Best Selling Books by Denis Johnson

Jesus'' Son, the first collection of stories by Denis Johnson, presents a unique, hallucinatory vision of contemporary American life unmatched in power and immediacy, and marks a new level of achievement for this acclaimed writer. Set in the Midwest and West, they are narrated by a young man, an alcoholic and heroin addict, whose dependencies have led him to petty crime, cruelty, betrayal, and various kinds of loss. Many of them are centered around the Vine, a bar in an Iowa town where the narrator meets his friends and forms alliances "based on something erroneous, some basic misunderstanding that hadn''t yet come to light". In "Work", he and another man vandalize an empty house, stripping it of electrical wire to sell for scrap; "Dirty Wedding" evokes the emotional scars of an abortion from an unusual viewpoint; in "Beverly Home", our hero finds himself spying on a Mennonite couple through their bedroom window. In their intensity of perception, their neon-lit evocation of a strange world brought uncomfortably close, the stories in Jesus'' Son offer a disturbing yet eerily beautiful portrayal of American loneliness and hope.

Angels puts Jamie Mays--a runaway wife toting along two kids--and Bill Houston--ex-Navy man, ex-husband, ex-con--on a Greyhound bus for a dark, wild ride cross country. Driven by restless souls, bad booze, and desperate needs, Jamie and Bill bounce from bus stations to cheap hotels as they ply the strange, fascinating, and dangerous fringe of American life. Their tickets may say Phoenix, but their inescapable destination is a last stop marked by stunning violence and mind-shattering surprise. Denis Johnson, known for his portraits of America''s dispossessed, sets off literary pyrotechnics on this highway odyssey, lighting the trek with wit and a personal metaphysics that defiantly takes on the world.--Amazon.com.

A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 One of The Economist''s 2011 Books of the Year One of NPR''s 10 Best Novels of 2011 From the National Book Award-winning author Denis Johnson (Tree of Smoke) comes Train Dreams, an epic in miniature, and one of Johnson''s most evocative works of fiction. Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West—its otherworldly flora and fauna, its rugged loggers and bridge builders—this extraordinary novella poignantly captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life. It tells the story of Robert Grainer, a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century—an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime.

Twenty-five years after Jesus’ Son, a haunting new collection of short stories on mortality and transcendence, from National Book Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Denis Johnson NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Dwight Garner, The New York Times • Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air • Chicago Tribune • Newsday • New York • AV Club • Publishers Weekly “Ranks with the best fiction published by any American writer during this short century.”—New York “A posthumous masterpiece.”—Entertainment Weekly NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • NPR • The Boston Globe • New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • Bloomberg The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson. Written in the luminous prose that made him one of the most beloved and important writers of his generation, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating the ghosts of the past and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves. Finished shortly before Johnson’s death, this collection is the last word from a writer whose work will live on for many years to come. Praise for The Largesse of the Sea Maiden “An instant classic.”—Newsday “Exceptional luminosity . . . hits a powerful vein.”—The New York Times Book Review “Grace and oblivion are inextricably yoked in these transcendent stories. . . . [Johnson’s] gift is to extract the beauty in all that brokenness.”—The Wall Street Journal “Nobody ever wrote like Denis Johnson. Nobody ever came close. . . . We’re just left with this miraculous book, these perfect stories, the last words from one of the world’s greatest writers.”—NPR

A literary thriller and love story set during the Nicaraguan revolution, from the National Book Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. • Now the basis for a major motion picture Set in Nicaragua in 1984, The Stars at Noon is a story of passion, fear, and betrayal told in the voice of an American woman whose mission in Central America is as shadowy as her surroundings. Is she a reporter for an American magazine, as she sometimes claims, or a contact person for the anti-war group Eyes of Peace? And who is the rough English businessman she begins an affair with? The two foreigners become entangled in sinister plots and ever-widening webs of corruption, until a desperate attempt to escape the country brings their relationship to a crisis point. With his customary narrative brilliance, award-winning writer Denis Johnson brings a hellish landscape of moral ambiguity vividly to life.

Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That’s me. This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature. Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson’s first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date. Tree of Smoke is the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.

Hailed by the New York Times as "wildly ambitious" and "the sort of book that a young Herman Melville might have written had he lived today and studied such disparate works as the Bible, ''The Wasteland,'' Fahrenheit 451, and Dog Soldiers, screened Star Wars and Apocalypse Now several times, dropped a lot of acid and listened to hours of Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones," Fiskadoro is a stunning novel of an all-too-possible tomorrow. Deeply moving and provacative, Fiskadoro brilliantly presents the sweeping and heartbreaking tale of the survivors of a devastating nuclear war and their attempts to breaking tale of the survivors of a devastating nuclear war and their attempts to salvage remnants of the old world and rebuild their culture.

The acclaimed author of Jesus'' Son and Already Dead returns with a beautiful, haunting, and darkly comic novel. The Name of the World is a mesmerizing portrait of a professor at a Midwestern university who has been patient in his grief after an accident takes the lives of his wife and child and has permitted that grief to enlarge him. Michael Reed is living a posthumous life. In spite of outward appearances -- he holds a respectable university teaching position; he is an articulate and attractive addition to local social life -- he''s a dead man walking. Nothing can touch Reed, nothing can move him, although he observes with a mordant clarity the lives whirling vigorously around him. Of his recent bereavement, nearly four years earlier, he observes, "I''m speaking as I''d speak of a change in the earth''s climate, or the recent war." Facing the unwelcome end of his temporary stint at the university, Reed finds himself forced "to act like somebody who cares what happens to him. " Tentatively he begins to let himself make contact with a host of characters in this small academic town, souls who seem to have in common a tentativeness of their own. In this atmosphere characterized, as he says, "by cynicism, occasional brilliance, and small, polite terror," he manages, against all his expectations, to find people to light his way through his private labyrinth. Elegant and incisively observed, The Name of the World is Johnson at his best: poignant yet unsentimental, replete with the visionary imaginative detail for which his work is known. Here is a tour de force by one of the most astonishing writers at work today.

A contemporary noir, Already Dead is the tangled story of Nelson Fairchild Jr., disenfranchised scion to a northern California land fortune. A relentless failure, Nelson has botched nearly every scheme he''s attempted to pull off. Now his future lies in a potentially profitable marijuana patch hidden in the lush old-growth redwoods on the family land. Nelson has some serious problems. His marriage has fallen apart, and he may lose his land, cash and crop in the divorce. What''s more, in need of some quick cash, he had foolishly agreed to smuggle $90,000 worth of cocaine through customs for Harry Lally, a major player in a drug syndicate. Chickening out just before bringing the drugs through, he flushed the powder. Now Lally wants him dead, and two goons are hot on his trail. Desperate, terrified and alone, for Nelson, there may be only one way out. This is Denis Johnson''s biggest and most complex book to date, and it perfectly showcases his signature themes of fate, redemption and the unraveling of the fabric of today''s society. Already Dead, with its masterful narrative of overlapping and entwined stories, will further fuel the acclaim that surrounds one of today''s most fascinating writers.

Thematically ambitious and written with virtuoso style, this book probes the mysteries of faith, hope, and love in a work of stirring resonance and great beauty--a memorable achievement.es hard-boiled theology and a redeeming wit--the perfect spiritual tonics for tough times".--Kirkus Reviews.

Two plays—hilarious and searing in equal measure—by one of our most essential and original authors In his poetry, short stories, novels, and plays, the National Book Award-winning author Denis Johnson has explored the story of America—especially of the West, land of self-made men and self-perpetuating myths—with searing honesty and genuine sympathy. These two plays, written in verse at once hypnotic and clear, confirm his position as one of our great verbal stylists and a literary conscience for our times. In Soul of a Whore, a lively cast of characters—faith healers, pimps, strippers, actual demons—converge, with unexpected hilarity, as Bess Cassandra awaits execution for the murder of her infant daughter. Purvis''s seven reverse-chronological scenes catalog the fall and rise of Melvin Purvis, the G-man who brought down John Dillinger and Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd. Johnson takes us from Washington''s back rooms to a Midwestern cornfield, dramatizing the seductive allure of power and our own human capacity for both pettiness and grace. In these furiously entertaining, occasionally terrifying works, Johnson chronicles and questions America''s myths, heroes, and everyday realities with verve and elegance, revealing himself once again to be at the height of his linguistic and insightful powers.

In Bakersfield, California, an assortment of unscrupulous characters engages in a cat-and-mouse game over a multimillion-dollar claim.

"Perfection is not the basis of what I''m talking about," says a member of the Cassandra family, which forms the center of Denis Johnson''s plays, Hellhound on My Trail and Shoppers Carried by Escalators Into the Flames. The character could be speaking for his creator, because human imperfection is one of Denis Johnson''s specialties -- in his critically acclaimed novels, short stories, and nonfiction, and, now, in two brilliant new plays. These two works present a dramatized field guide to some of the more dysfunctional and dysphoric inhabitants of the American West: a sexual-misconduct investigator who misconducts herself sexually; a renegade Jehovah''s Witness who supports his splinter Jehovean group by dealing drugs; the Cassandra Brothers and their father and their grandmother, thrown together at a family reunion/wedding/melee at their shabby homestead in Ukiah, California. When Shoppers Carried by Escalators Into the Flames was performed in San Francisco in 2001, the Chronicle said, "There''s an enormous appeal in Johnson''s bleak-comic vision of a semi-mythic American West." That appeal derives from the author''s perfect vision of imperfection, embodied with such energy and courage in these marvelous pieces of theatre.

"A literary spy thriller set in Africa, where an intelligence agent is caught up in a get rich quick scheme"--

“Johnson writes with a fervor that can only be described as religious. Seek is scary and beautiful and ecstatic and uncontrolled…he elevates the mundane to the sublime; he boils things down to their essence. He’s simply one of the few writers around whose sentences make you shudder.” —Adrienne Miller, Esquire Part political disquisition, part travel journal, part self-exploration, Seek is a collection of essays and articles in which Denis Johnson essentially takes on the world. And not an obliging, easygoing world either; but rather one in which horror and beauty exist in such proximity that they might well be interchangeable. Where violence and poverty and moral transgression go unchecked, even unnoticed. A world of such wild, rocketing energy that, grasping it, anything at all is possible. Whether traveling through war-ravaged Liberia, mingling with the crowds at a Christian Biker rally, exploring his own authority issues through the lens of this nation''s militia groups, or attempting to unearth his inner resources while mining for gold in the wilds of Alaska, Johnson writes with a mixture of humility and humorous candor that is everywhere present. With the breathtaking and often haunting lyricism for which his work is renowned, Johnson considers in these pieces our need for transcendence. And, as readers of his previous work know, Johnson''s path to consecration frequently requires a limning of the darkest abyss. If the path to knowledge lies in experience, Seek is a fascinating record of Johnson''s profoundly moving pilgrimage.

From the award-winning poet and novelist—a must-have collection of his four previous books of poetry plus a selection of new, unpublished work.

Sexy, vol spanning en geweld, en bovenal buitengewoon vermakelijk - Denis Johnson betoont zich met zijn nieuwe roman van zijn meest veelzijdige en toegankelijke kant. Met echo''s van Raymond Chandler en Dashiell Hammett, en een vette knipoog naar Bonnie and Clyde, is Sta stil zowel een hommage aan als een parodie op een literair genre. Het boek is een ode aan de misdaadroman - een van de populairste romanvormen- en bevat een flinke dosis morbide humor en erotiek die alleen Johnson eigen is. Sta stil is een verslavende thriller, gesitueerd in het westen van de Verenigde Staten, die verhaalt over een groepje randfiguren in Bakersfield, Californië, en hun kat-en-muisspel om een paar miljoen dollar.

To collectors of modern military uniforms, Vietnam era tigerstripe combat fatigues have always been a much sought after commodity. The pattern itself, in all of its classic forms, is both exotic and unique and carries with it an immediate, esthetic sense of the full drama of that not to distant Southeast Asian conflict. There exists however, surrounding this one camouflage pattern numerous misconceptions. Tiger Patterns analyzes to the most minute degree, the finite variances which defined the many original, Vietnam era tigerstripe patterns and uniform cuts and establishes dependable identification techniques and practices, whether your particular interests area as a historian, veteran, modeler, or collector and enthusiast. AUTHOR:

Una crónica visionaria de soñadores, adictos y almas perdidas. Un joven presiente que el coche que lo acaba de recoger va a sufrir un accidente; en otro relato se salva de una sobredosis, y más tarde ve morir a un amigo. En estos once relatos breves protagonizados por seres desorientados y marginados, Denis Johnson habla del dolor y la trascendencia, de tocar fondo y de salir a flote, de perderse y encontrarse. Crónica visionaria de soñadores, adictos y almas perdidas, la cruda belleza y la energía velada de la prosa de Denis Johnson han hecho que Hijo de Jesús merezca un lugar entre los clásicos del siglo xx de la literatura norteamericana. Reseñas: «Es, para quien no lo sepa, una obra de culto». José Ángel Barrueco «Una obra repleta de belleza y con una intensidad casi religiosa». Entertainment Weekly «El dios en el que quiero creer tiene una voz y un sentido del humor como el de Denis Johnson». Jonathan Franzen «Una prosa con una fuerza y un estilo asombrosos». Philip Roth «Denis Johnson es un escritor increíblemente talentoso, capaz de sintetizar las voces de la América más profunda». Newsday «Denis Johnson es un autor que ha capturado el espíritu de la experiencia americana tanto como Twain, Hemingway o Ellison». Andrew Hubner

Frei nach Lou Reeds "When I''m rushing on my run, and I feel like Jesus'' son" muss dieses Buch gelesen werden. Denis Johnsons Storysammlung "Jesus'' Son", 1992 in den USA erschienen, berichtet von Verwirrung, Leiden und Heilung eines jungen Drifters und hat den Autor zur Legende gemacht. Als eines der herausragendsten Bücher der jüngeren amerikanischen Literatur schuf es einen Ton, der in zuvor nie gehörter Weise Grauen und Komik, Schrecken und Zärtlichkeit einschließt. Zwischen Rausch und Religion - legendäre Erzählungen.

Sueños de trenes es una epopeya en miniatura, una de las obras más conmovedoras y evocativas en la ya larga carrera del escritor norteamericano Denis Johnson Robert Grainer es un jornalero del Oeste americano en los albores del siglo XX, que, tras ser golpeado por una terrible tragedia, lucha por encontrar sentido a su vida en un mundo en constante mutación. La de Grainier es una vida larga, pobre y modesta, y él, un hombre corriente que transita por una época extraordinaria sin apenas lograr otra cosa que un pequeño trozo de tierra, dos caballos y una carreta. Con su prosa pulida y alejada de cualquier sentimentalismo, esta joya del galardonado autor de Árbol de Humo ha sido comparada con la obra de autores clásicos como Chéjov. La crítica ha dicho... «Sentimientos y visiones que quitan el aliento [...]. Un clásico instantáneo.» Rodrigo Fresán, ABC «Un universo moral sin mácula, desprovisto de prejuicios, alérgico al melodrama y adicto a la belleza de las cosas.» Sergi Sánchez, El Periódico «Su carácter visionario le enseña al lector algo sobre sí mismo que hoy en día no nos enseña nadie más.» Maite Pairano, Eldiario.es «Cualquier escritor puede utilizar una prosa sencilla para describir la construcción de una cabaña o la tala de árboles, pero solo los grandes escritores pueden utilizar esa prosa para dar sentido a toda una comunidad.» The New Yorker «Una obra maestra.» New York Times «Puede que sea lo más poderoso que haya escrito Johnson jamás.» The New York Times Book Review «Esta novela breve y sólida es una auténtica joya, y, para los no iniciados, una perfecta introducción a la obra de Johnson.» Publisher''s Weekly «Sueños de trenes es una perla literaria.» USA Today

Mike Reed, Assistenzprofessor an einer Universität, lernt auf einer Party eine beschwipste Schönheit kennen: Kunststudentin, rothaarig, in einem blauen Samtkleid. Er nimmt sie kaum wahr. Vier Jahre zuvor hat er Frau und Tochter bei einem Unfall verloren, und noch immer fühlt er sich im Tunnel seiner Trauer gefangen. Einige Zeit später kreuzt die Rothaarige als Stripteasetänzerin, Performancekünstlerin und Kirchensängerin erneut seinen Weg. Schritt für Schritt erkundet er Möglichkeiten der Flucht und des Neuanfangs.

Un recorrido visceral por los extremos físicos, morales y espirituales de la Guerra de Vietnam. Guerra de Vietnam, 1963-1970. Skip Sands es un americano ingenuo y patriota convencido de su papel en la detención del avance del comunismo en Filipinas. Tras el asesinato de un sacerdote acusado de pasar armas a los comunistas, comienza a sospechar que la guerra que estaba ansioso por librar no es tan buena como creía. Su tío, el héroe de guerra conocido como "el Coronel", tiene grandes planes para derrotar a los comunistas: una ofensiva psicológica con armas atómicas y agentes dobles vietnamitas con el nombre en clave de "Árbol de Humo". En el último eslabón de la cadena de mando, los soldados voluntarios Bill y James Houston, procedentes de las clases rurales de Arizona, se enfrentan al horror y la brutalidad de las guerrillas, y de sus propios instintos. La amante ocasional de Skip y un subalterno del Coronel, obsesionado con la operación Árbol de Humo, son otros de los personajes de esta novela sobre la guerra, sobre todas las guerras, y sobre aquellos que han encontrado su propio corazón de las tinieblas. Galardonada con el National Book Award 2007, Árbol de Humo es una novela "destinada a convertirse en una de las obras clásicas de la literatura engendradas por esa guerra trágica y asombrosamente familiar" (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times). Reseñas: «Una prosa de un poder y una elegancia asombrosos.» Philip Roth «Se experimenta el placer de comprobar que, digan lo que digan, la novela no está muerta.» Rodrigo Fresán «Un texto duro, inclemente, comprometido, no apto para pusilánimes ni para quienes buscan evasión en la lectura. En suma: gran literatura.» Robert Saladrigas, La Vanguardia «Estamos ante un libro desmesurado por su ambición y desmesurado por el riesgo asumido [...] Extraordinaria novela.» Marcos Giralt Torrente, El País «El placer de leer a Denis Johnson es tan grande que uno puede abandonarse a su ritmo en un estado casi de ensoñación hipnótica.» Andrés Ibáñez, Revista de Libros «La madre de todas las novelas sobre el conflicto.» Elena Hevia, El Periódico «El dios en el que quiero creer tiene una voz y un sentido del humor como el de Denis Johnson.» Jonathan Franzen «Denis Johnson no solo logra conjurar el aura anómala y alucinante de la guerra de Vietnam con tanta autoridad como Stephen Wright o Francis Ford Coppola, sino que también muestra el efecto de la lluvia radiactiva sobre sus personajes con una precisión emocional que raya en el horror...» Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Si bien la obra de ficción de Denis Johnson, con algunas excepciones, se ha publicado en nuestro idioma, sus textos de no ficción, escritos para prestigiosas revistas como Esquire, The Paris Review, The New Yorker o Harper''s Magazine, aún no habían sido traducidos. Viajes a los confines del mundo, publicado originalmente en 2001 bajo el título de "Seek", reúne buena parte de los ensayos y reportajes que Johnson publicó en vida, y algunos están entre lo mejor de su obra. Destaca su cobertura de la guerra civil de Liberia, que despliega en "Guerra civil en el infierno" y "El Batallón de los Niños", que abren y cierran este volumen: un desgarrador retrato de un país que se desintegra en un páramo de muerte y hambre, y que casi le cuesta la vida y la cordura al propio autor. Los distintos reportajes de este libro basculan entre la disquisición política, el diario de viaje y la autoexploración en situaciones límite. Viajes extremos a Alaska —adonde el autor viaja con su mujer en busca de oro—; una reunión de moteros cristianos y telepredicadores; el retrato del Encuentro Arcoíris, donde, durante una semana, miles de hippies de toda Norteamérica se reúnen para compartir paz y amor; el retrato de la guerra de Afganistán, tras la toma de poder de los talibanes, y el conflicto somalí, pocos días antes de que las tropas de la ONU abandonen el país... Son artículos que reflejan un mundo a veces sórdido, a veces fascinante, donde el humor y el horror se entremezclan.

Del autor de Árbol de Humo , ganador del National Book Award, llega este palpitante thriller ambientado en el oeste americano, una persecución frenética a través de las llanuras del valle central de California. Un jugador compulsivo que debe dinero a las personas equivocadas, un matón encargado de cobrar la pasta y darle una lección, una preciosidad en apuros que ahoga sus penas en tequila sunrise, dos millones de dólares y una persecución frenética por las llanuras del valle central de California. Con ecos de Raymond Chandler y Dashiell Hammett, Que nadie se mueva es un homenaje y una variación de un clásico dentro de uno de los géneros literarios más duraderos y populares: la novela negra americana. Reseñas: «El dios en el que quiero creer tiene una voz y un sentido del humor como el de Denis Johnson.» Jonathan Franzen «Denis Johnson es un autor que ha capturado el espíritu de la experiencia americana tanto como Twain, Hemingway o Ellison.» Andrew Hubner «Buenos días y, por favor, escuchadme: Denis Johnson es un auténtico artista.» Jim Lewis, The Revelator

Denis Johnson, dieser große amerikanische Autor, über den Jonathan Franzen schrieb, dass der Gott, an den er glauben möchte, eine Stimme und einen Humor wie Denis Johnson habe, erzählt in seinem neuen Roman über Freundschaft in einer Welt, die auseinanderbricht. Roland Nair gibt sich als Däne aus, ist aber mit einem amerikanischen Pass unterwegs. Als er in Freetown, der Hauptstadt von Sierra Leone, aus dem Flugzeug steigt, schlägt ihm die Hitze Afrikas entgegen. Zehn Jahre war er nicht mehr da, aber jetzt ist er gekommen, um seinen Freund Michael Adriko wiederzusehen, einen Abenteurer, mit dem zusammen er während des Bürgerkriegs eine Menge Geld verdiente. Obwohl Nair die Region für hoffnungslos hält, will er das Glück ein zweites Mal herausfordern. Zu seiner Überraschung kommt der Freund zu ihrem Treffen nicht allein. Er hat eine junge Frau mitgebracht, Davidia St. Claire, eine schwarze Collegestudentin aus Colorado. Die beiden wollen heiraten, und zwar im Kreis von Adrikos Sippe, und Nair soll sie in sein Dorf irgendwo im Grenzland zwischen Uganda und dem Kongo begleiten. Obwohl er den Verdacht hat, dass all das nur ein Vorwand ist, macht er sich mit den beiden auf den Weg. Aber jeder ist jedem ein Rätsel, Interpol, der Mossad und der MI6 sind hinter ihnen her, und die Reise durch ein geheimnisvolles, beklemmendes Afrika führt geradewegs ins Herz der Finsternis. In «Die lachenden Ungeheuer» erzählt Denis Johnson die atemraubende Geschichte kaleidoskopartig verschwimmender Loyalitäten in einer seit 9/11 immer undurchsichtiger, chaotischer und verzweifelter gewordenen Welt. Ein aufwühlender, schneller, dunkler Abenteuer- und Spionageroman in der Tradition von Joseph Conrad und Graham Greene – und ein neuer Beweis für die Meisterschaft eines der bedeutendsten amerikanischen Schriftsteller unserer Zeit.

Comment assurer la cohérence du récit lorsque le narrateur, un universitaire d''âge mur, qui a perdu son épouse et sa fille dans un accident de voiture, renonce à vivre pour se réfugier dans l''exil du chagrin et dans une indifférence apathique que certains prennent à tort pour du détachement " cool " ? Une œuvre d''art, un étang gelé où évoluent des patineurs, une performance artistique où une jeune étudiante se rase le sexe en public deviennent alors les motifs fragmentaires d''une trame à jamais déchirée. Mais si le monde a perdu jusqu''à son nom (et la fiction son intégrité, son motif dans le tapis jamesien), le moment est peut-être venu pour Mike Reed (et pour le lecteur) de se laisser aller à l''improvisation de la vie en pariant que le monde retrouvera alors sinon son nom, du moins l''excitation suffocante ressentie devant ce sexe féminin dévoilé publiquement, cette " origine du monde " qui permet au narrateur de faire son deuil du deuil.