erscheinen der englischen Erstausgabe 1994 durchgängig euphorische Kritiken und die Jury des Booker Prize setzte das »hintersinnige Märchen über Besessenheit, Geheimnis, Begierde und Verlust« prompt auf die Shortlist. Joachim Bartholomae hat den Text, den "The Sunday Times" als wunderschön geschrieben" und "pervers romantisch" pries, mit viel Gespür für Hollinghursts intellektuellen Humor nun erstmals ins Deutsche übertragen. Das Ergebnis ist nicht zuletzt ein Beweis für die Zeitlosigkeit des Romans. Der Hirtenstern ist wie die Gemälde des Symbolisten, denen Edward verfällt: mysteriös, morbide, surreal und sexy.

Londres, 1983. Aos 25 anos, William Beckwith é exuberantemente gay e escandalosamente sedutor. Durante um engate numa casa de banho pública, o jovem salva a vida de um homem mais velho. Este revela ser Charles, Lord Nantwich, igualmente gay e suficientemente colunável para aparecer nos diários de Evelyn Waugh.Quando voltam a encontrar-se, Charles pede ao jovem para escrever a sua biografia e entrega-lhe os diários em que confiou o melhor e o pior da sua multifacetada e emocionante vida. É com relutância que William aceita lê-los. Mas o que vai descobrir abala a sua pose altiva, pois Charles é uma figura extraordinária e emblemática da elite homossexual inglesa. Juntas, as histórias dos dois homens compõem um retrato meticuloso e irónico da vida e da cultura gay inglesas.A Biblioteca da Piscina é uma agridoce crónica de costumes, onde o passado e o presente exibem os seus objectos de desejo, os seus códigos mais ou menos secretos, usos e práticas sexuais e amorosas.

Copiii voştri se luptă din greu să înveţe? Vă este dificil să îi ajutaţi să se descurce mai bine? Ajută-ţi copilul să înveţe este răspunsul pe care îl caută fiecare părinte frustrat. Abordarea sa vizuală inovativă combină diagrame şi ilustraţii pline de culoare cu instrucţiuni pas cu pas, făcând studiatul mai uşor de înţeles decât a fost vreodată. Acoperind toate subiectele, de la organizare, la programe, de la stiluri de învăţare, la motivare, tehnici de recapitulare, examene şi modalităţi de combatere a anxietăţii, acest ghid unic le permite părinţilor şi copiilor să lucreze împreună pentru a înţelege chiar şi cele mai dificile concepte. Ajută-ţi copilul să înveţe este garanţia că veţi avea mai multă încredere în voi, că veţi combate stresul şi că va face şi cele mai dificile aspecte ale studiatului să fie clare, simple şi accesibile.

Em outubro de 1940, o jovem David Sparsholt chega a Oxford. Elegante, atlético e carismático, parece não ter noção do efeito que provoca nos outros, particularmente em Evert Dax, filho solitário de um escritor célebre. Enquanto Londres é devastada pelo Blitz, Oxford como que paira numa névoa de alheamento e incerteza, e as noites de blackout parecem encorajar e encobrir encontros que, em tempos normais, seriam impossíveis. Ao longo deste período conturbado, David e Evert forjam uma amizade improvável que vai uni-los ao longo de décadas. Retrato magistral de um grupo de amigos unidos durante três gerações pela arte, pela literatura e pelo amor, O Caso Sparsholt explora anos cruciais do século XX, cujas consequências se estendem aos dias de hoje. Uma obra-prima pela mão de um dos mais brilhantes escritores de língua inglesa da atualidade.

In 1940, the handsome, athletic, and charismatic David Sparsholt arrives at Oxford University to study engineering, unaware of his effect on others—especially on Evert Dax, the lonely son of a celebrated novelist who is destined to become a writer himself. Spanning three generations, The Sparsholt Affair plumbs the ways the friendship between these two men will influence their lives—and the lives of others’—for decades to come. Richly observed and emotionally charged, this is a dazzling novel of fathers and sons, of family and legacy, and of the longing for permanence amid life’s inevitable transience.

Aan het begin van de Tweede Wereldoorlog raakt in Oxford een groepje voornamelijk homoseksuele twintigers in de ban van de onweerstaanbare erotiek van een kennelijk heteroseksuele, 18-jarige sportman, David Sparsholt.

Nick Guest, fils d’un petit antiquaire de province et brillant boursier d’Oxford, s’installe à Londres pour mener à bien sa thèse de littérature. Il loue une chambre dans l’hôtel particulier des parents de son ami Toby Fedden, et entre dans l’intimité de la famille : Gerald, le père, un ambitieux député tory, Rachel, la mère, sœur d’un baron fortuné, et Catherine, leur fille maniaco-dépressive. Nick devient le spectateur fasciné d’une société où les héritiers des grandes familles, les ladies désœuvrées et les conservateurs règnent en maîtres. La Ligne de beauté est une fresque flamboyante du Londres des années Thatcher, quand ascension sociale rimait avec hédonisme et égoïsme. Ce roman a obtenu en 2004 le Man Booker Prize, le prix littéraire le plus prestigieux du Royaume-Uni.

Véritable bombe littéraire qui suscita les passions lors de sa parution en Angleterre, La Piscine-bibliothèque est le premier roman d''Alan Hollinghurst. Lauréat du Man Booker Prize pour La Ligne de beauté et prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger pour L''Enfant de l''étranger, il est depuis considéré comme l''un des plus grands romanciers anglais contemporains. Introuvable en France depuis plus de dix ans, cette oeuvre majeure reparaît dans une nouvelle et magistrale traduction, établie en collaboration avec l''auteur. Elle nous plonge dans l''atmosphère débridée du Londres des années 80, avant que le sida ne décime la communauté homosexuelle. Au bord de la piscine du Corinthian, lieu de drague et de sexe, un jeune dandy extraverti rencontre un homme plus âgé, puissant et conservateur, qui lui demande décrire sa biographie... « Certainement le meilleur roman jamais écrit par un auteur anglais sur l''homosexualité. » Edmund White, Sunday Times « Le premier roman en Angleterre à avoir abordé l''homosexualité dans un contexte moderne... Un roman historique et précurseur. » The Guardian

The critical event in Berenice, the death of Titus''s father, the Emperor Vespasian, happens a week before the play opens. Thereafter Titus knows that his separation from Berenice is inevitable. The breaking off of a great love affair involves too the hopes of Antiochus, himself long in love with Berenice. The play pushes all three of its principals to the brink, not of revenge but of self-murder, before in her sublime last speech Berenice redeems and directs them all in an act of collective abnegation.Many tears are shed, but not a drop of blood. The effect is unconventional, and profound: the pained acceptance of the irreconcilable in human affairs, and the surrender, by each of the main characters, of the person they most love. Bajazet is Racine''s most violent drama; it ends, like Phèdre, with a female character''s on-stage suicide, here the culmination of a vividly described sequence of off-stage murders. The setting, in a claustrophobic space within the harem at Constantinople, menaced from both without and within, seems to license a violence of emotion as well as of deed.Violent too are the repeated reversals of fortune, and the terrifying acceleration of the play towards its inexorable catastrophe. Alan Hollinghurst''s translation of Berenice premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in October 2012 and Bajazet, at the Almeida Theatre, London, in November 1990.

Tutto ha inizio nel 1913 nel giardino di una casa nella campagna inglese, quando il timido George Sawle torna da Cambridge insieme a un compagno di studi: l''aristocratico, magnetico, capriccioso poeta Cecil Valance. Si fermano solo tre giorni alla tenuta "Due Acri", ma quel poco tempo è destinato a cambiare la loro vita.

Embraced by the family of his Cambridge schoolmate, Cecil Valance writes an inspiring poem in an autograph album that becomes a staple of every English classroom after he is killed during World War I.

The 1995 Booker Prize finalist. Alan Hollinghurst''s hypnotic and exquisitely written novel tells the story of Edward Manners, a disaffected 33-year-old who leaves England to earn his living as a language tutor in a Flemish city. Almost immediately he falls in love with one of his pupils, but can only console himself with other, illicit affairs. With this novel, Hollinghurst exposes us fearlessly to the consequences of unfulfillable, annihilating desire.

The National Bestseller, Winner of the 2004 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist.

Een jonge homoseksuele aristocraat schrijft de memoires van een 83-jarige homoseksuele lord met wie hij bevriend was geraakt.

Moving into the attic room in the Notting Hill home of the wealthy, politically connected Fedden family in 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest becomes caught up in the rising fortunes of this glamorous family and finds his own life forever altered by his association during the boom years of the 1980s. By the author of The Swimming-Pool Library. 30,000 first printing.

Alan Hollinghurst''s first novel is a tour de force: a darkly erotic work that centres on the friendship of William Beckwith, a young gay aristocrat who leads a life of privilege and promiscuity, and the elderly Lord Nantwich, who is searching for someone to write his biography.

"The "spell" of the title is both the power of drugs, at the heart of the book, and the "sex-magic" that variously possesses - but then deserts - each of its main characters." -- The Guardian Discover this ‘sparkling celebration of sexual intrigue’ (Telegraph, London) from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Line of Beauty and Our Evenings. The Spell is a comedy of sexual manners that follows the interlocking affairs of four men: Robin, an architect in his late forties, who is trying to build an idyllic life in Dorset with his younger lover, Justin; Robin''s 22 year old son Danny, a volatile beauty who lives for clubbing and casual sex; and the shy Alex, who is Justin''s ex-boyfriend. As each in turn falls under the spell of romance or drugs, country living or rough trade, a richly ironic picture emerges of the clashing imperatives of modern gay life. At once lyrical, sceptical and romantic, The Spell confirms Alan Hollinghurst as one of Britain''s most important novelists.