New Releases by Bernard Malamud

William Dubin, 56 ans, biographe de profession, s’attaque à la vie de D.H. Lawrence. Au même moment, surgit dans sa vie la jeune Fanny, avec qui il entame une relation. A l’heure où son corps subit les assauts de l’âge, celui qui puisait dans l’existence des autres le moyen d’amplifier la sienne a soif d’expériences réelles. D.H. Lawrence n’y est sûrement pas pour rien... Dans ce roman aigre-doux, en parfait équilibre entre comédie et drame intime, Bernard Malamud explore les rouages du désir avec une densité psychologique qui fera l’admiration des plus grands - Philip Roth, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss et d’autres... «Certainement le meilleur roman de Malamud depuis ''Le Commis''. Peut-être même le meilleur de toute son oeuvre», The New York Times

The late novels and stories of America’s greatest myth-maker and chronicler of the Jewish American experience “Is Malamud an American Master? Of course. He not only wrote in the American language, he augmented it with fresh plasticity, he shaped our English into startling new configurations.” —Cynthia Ozick “[A] short-story writer who is better than any of them, including myself.” —Flannery O’Connor The long-awaited third and final volume of Library of America’s edition of Bernard Malamud’s writings brings together three novels and thirteen stories of the 1970s and 80s that reaffirm his place in the American pantheon. The Tenants (1971) chronicles the growing tensions between two male writers—one Jewish, the other Black—who are the only inhabitants of a crumbling Manhattan tenement house. Dubin’s Lives (1976) is a fascinating portrait of a middle-aged biographer who becomes involved with a woman half his age while researching a life of D.H. Lawrence—an affair that unsettles things in expected and unexpected ways. God’s Grace (1982) is a wildly inventive, darkly humorous postapocalyptic novel whose cast includes the lone human survivor of the Day of Devastation, a group of talking chimps, and other (speechless) primates—who try to establish a New Covenant with God. The stories in this volume confirm Malamud as a master storyteller, from the Kafkaesque unbridled fantasy of “Talking Horse” to the final “fictive biographies” of “In Kew Gardens,” about Virginia Woolf, and “Alma Redeemed,” about the Austrian composer Alma Mahler. Rounding out the volume are “Long Work, Short Life,” Malamud’s hard-to-find “casual memoir” about his writing life, and the previously unpublished “A Lost Bar-Mitzvah,” a poignant sketch of Malamud’s own childhood. This deluxe edition includes a chronology of Malamud''s life and career and detailed notes by Malamud biographer Philip Davis.

Après le succès du Tonneau magique et de toute l''entreprise de réédition de Bernard Malamud depuis 2015, Rivages continue d''affirmer haut et fort le génie de Bern avec un second recueil de nouvelles au titre parfait : Les Idiots d''abord. On y retrouve cette atmosphère qui n''appartient qu''à lui, entre fable et réalisme social, ce talent pour sublimer les héros très discrets et leurs vies minuscules. Avec une pointe d''humour mélancolique qui illumine chaque page.

Finkle, Sobel, Rosen, Feld... Ils sont cordonnier, tailleur, étudiant. Tous sont immigrés ou enfants d''immigrés, aspirant à un destin qui réparerait les souffrances vécues en Europe et laisserait enfin place à la lumière. Bernard Malamud donne à ces vies minuscules une dimension mythique. Tendres, parfois cruels, mais toujours profondément émouvants, ces treize contes prouvent son incroyable puissance pour sonder l''âme humaine. Tels Les Dublinois de James Joyce, les gens de New York qui peuplent Le Tonneau magique ont marqué de leur empreinte la littérature. Considéré par Philip Roth comme un chef-d''oeuvre fondateur, ce recueil est un classique en Amérique, couronné en 1959 par le National Book Award.

Der Held in Bernard Malamuds Roman ist der letzte Bewohner eines abbruchreifen New Yorker Mietshauses. Dem jüdischen Schriftsteller Harry Lesser sitzt die Zeit im Nacken – und Levenspiel, sein Hauswirt. Lesser schreibt seit Jahren an einem neuen Buch und quält sich seit Monaten mit dem Ende ab. Hartnäckig weigert er sich auszuziehen, und man kann ihn nicht hinauswerfen, weil er unter Mieterschutz steht. Levenspiel, der das alte Haus niederreißen und ein neues bauen will, das mehr Einnahmen verspricht, drängt, beschwört, droht jeden Tag, bietet Geld an als Abfindung. Vergeblich. Lesser läßt sich nicht erweichen. Kein Umzug soll ihn dabei stören, sein Werk zu beenden. Doch etwas anderes dringt störend, ablenkend und beunruhigend in sein monotones Leben ein. Es beginnt mit dem Klappern einer Schreibmaschine, einer fremden Schreibmaschine, irgendwo im Haus.

Bernard Malamud erzählt in diesem Roman die Geschichte eines Mannes, der einem verfehlten Leben in seiner Heimatstadt New York entrinnen will und sich als Dozent für Englisch an einem College in einer Kleinstadt im Westen bewirbt. Seymour Levin erhält die Stelle. Er durchquert den amerikanischen Kontinent und zieht mit hochgespannten Erwartungen dem neuen Leben entgegen. Aber in dem einen Jahr, das er am Cascadia-College verbringt, entdeckt er, daß diese Welt, gemessen an seinen moralischen Einsichten, für die er leben will, anfechtbar und unvollkommen ist und daß auch er selbst anfällig ist und sich abermals in Schuld und Irrtum verstricken kann.

Accanto ai suoi romanzi maggiori, Bernard Malamud ha sperimentato con successo la misura del racconto, in cui ha inscenato delle variazioni dei temi che gli sono cari: la fatica, la solitudine, la sconfitta, ma anche un''appassionata speranza di riscatto e di fede, accompagnata da una carica decantatrice di ironia e di humour. Ad esempio in «La corona d''argento» un insegnante che cerca di strappare il padre a una morte inevitabile si imbatte in un rabbino che gli offre come talismano una corona: tutto si vanifica attorno alla sua realtà fisica ed economica. E poi ancora un pittore che vuol diventare grande come Rembrandt e del maestro comincia a portare i cappelli; una giovane casalinga di periferia che sogna una vita da romanzo; un vedovo che insegue il desiderio di un giovane amore; un cavallo da circo che ragiona come un uomo; un ebreo russo che vuole affidare a tutti i costi i suoi racconti a uno sconosciuto affinché li porti all''estero... In ognuno dei racconti di Malamud c''è sempre i tentativo di dare concretezza a un desiderio impossibile: collocare la fantasia al di qua del regno del superfluo, per viverla come una delle dimensioni fondamentali dell''esistenza.

Een nieuw deel in de Meulenhoff Schatkamer, gekozen door Arjan Peters De fikser werd bekroond met de National Book Award en de Pulitzer Prize De Joodse Jakov Bok verlaat zijn geboortedorp om in Kiev werk te zoeken. Hij is de ''fikser'' van kleine karweitjes, met weinig kans om verder te komen in de wereld. Na zijn aankomst wordt in Kiev een Russisch jongetje om het leven gebracht, en via pamfletten beschuldigt de geheimzinnige organisatie ''Zwarte Honderd'' de Joden van de rituele moord. Jakow Bok wordt gearresteerd en brengt in afwachting van zijn proces twee jaar in de gevangenis door, waar hij wordt vernederd en mishandeld . Maar hij geeft niet toe en houdt zijn onschuld hardnekkig vol. Zijn triomf over de haast ongelooflijke wreedheid maakt hem tot moraalridder. In deze immer actuele roman toont de literaire gigant Malamud de vastbeslotenheid en de wil om te overleven, ondanks de bedreiging met vernietiging. De pers over De fikser ''Bernard Malamud is van de belangrijkste Amerikaanse romanciers de meest geacheveerde. Zijn zinnen en alinea''s zijn gaaf en kunstig als geblazen glas.'' Vrij Nederland ''Na het lezen van zijn verzamelde verhalen of De fikser moet je wel concluderen dat Malamud niets ondermaats heeft gepubliceerd.'' Pieter Steinz, Lezen etcetera. Gids voor de wereldliteratuur ''Wat kun je nog meer van een schrijver verwachten dan een aantal schitterende boeken, een aantal verhalen die waarschijnlijk gelezen zullen worden zolang er nog lezers bestaan?'' Henk Romijn Meijer

Riproposto finalmente oggi, a trentanni dalla sua prima pubblicazione nel 1979, questo romanzo è considerato uno dei migliori usciti dalla penna di Bernard Malamud. È la storia di William Dubin, biografo di mezza età, che vive una vita tranquilla insieme alla moglie in un piccolo centro di campagna dello stato di New York, studiando e raccontando le vite altrui nel tentativo, forse, di capire meglio la propria. Durante la stesura di una monografìa sullo «scandaloso» D.H. Lawrence, però, il suo mondo viene scosso dall''incontro con Fanny, una sua ammiratrice di trent''anni più giovane, vivace e disinibita. I due cominciano un''improbabile relazione adulterina che si snoderà, fra alti e bassi e in maniera spesso surreale, quasi sotto gli occhi della legittima moglie di Dubin, una donna al tempo stesso fragile e incrollabile. Dal corto circuito fra queste tre personalità Malamud, maestro dell''ironia e dell''affabulazione, crea una gustosissima commedia psicologica sulla natura enigmatica e contraddittoria delle nostre esistenze.

A novel for secondary school English classes with great writing and important themes.

La segunda novela de Bernard Malamud, originalmente publicada en 1957, narra la historia de Morris Bober, un tendero en el Brooklyn de la posguerra, que quiere lo mejor para él y para su familia. Su mujer, Ida, le ayuda en la tienda de ultramarinos y está todo el día pendiente de él. Helena, una belleza de veinticuatro años hija del matrimonio, ha sacrificado su formación para ayudar económicamente a sus padres. Por las noches lee a Tolstoï y Dostoievski y aspira a estudiar literatura. Viven en un mundo letárgico dominado por el ritmo del paso del tiempo, hasta que dos ladrones atracan la tienda y retienen a Morris. Las cosas mejorarán poco a poco cuando Frank Alpine, inmigrante italiano, se convierte en su ayudante. No obstante, la situación volverá a complicarse cuando Frank, cuya actitud ante los judíos es algo ambivalente, se enamora de Helena al mismo tiempo que empieza a robar de la tienda.Esta novela evoca de manera precisa el mundo de la inmigración, lleno de circunstancias complejas y grandes expectativas. Malamud definió la experiencia del inmigrante de tal modo que ha resultado vital para las siguientes generaciones de escritores.

God's Grace (1982), Bernard Malamud's last novel, is a modern-day dystopian fantasy, set in a time after a thermonuclear war prompts a second flood -- a radical departure from Malamud's previous fiction. The novel's protagonist is paleolosist Calvin Cohn, who had been attending to his work at the bottom of the ocean when the Devastation struck, and who alone survived. This rabbi's son -- a "marginal error" -- finds himself shipwrecked with an experimental chimpanzee capable of speech, to whom he gives the name Buz. Soon other creatures appear on their island-baboons, chimps, five apes, and a lone gorilla. Cohn works hard to make it possible for God to love His creation again, and his hopes increase as he encounters the unknown and the unforeseen in this strange new world. With God's Grace, Malamud took a great risk, and it paid off. The novel's fresh and pervasive humor, narrative ingenuity, and tragic sense of the human condition make it one of Malamud's most extraordinary books. "Is he an American Master? Of course. He not only wrote in the American language, he augmented it with fresh plasticity, he shaped our English into startling new configurations." --Cynthia Ozick

In his later middle age, prize-winning biographer William Dubin's obsession for biography is supplanted by the obsession of love for a woman half is age, who has sought an understanding of her life through his books.

With a new introduction by Aleksandar Hemon In The Tenants (1971), Bernard Malamud brought his unerring sense of modern urban life to bear on the conflict between blacks and Jews then inflaming his native Brooklyn. The sole tenant in a rundown tenement, Henry Lesser is struggling to finish a novel, but his solitary pursuit of the sublime grows complicated when Willie Spearmint, a black writer ambivalent toward Jews, moves into the building. Henry and Willie are artistic rivals and unwilling neighbors, and their uneasy peace is disturbed by the presence of Willie's white girlfriend Irene and the landlord Levenspiel's attempts to evict both men and demolish the building. This novel's conflict, current then, is perennial now; it reveals the slippery nature of the human condition, and the human capacity for violence and undoing.

Frank, a troubled, somewhat desperate, Italian American, works long hours in the grocery store of a struggling Jewish family in a Brooklyn neighborhood where he develops a secret passion for his employer's attractive daughter.

A collection of thirteen short fiction stories, set in New York and Italy, by twentieth-century American author Bernard Malamud.

Un Robinson Crusoé juif qui se prend pour l''ancêtre d''une race nouvelle, un Vendredi chimpanzé qui veut inverser le sacrifice d''Isaac, une Marie-Madeleine qui zozote et fait un enfant à son professeur par amour pour Shakespeare, un gorille, Georges, qui entonne le kaddish lorsque racisme, rêves fous, méditation sur Dieu, la mort et les bananes, tout retourne à la poussière sauf le Verbe, tels sont, entre autres, les personnages délirants mais toujours tendrement humains que Bernard Malamud a convoqués dans une île pour nous conter les mésaventures de la dialectique au royaume de l''après-nucléaire. L''avenir de l''humanité, pour peu qu''on soit sérieux, mérite bien qu''on sache en rire. Traduction de l''américain par Robert Pépin.

Bernard Malamud, author of such acclaimed novels as The Fixer and The Natural and winner of two National Book Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, is widely recognized as one of the most important and enduring of American writers. Yet because he was intensely private about the way he worked, few readers are aware of his extraordinarily prolific expression of his commitment to the writing process. Including a wealth of never-before-published material, Talking Horse is designed to provide writers with insights into the way a master thought about and practiced his craft. This unique collection includes speeches, interviews, lesson plans, essays, and a series of previously unpublished notes on the nature of fiction, all of which offer an unparalleled look at the writing life. Each section of the book includes a headnote by Nicholas Delbanco or Alan Cheuse.

A collection of twelve stories which defend the human condition from a variety of cultural and social perspectives

Compassionate and profound in their wry humor, this collection of stories captures the poetry of human relationships at the point where reality and imagination meet.

When Rembrandt the bear loses his special lucky hat, he finds that neither a bird nor a clown hat can replace it.