New Releases by Timothy Findley

Mars 1945, un palace abandonné des Alpes autrichiennes, un écrivain, disciple d'Ezra Pound et, comme lui, zélateur du fascisme, entreprend de couvrir les murs et les plafonds du récit de sa prodigieuse existence. Aux échos de la Chine de 1924 vont se succéder ceux de l'Angleterre et de la France de 1936, puis des Bahamas en 1942. Dans cette fresque décadente et perverse, des personnages insensés, souvent empruntés à la réalité, comme Ribbentrop, Hess, Lindbergh, Hemingway, et surtout ceux qui vont devenir le duc et la duchesse de Windsor, se croisent et se mêlent. Voici un roman époustouflant où, pour une fois, c'est la fiction qui prend sa revanche sur la réalité : car la littérature, c'est la vérité.

Robert Ross, a sensitive nineteen-year-old Canadian officer, went to war—The War to End All Wars. He found himself in the nightmare world of trench warfare, of mud and smoke, of chlorine gas and rotting corpses. In this world gone mad, Robert Ross performed a last desperate act to declare his commitment to life in the midst of death.

Sono le prime ore del mattino del 17 aprile 1912 nel giardino della casa al numero 18 di Cheyne Walk, a Londra, quando il dottor Greene accerta che l’uomo in pigiama bianco e vestaglia di seta blu, che giace riverso sull’erba ancora fredda e umida, è tecnicamente morto. L’uomo si chiama Pilgrim e qualche ora prima, dopo aver attraversato il giardino con in una mano il cordone di seta della sua veste da camera e, nell’altra, una robusta sedia Sheraton, si è impiccato all’acero più alto del parco. Prima di apporre la propria firma al certificato di morte, Greene decide, tuttavia, di rivolgersi all’illustre collega Hammond, che prontamente accorre e, dopo un rapido esame del corpo, non può che convenire che Pilgrim è «morto come può essere morto un uomo». Mezz’ora dopo, però, il cuore dell’uomo riprende a battere, e poco più tardi ritorna anche il respiro... Deciso, con ogni evidenza, a morire e, con altrettanta evidenza, incapace di farlo, Pilgrim si rifugia nel più assoluto mutismo, al punto che alla bella ed enigmatica Lady Sybil Quartermaine, la sua più cara amica, non resta che condurlo alla clinica psichiatrica Burghölzli di Zurigo, dove conduce le sue originali ricerche Carl Gustav Jung. «Ho vissuto molte vite, dottor Jung... Vidi la prima rappresentazione di Amleto e l’ultima recita dell’attore Molière. Fui amico di Oscar Wilde e nemico di Leonardo...» Le confessioni del suo singolare paziente penetrano a fondo nell’animo e nella mente di Jung. Chi è Pilgrim? Un mitomane profondamente malato, un geniale millantatore oppure la vittima di una strana maledizione? E chi è, a sua volta, lui, Carl Gustav Jung, con quella sua personalità piena d’arroganza e d’intuizione, di compassione e di disumanità? Romanzo ambizioso, fantastico, metafisico, nel quale fanno la loro apparizione personaggi come Henry James, Oscar Wilde e Monna Lisa, L’uomo che non poteva morire può essere letto come uno straordinario racconto sulla nascita dell’Europa del XX secolo, oppure come un romanzo sull’eterno conflitto tra distruzione e creazione, o, infine, come una magnifica storia sugli abissi insondabili dell’identità umana.

Carl Jung encounters a remarkable man who seems to have lived for millennia in this "exhilarating . . . mystifying and expertly crafted" novel ( Publishers Weekly, starred review). On April 17, 1912—ironically, only two days after the sinking of the Titanic—a figure known only as Pilgrim tries to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree. When he is found five hours later, his heart miraculously begins to beat again. Pilgrim, it seems, can never die. Escorted by his beloved friend, Lady Symbol Quartermaine, Pilgrim is admitted to the famous Burgholzli Psychiatrist Clinic In Zurich, where he will begin a battle of psyche and soul with Carl Jung, the self-professed mystical scientist of the unconscious. Slowly, Jung coaxes Pilgrim to tell his story—one that seemingly spans 4,000 years and includes such historical figures as Leonardo da Vinci and Henry James. But is Pilgrim delusional? Are these his memories merely dreams . . . or is his immortal existence truly a miracle?

Hailed as the first Southern Ontario Gothic novel, The Last of the Crazy People is the compelling, unnerving, and powerful story of a young boy's home life in Canada during 1960's

Not Wanted on the Voyage is the story of the great flood and the first time the world ended. It is a brilliant, unforgettable drama filled with an extraordinary cast of remarkable characters: the tyrannical Noah and his indomitable wife, Mrs. Noyes; the aging and irritable Yahweh; a chorus of singing sheep; and a unicorn destined for a horrible death. With pathos and pageantry, desperation and hope, magic and mythology, this acclaimed novel weaves its unforgettable spell.

In the final days of the Second World War, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley scrawls his desperate account on the walls and ceilings of his ice-cold prison high in the Austrian Alps. Officers of the liberating army discover his frozen, disfigured corpse and his astonishing testament—the sordid truth that he alone possessed. Fascinated but horrified, they learn of a dazzling array of characters caught up in scandal and political corruption. The exiled Duke and Duchess of Windsor, von Ribbentrop, Hitler, Charles Lindbergh, Sir Harry Oakes—all play sinister parts in an elaborate scheme to secure world domination.

En 1939, peu avant qu'éclate la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Charlie Kilworth, jeune accordeur de pianos, interroge son passé. Qui fut son père ? Compte tenu des problèmes psychiques de sa mère, comment assumer de devenir à son tour père ? Il décide alors d'entreprendre une lente et douloureuse réappropriation de l'histoire de sa famille. Peu à peu, le personnage de sa mère, Lily Kilworth femme sujette à des crises d'épilepsie qui étaient la terreur de son entourage, dans une famille qui dissimulait au grenier et dans sa mémoire les traces de la folie d'autres ancêtres, émigrés irlandais - devient le centre du roman. Toutes les figures de l'intolérance familiale, de la marginalisation et de l'exclusion se succèdent. Progressivement, dans une fresque ample et admirablement construite, Timothy Findley brosse le portrait d'une famille canadienne de l'Ontario du début du siècle à la Seconde Guerre mondiale, hantée par la folie de Lily.

Cast size: large.

Livré à lui-même entre une mère qui ne quitte plus sa chambre, un père paralysé par l'échec de son couple, un frère aîné qui se réfugie dans la poésie et l'alcool, Hooker Winslow, écolier de onze ans, observe l'effondrement de sa famille au cours d'un été qui s'achèvera tragiquement. Huis Clos dévastateur de la famille, emmurement des êtres dans le silence, désagrégation des sentiments jusqu'à la folie... Timothy Findley mène avec la rigueur d'un tragédien un premier roman à couper le souffle, magistrale illustration de la défaite de la parole, et s'impose colle l'un des plus grands metteurs en scène de la folie.

Expanded versions of columns originally publishing in Harrowsmith magazine.

Findley has written a small gem of a novel in this World War II story set on the Home Front. Findley uses the device of a family photo album to recall the personal history and memories of the boy, Matthew Forbes, whose parents' marriage is dissolving during the time of the false peace of wartime Canada.

Former librarian Lila Kemp, an occasional spiritualist, inadvertently lets Kurtz out of page 92 of the Heart of Darkness and he becomes a demented psychiatrist in a mental hospital in Toronto. The novel is at once psychological thriller, science fiction and morality play.

This collection of essays, journalistic pieces and diary entries provides a glimpse into the mind of author Timothy Findley. He describes his unusual research methods and gives his impressions and thoughts about other literary figures. Includes a portion of "Famous last words" which was removed before publication. Some strong language. Bestseller 1991.

Against a vivid terrain of images, Findley continues his exploration of the many diverse and destructive acts played out on the personal battlegrounds on which we live our daily lives. From the realities of contemporary relationships to a fantastic vision of urban life, from social comment to the deeply personal, Stones is a powerful collection of stories from one of Canada's best-loved writers.

Here is the powerful, haunting "Lemonade,"where a young boy's world is shattered by his mother's self-destruction, and eleven other stories, including "Dinner along the Amazon,"an unusual journey into the complexities of contemporary relationships.