Best Selling Books by Vendela Vida

“This enigmatic tale of adolescent friendship . . . is smart, sly, and as knowing about the mind and heart of a teenage girl as an Elena Ferrante novel.” —O, The Oprah Magazine “One of the best novels about girlhood and female friendship I’ve ever read.” —Mary Beth Keane, New York Times–bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes “A tough and exquisite sliver of a short novel whose world I want to remain lost in. . . . [A] spectacular narrator . . . [A] wonder of a novel.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air Teenager Eulabee and her best friend, Maria Fabiola, own the streets of Sea Cliff, their San Francisco neighborhood. They know Sea Cliff’s homes and beaches, its hidden corners and eccentric characters. One day, walking to school with friends, they witness a horrible act—or do they? Eulabee and Maria Fabiola disagree on what happened, and their rupture is followed by Maria Fabiola’s sudden disappearance—a potential kidnapping that shakes the community and threatens to expose unspoken truths. Set in pre-tech boom San Francisco, a city on the brink of radical transformation, and told with a gimlet eye and great warmth, We Run the Tides is both a gripping mystery and a tribute to the wonders of youth. “The affectionate specificity of the portrait [Vida] offers is one of the book’s real pleasures.” —The New York Times Book Review “Detailed and vibrant.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “Smart, perceptive, elegant, sad, surprising and addictive.” —Nick Hornby, New York Times–bestselling author of About a Boy “There’s something naughty, almost gleeful about this nostalgia-soaked portrayal of pre-tech-boom San Francisco that keeps the pages turning.” —San Francisco Chronicle

On the day of her father''s funeral, twenty-eight-year-old Clarissa Iveru00adton discovers that he wasn''t her biological father after all. Her mother disappeared fourteen years earlier, and her fiancé has just revealed a life-changing secret to her. Alone and adrift, Clarissa travels to mystical Lapland, where she believes she''ll meet her real father. There, at a hotel made of ice, Clarissa is confronted with the truth about her mother''s hisu00adtory, and must make a decision about how—and where—to live the rest of her life.

From the acclaimed author of the 2007 New York Times Notable Book Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name comes a stunning novel about the love between husbands and wives, mothers and children. Twenty-eight years ago, Peter and Yvonne honeymooned in the beautiful coastal village of DatÇa, Turkey. Now Yvonne is a widow, her twin children grown. Hoping to immerse herself in memories of a happier time—as well as sand and sea—Yvonne returns to DatÇa. But her plans for a restorative week in Turkey are quickly complicated. Instead of comforting her, her memories begin to trouble her. Overwhelmed by the past and unexpectedly dislocated by the environment, Yvonne clings to a newfound friendship with Ahmet, a local boy who makes his living as a shell collector. But a devastating accident upends her delicate peace and throws her life into chaos—and her sense of self into turmoil. With the crystalline voice and psychological nuance for which her work has been so celebrated, Vendela Vida has crafted another unforgettable heroine in a stunningly beautiful and mysterious landscape.

From the acclaimed author of Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name and The Lovers comes a taut, spellbinding literary thriller that probes the essence and malleability of identity. In Vendela Vida’s taut and mesmerizing novel of ideas, a woman travels to Casablanca, Morocco, on mysterious business. While checking into her hotel, the woman is robbed of her wallet and passport—all of her money and identification. Though the police investigate, the woman senses an undercurrent of complicity between the hotel staff and the authorities—she knows she’ll never recover her possessions. Stripped of her identity, she feels burdened by the crime yet strangely liberated by her sudden freedom to be anyone she chooses. A chance encounter with a movie producer leads to a job posing as a stand-in for a well-known film star. The star reels her in deeper, though, and soon she’s inhabiting the actress’s skin off set, too—going deeper into the Casablancan night and further from herself. And so continues a strange and breathtaking journey full of unexpected turns, an adventure in which the woman finds herself moving further and further away from the person she once was. Told with vibrant, lush detail and a wicked sense of humor, The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty is part literary mystery, part psychological thriller—an unforgettable novel that explores free will, power, and a woman’s right to choose not her past, perhaps not her present, but certainly her future. This is Vendela Vida’s most assured and ambitious novel yet.

In a fascinating look at how young women are coming of age in America, Vendela Vida''s Girls on the Verge explores a variety of rituals that girls have adapted or created in order to leave their childhoods behind. Vida doesn''t just observe the rituals, she actively participates in them, going as far as spending a week at UCLA to experience rush--she emerges a Tri-Delt. She also goes to Miami to learn about the "quince" (the Latin American celebration of a girl''s fifteenth birthday), to Houston to take part in a debutante ball, to Los Angeles and San Francisco to talk to female gang members, to Salem, Massachusetts, to interview a coven of witches, and to Las Vegas to watch young brides take the plunge--some of them in drive-through wedding chapels. With humor, insight, and illuminating detail, she explores girls'' struggles to forge an identity and secure a sense of belonging through various rituals--rituals that they embrace without necessarily understanding the comforts they seek or the repercussions of their often all-too-adult choices.

Vendela Vida’s fearless, critically acclaimed fiction debut follows the unpredictable recovery of a young woman as she tries to make sense of her life after an encounter at gunpoint. Accosted one afternoon in Riverside Park by a man who doesn''t want to die alone, Ellis, a young grad student, talks her way out of the situation by reciting poetry to her desperate captor. He lets her go, but is she free? Rejecting the overtures of her kind-hearted boyfriend, the police, and the suitors who would like to save her, Ellis finds herself unable to escape the event. She leaves the city to visit her family; joins her mother on a medical mission to the Philippines. When she returns, Ellis discovers something more about life–perhaps even how to take back her own.

Comment prouver qui on est lorsqu''on se retrouve seul à l''étranger et qu''on se fait voler tous ses effets personnels ? C''est le cauchemar auquel est confrontée l''héroïne du nouveau roman de Vendela Vida, en voyage à Casablanca. Endossant d''abord, faute de mieux, l''identité d''une autre Américaine dont la police marocaine lui a rendu par erreur le passeport, elle est embauchée pour remplacer au pied levé la doublure d''une actrice en tournage dans son hôtel. Affublée d''une perruque et d''un nouveau nom, la jeune femme se voit alors embarquer dans un étrange et vertigineux voyage intérieur qui l''amène à se replonger dans les circonstances douloureuses de son départ des Etats-Unis... Avec ce magnifique personnage de femme blessée qui cherche à s''affranchir du passé, Vendela Vida continue d''explorer le thème de l''identité et signe un livre envoûtant, entre comédie rocambolesque, roman à suspense et drame psychologique.

Yvonne keert terug naar Datça, het kustdorpje in Turkije waar zij en haar echtgenoot ooit hun huwelijksreis doorbrachten. Ze hoopt zich te kunnen verliezen in het warme zand en de zee, en in haar herinneringen aan gelukkiger tijden. Maar dit plan raakt snel verstoord. En in plaats van haar troost te bieden, beginnen de herinneringen haar steeds meer te benauwen. Overweldigd door haar verleden klampt ze zich vast aan haar vriendschap met Ahmet, een Turks jongetje dat schelpen verkoopt op het strand. Door hem leert ze haar eigen kinderen beter begrijpen en kan ze zich eindelijk ontspannen. Maar dan verandert een vreselijk ongeluk haar leven opnieuw in een draaikolk. Met haar tedere stem en de psychologische nuance waar haar werk om geprezen wordt, heeft Vendela Vida een onvergetelijk personage geschapen. De minnaars is een indrukwekkende roman, een emotionele zoektocht met verrassende gebeurtenissen.

The Believer is het broertje, of beter gezegd, zusje van McSweeneys: het is een maandelijks tijdschrift, waarin de lengte van de artikelen niet doorslaggevend is, de recensies niet altijd op tijd, en vaak ook veel te lang zijn, en ook de interviews zijn lang. Voordeel daarvan is wel dat ze makkelijker te bundelen zijn, en dat is precies wat we hebben gedaan. De focus is op schrijvers waar The Believer van houdt en de redactie geeft zowel schrijvers als boeken het voordeel van de twijfel. De werktitel van het tijdschrift, voor het The Believer heette, was De Optimist. Toevalligerwijs is dat ook de titel van het online tijdschrift van Henk van Straten. Zie: www.deoptimist.net. Maar waar waren we gebleven? In deze speciaal voor Nederland samengestelde Believer treft u een keur aan van interviews van schrijvers met andere schrijvers! Zo sprak: Jonathan Lethem met Paul Auster Dave Eggers met Joan Didion Zadie Smith met Ian McEwan Alexandra Rockingham met Orhan Pamuk Sean Wilsey met Haruki Marukami Om maar eens vijf voorbeelden te noemen. U zult versteld staan van de 25 conversaties in dit boek, tussen geliefde schrijvers en de schrijvers die zij adoreren.

UNA CONMOVEDORA NOVELA SOBRE LA AMISTAD FEMENINA, LA TRAICIÓN Y UNA MISTERIOSA DESAPARICIÓN. « Inteligente, perspicaz, elegante, triste, sorprendente y adictiva. Y también divertida. Me encantó cada página. » Nick Hornby « Esta enigmática historia sobre la amistad en la adolescencia y una desaparición es inteligente, astuta y demuestra un conocimiento de la mente y el corazón adolescentes a la altura de una novela de Elena Ferrante. » Oh, the Oprah Magazine Eulabee y su magnética mejor amiga, Maria Fabiola, viven junto al océano en un brumoso barrio de San Francisco. Lo saben todo acerca de sus calles, casas y playas, de sus rincones secretos y de los excéntricos personajes que lo pueblan. Un día, de camino a clase, son testigos de un acontecimiento terrible, ¿o quizás no? Eulabee y Maria Fabiola discrepan sobre lo ocurrido y su amistad sufre una importante fractura, que coincide con la repentina desaparición de Maria Fabiola, un posible secuestro que conmociona el tranquilo vecindario y amenaza con exponer verdades nunca dichas. Fascinante y llena de suspense, Las mareas nos pertenecen constituye un magistral retrato sobre la pérdida de la inocencia, el dolor que supone un exceso de libertad y la lucha por encontrarse a uno mismo. Relatada con ojo crítico y gran calidez, nos ofrece al mismo tiempo misterio y un tributo a las maravillas de la juventud en toda su belleza y confusión.

Erst in der Fremde können wir wirklich zu uns finden, heißt es. "Des Tauchers leere Kleider" erzählt die abenteuerliche Geschichte einer Frau, der nichts mehr geblieben ist, außer ihr Wille zu überleben. Einer Frau, die nach Casablance reist, um sich schließlich nicht für die Vergangenheit, auch nicht für die Gegenwart, aber mit aller Entschiedenheit für die Zukunft entscheidet. Eine Amerikanerin reist überstürzt nach Casablanca. Der Grund für ihre Reise ist unklar. Kaum in ihrem Hotel angekommen, wird sie ausgeraubt. Die Polizei und die Hoteldirektion versuchen scheinbar, den Dieb zu fassen, haben sich aber eigentlich gegen die Amerikanerin verschworen. Auf der Polizeiwache wird ihr der Rucksack einer fremden Frau ausgehändigt, deren Identität sie annimmt. Vorübergehend, wie sie denkt, bis sich alles aufgeklärt hat. Doch einmal von der Last des eigenen Ich befreit, beginnt sie, Freude daran zu empfinden, sich von der Frau, die sie einmal war, immer mehr zu entfremden. Bis sie eine berühmte Hollywood-Schauspielerin kennen lernt und einen Schritt zu weit geht ... "Des Tauchers leere Kleider" erzählt das Abenteuer einer Frau, die allen Grund zur Flucht hat – einer Frau, die sich in eine fremde Landschaft begibt, um zu vergessen, und dabei zum ersten Mal zu sich selbst findet. Mit Anklängen von Alfred Hitchcock und Patricia Highsmith. »Teils glamouröser Reisebericht, teils schwelende Mystery: diese vielschichtige Geschichte eines Ausbruchs ist zugleich formal einfallsreich wie auch auf herzzerreißende Weise vertraut. (Sie ist auch unfassbar lustig.)« Lena Dunham. »Meisterhaft ... Ich war so eingenommen von der Trauer, der klebrig-sandigen Details, dass ich gar nicht merkte, wie tief ich bereits drinnen steckte. Die letzte Seite las ich mit einem tränenreichen Seufzer.« Miranda July. »Vendela Vidas neuer Roman ist voller Überraschungen, schlicht und üppig zugleich und vor allem wunderschön geschrieben.« George Saunders. »Sie werden diesen Roman nicht beiseite legen können. Und dann werden Sie dasselbe seltsame verschmitze Lächen im Gesicht haben wie ich.« Rachel Kushner.

Presents the shooting script for the movie released in 2009 by Focus Features, about an expectant couple searching across the country for the perfect town to settle in.

Che cosa può fare una giovane donna profondamente ferita negli affetti più cari, se non partire per mete lontane, lontanissime dalle persone e dai luoghi all’origine dei suoi patemi? È quanto fa la protagonista di queste pagine. Un trolley blu, un anonimo zainetto di tela nera, un biglietto aereo per Casablanca in tasca, e via dalla Florida, via da una sorella gemella che si è rivelata un doppio cattivo di se stessa, via da un marito che ha mostrato un volto ancora peggiore. Casablanca, però, è una città in cui le avversità – quelle circostanze che, secondo un noto pensiero, ci insegnano a «farci uscire da noi stessi» – sono all’ordine del giorno. Tutto ha inizio al bancone dell’anonimo albergo dove la giovane donna si reca per prendere possesso della camera prenotata poco prima di partire per il Marocco. Il tempo di appoggiare lo zaino sul trolley, di allungarsi verso il bancone, di riempire il modulo con i dati del passaporto, per fare un’agghiacciante scoperta: lo zainetto di tela nera non c’è più. Volatilizzato con portatile, portafoglio, carte di credito, contanti, macchina fotografica, beauty e tutto il necessario per sopravvivere in un paese straniero. Un’innocente menzogna, affiorata alle labbra giusto per far colpo sulla polizia – «Io sono una giornalista, una giornalista del New York Times» – dà il via a un crescendo tale di equivoci, bugie e fraintendimenti da generare un autentico carosello di false identità, doppi, travestimenti. Impadronendosi dell’identità di una giovane donna americana con i capelli castani lisci, gli occhi verdi e una vaga somiglianza con lei (identità che, per quieto vivere, la polizia marocchina le procura), diventa una stand-in, una controfigura di una famosa attrice hollywoodiana e viene coinvolta in una liason con relativo scandalo da rotocalco e ricatto. Romanzo che costituisce una splendida conferma del talento di Vendela Vida, Geometrie di un panorama sconosciuto è una brillante esplorazione dei misteri dell’identità «raccontata in un unico, lungo, ammaliante piano sequenza. Da leggere in trance, trattenendo il respiro» (Booklist). «Con i suoi rimandi a Hitchcock e Highsmith, leggere questo romanzo è un vero piacere». New York Times «Ogni scrittrice di thriller letterari viene accostata, almeno una volta nella vita se è fortunata, a Patricia Highsmith. Questo è uno dei pochi casi in cui il confronto sembra azzeccato». Chicago Tribune «Vendela Vida è autrice di romanzi di stile e atmosfere rarefatti... Le sue protagoniste sono quasi sempre donne alle prese con l’identità, la memoria, la libertà». Francesca Frediani, D la Repubblica delle Donne

Veuve depuis peu, Yvonne, prof d’histoire, la cinquantaine, accepte l’invitation de ses enfants à une croisière en Méditerranée sur la côte turque. Avant de retrouver les siens, elle a décidé de séjourner une semaine seule à Datça, où elle avait passé sa lune de miel vingt-huit ans auparavant, pour se replonger dans le souvenir des jours heureux. Ces souvenirs la perturbent plus qu’ils ne lui apportent de réconfort, et son séjour, avec son cortège de rencontres insolites, ne se déroule pas vraiment comme prévu. Il n’y a guère qu’avec Ahmet, petit pêcheur de coquillages qui ne parle pas un mot d’anglais, qu’Yvonne parvient à oublier ses soucis. Jusqu’à ce qu’un tragique accident vienne semer le chaos dans sa vie. Avec un sens étonnant de l’écriture et une formidable intuition dans la construction de ses personnages, Vendela Vida parvient à cerner la force et la fragilité des liens qui unissent les couples et les familles.

Ellis, étudiante en histoire de l''art à Columbia, reste traumatisée par l''agression qu''elle a subie dans un parc à New York : un homme suicidaire, sous prétexte qu''il ne voulait pas mourir seul, a braqué un pistolet sur sa tempe. Si elle s''en est sortie indemne, elle s''interroge désormais sur le sens de sa vie. Pour retrouver un équilibre, elle part à San Francisco passer Noël en famille.

In Let’s Break Some Black Hearts, The Believer magazine''s first collection of film interviews, the most compelling artists in Hollywood and the most courageous voices in indie filmmaking speak openly about their work, and the results are consistently frank, funny, and intimate. Readers encounter the late Philip Seymour Hoffman reading George Saunders and Proust (and discussing the joys of smoking cigarettes); Rashida Jones stumping for President Obama and reflecting on playing Feminist Mario Van Peebles on refusing to create “cinematic Wonder Bread;” Miranda July on conversations with the childhood version of herself; and Gus Van Sant on changing the language of Hollywood films, one long shot at a time — and much more. In its 11-year run, The Believer has become known for facilitating conversations between artists at the height of their craft, and Let’s Break Some Black Hearts includes several such electrifying encounters. Featured pairings include Francis Ford Coppola in conversation with Ruth Reichl, Mary Lynn Rajskub speaking with Carrie Brownstein, and an unforgettable discussion between Werner Herzog and Errol Morris. Over 30 collected interviews discuss high art and pop culture in equal measure, offering readers a vivid and entertaining glimpse into the film industry as a whole.

Ein Dezembernachmittag in einem New Yorker Park. Ein Mann mit einer Pistole hält die junge Studentin Ellis an, weil er einen Menschen sucht, der mit ihm sterben soll. So unvermittelt wie sie begann, endet die gespenstische Situation. Er schickt sie weg. D