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Set in post-war Switzerland, Fleur Jaeggy's novel begins simply and
innocently enough: `At fourteen I was a boarder in a school in the
Appenzell'. But there is nothing truly simple or innocent here.
With the offhanded knowingness of a remorseless young Eve, the
narrator describes life as a captive of the school and her designs
to win the affections of the seemingly perfect new girl,
Frederique. As she broods over her schemes as well as on the nature
of control and madness, the novel gathers a suspended, unsettling
energy.
Following the critical and commercial success of A Literary Tour of
Italy, acclaimed novelist Tim Parks presents a new selection of his
latest essays on Italian literature, offering a lively, accessible
and stimulating diorama of the cultural landscape of Italy.
Containing pieces on major figures such as Dante, Machiavelli,
Leopardi and Manzoni, as well as articles on some of Italy’s
best-known modern authors – from Pirandello and Pavese to
Pasolini, Levi and Calvino, through to more recent writers such as
Camilleri, Saviano and Ferrante – this book will delight and
interest any lover of Italian culture, and confirms Tim Parks as
one of the finest and most perceptive essay writers of his
generation.
From the bestselling, Booker-shortlisted writer of Italian Ways and
Europa, a classic novel about a man's emotional reckoning in a
changed world far from home Frank's reclusive existence in a leafy
part of London is shattered when he is summoned to Milan for the
funeral of an old friend. Preoccupied by this sudden intrusion of
his past, he flies, oblivious, into the epicentre of a crisis he
has barely registered on the news. It is spring, his luxury hotel
offers every imaginable comfort; perhaps he will be able to weather
the situation and return home unscathed? What Frank doesn't know is
that he's about to make a discovery that will change his heart and
his mind. The arresting new novel from Booker Prize-shortlisted Tim
Parks, Hotel Milano is a universal story from a unique moment in
recent history: a book about the kindness of strangers, and about a
complicated man who, faced with the possibility of saving a life,
must also take stock of his own. Praise for In Extremis: 'Parks's
prose brings us closer to the pressures and rhythms of a lived life
than the work of any other contemporary writer I can think of' Mike
McCormack, New Statesman Books of the Year 'Head and shoulders
above so many of the books turned out by similar writers... A
wonderfully written novel' Kirsty Gunn, Guardian 'Tim Parks is a
hugely talented writer' Sunday Times
Tim Parks s books on Italy have been hailed as "so vivid, so packed
with delectable details, they] serve as a more than decent
substitute for the real thing" (Los Angeles Times Book Review).
Now, in his first Italian travelogue in a decade, he delivers a
charming and funny portrait of Italian ways by riding its trains
from Verona to Milan, Rome to Palermo, and right down to the heel
of Italy.
Parks begins as any traveler might: "A train is a train is a
train, isn t it?" But soon he turns his novelist s eye to the
details, and as he journeys through majestic Milano Centrale
station or on the newest high-speed rail line, he delivers a
uniquely insightful portrait of Italy. Through memorable encounters
with ordinary Italians conductors and ticket collectors, priests
and prostitutes, scholars and lovers, gypsies and immigrants Parks
captures what makes Italian life distinctive: an obsession with
speed but an acceptance of slower, older ways; a blind eye toward
brutal architecture amid grand monuments; and an undying love of a
good argument and the perfect cappuccino.
Italian Ways also explores how trains helped build Italy and how
their development reflects Italians sense of themselves from
Garibaldi to Mussolini to Berlusconi and beyond. Most of all,
Italian Ways is an entertaining attempt to capture the essence of
modern Italy. As Parks writes, "To see the country by train is to
consider the crux of the essential Italian dilemma: Is Italy part
of the modern world, or not?""
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Boys Alive
Pier Paolo Pasolini; Translated by Tim Parks; Introduction by Tim Parks
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R502
R388
Discovery Miles 3 880
Save R114 (23%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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A novel about obsessive love and madness set in postwar
Switzerland, Fleur Jaeggy's eerily beautiful novel begins
innocently enough: "At fourteen I was a boarder in a school in the
Appenzell." But there is nothing innocent here. With the off-handed
remorselessness of a young Eve, the narrator describes her
potentially lethal designs to win the affections of Frederique, the
apparently perfect new girl. In Tim Parks' consummate translation
(with its "spare, haunting quality of a prose poem," TLS), Sweet
Days of Discipline is a peerless, terrifying, and gorgeous work.
Arising from a dissatisfaction with blandly general or abstrusely
theoretical approaches to translation, this book sets out to show,
through detailed and lively analysis, what it really means to
translate literary style. Combining linguistic and lit crit
approaches, it proceeds through a series of interconnected chapters
to analyse translations of the works of D.H. Lawrence, Virginia
Woolf, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Henry Green and Barbara Pym.
Each chapter thus becomes an illuminating critical essay on the
author concerned, showing how divergences between original and
translation tend to be of a different kind for each author
depending on the nature of his or her inspiration. This new and
thoroughly revised edition introduces a system of 'back
translation' that now makes Tim Parks' highly-praised book reader
friendly even for those with little or no Italian. An entirely new
final chapter considers the profound effects that globalization and
the search for an immediate international readership is having on
both literary translation and literature itself.
Arising from a dissatisfaction with blandly general or abstrusely
theoretical approaches to translation, this book sets out to show,
through detailed and lively analysis, what it really means to
translate literary style. Combining linguistic and lit crit
approaches, it proceeds through a series of interconnected chapters
to analyse translations of the works of D.H. Lawrence, Virginia
Woolf, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Henry Green and Barbara Pym.
Each chapter thus becomes an illuminating critical essay on the
author concerned, showing how divergences between original and
translation tend to be of a different kind for each author
depending on the nature of his or her inspiration. This new and
thoroughly revised edition introduces a system of 'back
translation' that now makes Tim Parks' highly-praised book reader
friendly even for those with little or no Italian. An entirely new
final chapter considers the profound effects that globalization and
the search for an immediate international readership is having on
both literary translation and literature itself.
From the bestselling writer of Italian Ways, Europa and The Hero's
Way, a story set during the first days of lockdown in Europe, about
the unexpected kindness of strangers and one man's emotional
reckoning. Milan, 2020. Drawn abruptly from his reclusive life in
London for a friend's funeral, Frank finds himself in the eye of a
pandemic he had barely registered on the news. From the relative
comfort of his balcony at Hotel Milano, he surveys the train
station across the piazza, seeing the mad dash for the last trains,
hearing the sirens and watching the police stop people in the
street. He feels himself remote from it all. Then, one night, the
sound of a child's footsteps leads him to discover a family
sheltering secretly above him: a family who need his help. As the
days pass, this reserved and difficult man begins to open himself
to others. Faced with the task of saving a life, he must also take
stock of his own.
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The Complete Cosmicomics (Paperback)
Italo Calvino; Translated by Martin McLaughlin, Tim Parks, William Weaver
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R319
R262
Discovery Miles 2 620
Save R57 (18%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Italo Calvino's enchanting stories about the evolution of the
universe, with characters that are fashioned from mathematical
formulae and cellular structures, The Complete Cosmicomics is
translated by Martin McLaughlin, Tim Parks and William Weaver in
Penguin Modern Classics. 'Naturally, we were all there, - dld Qfwfq
said, - where else could we have been? Nobody knew then that there
could be space. Or time either: what use did we have for time,
packed in there like sardines?' The Cosmicomics tell the story of
the history of the universe, from the big bang, through millennia
and across galaxies. It is witnessed through the eyes of 'cosmic
know-it-all' Qfwfq, an exuberant, chameleon-like figure, who takes
the shape of a dinosaur, a mollusc, a steamer captain and a moon
milk gatherer, among others. This is the first complete edition in
English of Italo Calvino's funny, whimsical and delightful stories,
which blend scientific fact, flights of fancy, parody and wordplay
to show the strangeness and the wonders of the world. Italo Calvino
(1923-1985), one of Italy's finest postwar writers, has delighted
readers around the world with his deceptively simple, fable-like
stories. Calvino was born in Cuba and raised in San Remo, Italy; he
fought for the Italian Resistance from 1943-45. Among his other
works published in Penguin Modern Classics are Italian Folktales,
Hermit in Paris, Into the War, The Path to the Spiders' Nests,
Numbers in the Dark, Six Memos for the Next Millennium and Why Read
the Classics? If you liked The Complete Cosmicomics, you might
enjoy Jorge Luis Borges' Fictions, also available in Penguin Modern
Classics. 'The complete and definitive collection ... a
masterpiece' Gilbert Adair, Evening Standard 'Dazzling ... a book
of revelation' Tim Adams, Observer 'If you have never read
Cosmicomics, you have before you the most joyful reading experience
of your life' Salman Rushdie 'A landmark in fiction, the work of a
master' Ursula K Le Guin, Guardian
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The Prince (Paperback)
Niccolo Machiavelli; Translated by Tim Parks
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R246
R199
Discovery Miles 1 990
Save R47 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Niccolo Machiavelli's brutally uncompromising manual of statecraft,
The Prince is translated and edited with an introduction by Tim
Parks in Penguin Classics. As a diplomat in turbulent
fifteenth-century Florence, Niccolo Machiavelli knew how quickly
political fortunes could rise and fall. The Prince, his
tough-minded, pragmatic handbook on how power really works, made
his name notorious and has remained controversial ever since. How
can a leader be strong and decisive, yet still inspire loyalty in
his followers? When is it necessary to break the rules? Is it
better to be feared than loved? Examining regimes and their rulers
the world over and throughout history, from Roman Emperors to
renaissance Popes, from Hannibal to Cesare di Borgia, Machievalli
answers all these questions in a work of realpolitik that still has
shrewd political lessons for today. Tim Parks's acclaimed
contemporary translation renders Machiavelli's no-nonsense original
as alarming and enlightening as when it was first written. His
introduction discusses Machiavelli's life and reputation, and
explores the historical background to the work. Niccolo Machiavelli
(1469-1527) was born in Florence, and served the Florentine
republic as a secretary and second chancellor, as ambassador and
foreign policy-maker. When the Medici family returned to power in
1512 he was suspected of conspiracy, imprisoned and tortured and
forced to retire from public life. His most famous work, The
Prince, was written in an attempt to gain favour with the Medicis
and return to politics. If you enjoyed The Prince, you might like
Plato's Republic, also available in Penguin Classics. 'A gripping
work, and a gripping translation' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian 'Tim
Parks's swift and supple new translation brings out all its
chilling modernity' Boyd Tonkin, Independent
One hot night last spring, after waiting fruitlessly for a call
from my then lover, with whom I had quarrelled the same afternoon,
and finding one of my black moods on me, I flung out of my lonely
room on the ninth floor (unlucky number) in a hotel in lower Fifth
Avenue and rushed into the streets of the Village, feeling bad.
Letty Fox is hunting for a husband. Her picaresque adventures are
brilliantly described in this imaginative portrayal of a woman who
might have been independent, but chose otherwise.
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The Prince (Hardcover)
Niccolo Machiavelli; Translated by Tim Parks
1
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R459
R372
Discovery Miles 3 720
Save R87 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Niccolo Machiavelli's brutally uncompromising manual of statecraft,
The Prince is translated and edited with an introduction by Tim
Parks in Penguin Classics. As a diplomat in turbulent
fifteenth-century Florence, Niccolo Machiavelli knew how quickly
political fortunes could rise and fall. The Prince, his
tough-minded, pragmatic handbook on how power really works, made
his name notorious and has remained controversial ever since. How
can a leader be strong and decisive, yet still inspire loyalty in
his followers? When is it necessary to break the rules? Is it
better to be feared than loved? Examining regimes and their rulers
the world over and throughout history, from Roman Emperors to
renaissance Popes, from Hannibal to Cesare di Borgia, Machievalli
answers all these questions in a work of realpolitik that still has
shrewd political lessons for today. Tim Parks's acclaimed
contemporary translation renders Machiavelli's no-nonsense original
as alarming and enlightening as when it was first written. His
introduction discusses Machiavelli's life and reputation, and
explores the historical background to the work. Niccolo Machiavelli
(1469-1527) was born in Florence, and served the Florentine
republic as a secretary and second chancellor, as ambassador and
foreign policy-maker. When the Medici family returned to power in
1512 he was suspected of conspiracy, imprisoned and tortured and
forced to retire from public life. His most famous work, The
Prince, was written in an attempt to gain favour with the Medicis
and return to politics. If you enjoyed The Prince, you might like
Plato's Republic, also available in Penguin Classics. 'A gripping
work, and a gripping translation' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian 'Tim
Parks's swift and supple new translation brings out all its
chilling modernity' Boyd Tonkin, Independent
"Reading time is approximately four hours. Remembering time, as for
its author, the rest of one's life," said Joseph Brodsky of Fleur
Jaeggy's novel, Sweet Days of Displine. Now Jaeggy has come up with
seven stories, each at some deep level in dark complicity with the
others, all as terse and spare as if etched with a steel tip. A
brooding atmosphere of horror, a disturbing and subversive
propensity for delirium haunts the violent gestures and chilly
irony of these tales. Full of menace, the air they breathe is
stirred only by the FUEhn, the warm west wind of the Alps that
inclines otherwise respectable citizens to vent the spleen and
angst of life's last vanities.
How do we find calm in our frantic modern world? Tim Parks -
lifelong sceptic of all things spiritual - finds himself on a
Buddhist meditation retreat trying to answer this very question.
With brutal honesty and dry wit, he recounts his journey from
disbelief to something approaching inner peace and tackles one of
the great mysteries of our time - how to survive in this modern
age. Selected from the book Teach us to Sit Still by Tim Parks
VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS. A series of
short books by the world's greatest writers on the experiences that
make us human Also in the Vintage Minis series: Swimming by Roger
Deakin Motherhood by Helen Simpson Work by Joseph Heller Liberty by
Virginia Woolf
'Beautiful, intellectually thrilling . . . unlike anything else'
Telegraph Promise and separation. Grace and guilt. The chosen and
the damned. Roberto Calasso's captivating retelling of key stories
from the bible evokes the dramatic world of the Old Testament and
casts one of the founding texts of Western civilization in an
astonishing - and disquieting - new light. The Book of All Books is
the culmination of a lifetime's work and the tenth part of a series
that began with The Ruin of Kasch. 'Engaging . . . enlightening'
Financial Times 'Surprising . . . vivid' Spectator
An immersive and mesmerizing narrative that reimagines the
Mesopotamian myth of the Great Flood A long time ago, the gods grew
tired of humans and decided to send a flood to destroy them. But
Ea, the god of fresh underground water, didn't agree. He advised
one of his devotees, Utnapishtim, to build a quadrangular boat to
house humans and animals, and saved these living creatures from the
Flood. Rather than punish Utnapishtim for his disobedience, Enlil,
King of the gods, granted the mortal eternal life and banished him
to the island of Dilmun. Thousands of years later, when Sinbad the
Sailor is shipwrecked and arrives on that very same island, the two
begin a conversation about courage, loss, salvation and sacrifice.
'Elegantly written, full of wit and charm, this is travel writing
at its very best' Orlando Figes In the summer of 1849, Giuseppe
Garibaldi, Italy's legendary revolutionary hero, fled Rome and led
4,000 of his men hundreds of miles through Umbria and Tuscany, then
across the Apennines, Italy's mountainous spine, toward the refuge
of the Venetian Republic. After thirty-two exhausting days of
skirmishes and adventures, only 250 survivors reached the Adriatic
coast. This hair-raising journey is brought vividly to life by
bestselling author Tim Parks, who in the blazing summer of 2019,
followed in Garibaldi's footsteps. A fascinating portrait of Italy
past and present, The Hero's Way is a celebration of determination,
creativity and desperate courage.
The Medici are famous as the rulers of Florence at the high point
of the Renaissance. Their power derived from the family bank, and
this book tells the fascinating, frequently bloody story of the
family and the dramatic development and collapse of their bank
(from Cosimo who took it over in 1419 to his grandson Lorenzo the
Magnificent who presided over its precipitous decline). The Medici
faced two apparently insuperable problems: how did a banker deal
with the fact that the Church regarded interest as a sin and had
made it illegal? How in a small republic like Florence could he
avoid having his wealth taken away by taxation? But the bank became
indispensable to the Church. And the family completely subverted
Florence's claims to being democratic. They ran the city. Medici
Money explores a crucial moment in the passage from the Middle Ages
to the Modern world, a moment when our own attitudes to money and
morals were being formed.To read this book is to understand how
much the Renaissance has to tell us about our own world. Medici
Money is one of the launch titles in a new series, Atlas Books,
edited by James Atlas. Atlas Books pairs fine writers with stories
of the economic forces that have shaped the world, in a new genre -
the business book as literature.
'Insinuating, haunting and lyrically pervasive' The New York Times
Book Review A new translation by Tim Parks Twenty years after
making his fortune in America, Eel is drawn back to the closest
thing he has to a home: the Piedmontese countryside where he grew
up poor and illegitimate. Wandering the valleys and vineyards with
his childhood friend Nuto, Eel remembers the farm where he worked,
his employer's beautiful daughters, the rituals of rural life. Yet
as he discovers more about what happened there during the war, he
realizes that these timeless landscapes hide terrible, savage
secrets. By turns fond and evocative, seductive and troubling, The
Moon and the Bonfires is a lyrical masterpiece of memory and
betrayal. Translated with an Introduction by Tim Parks
Idealistic young officer Giovanni Drogo is full of determination to
serve his country well. But when he arrives at a bleak border
station in the Tartar desert, where he is to take a short
assignment at Fort Bastiani, he finds the castle manned by veteran
soldiers who have grown old without seeing a trace of the enemy. As
his length of service stretches from months into years, he
continues to wait patiently for the enemy to advance across the
desert, for one great and glorious battle . . . Written in 1938 as
the world waited for war, and internationally acclaimed since its
publication, The Tartar Steppe is a provocative and frightening
tale of hope, longing and the terrible sorcery of dreams and
desires.
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