Bookbot

Daniel Adam Mendelsohn

    Flüchtige Umarmung
    Bacchae
    Three Rings
    Bronzino's Lodovico Capponi
    An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and an Epic
    Les Disparus
    • Les Disparus

      • 650pages
      • 23 heures de lecture

      In this compelling narrative, a writer embarks on a quest to uncover the truth behind his family's tragic past during World War II, blending memoir, reportage, mystery, and scholarly detective work. The story begins with a boy haunted by the disappearance of six relatives during the Holocaust, a topic that captivated him from childhood. Years later, after discovering desperate letters written to his grandfather in 1939 and hearing fragmented stories of betrayal, he seeks out the remaining eyewitnesses to his relatives' fates. This journey spans a dozen countries across four continents, revealing the painful discrepancies between lived history and the narratives we construct. Ultimately, it leads him back to the small Ukrainian town where his family's story began, where answers to a long-standing mystery await. The narrative deftly intertwines past and present, blending a world-spanning odyssey with childhood memories of a lost generation of immigrant Jews, alongside reflections on biblical texts and Jewish history. This exploration transforms a family's tale into a profound meditation on our tenuous connection to the past. Deeply personal and beautifully written, this literary work illuminates the themes of loss and discovery over time.

      Les Disparus
      4,0
    • SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2017 From the award-winning, best- selling writer: a deeply moving tale of a father and son's transformative journey in reading - and reliving - Homer's epic masterpiece.

      An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and an Epic
      4,4
    • Bronzino's Lodovico Capponi

      • 70pages
      • 3 heures de lecture

      New volume in the Frick Diptych series pairs an essay by Frick curator Aimee Ng with a contribution by bestselling author Daniel Mendelsohn.

      Bronzino's Lodovico Capponi
      4,5
    • Three Rings

      • 116pages
      • 5 heures de lecture

      Winner of the 2020 Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, this genre-defying work by best-selling memoirist and critic Daniel Mendelsohn delves into the connections between the randomness of life and the art of storytelling. Blending memoir, biography, history, and literary criticism, it intertwines the narratives of three exiled writers who turned to classical texts to craft their own masterpieces that reflect on narrative itself. Erich Auerbach, a Jewish philologist who fled Hitler's Germany, wrote his influential study of Western literature, Mimesis, in Istanbul. Francois Fenelon, a seventeenth-century French archbishop, penned a clever sequel to the Odyssey, The Adventures of Telemachus, which served as a veiled critique of the Sun King and became a bestseller for a century, leading to his exile. W. G. Sebald, a German novelist self-exiled in England, created meandering narratives that explore themes of displacement and nostalgia. Amid these tales of exile and artistic struggle, Mendelsohn recounts his own challenges in writing two books—a Holocaust family saga and a memoir about reading the Odyssey with his elderly father—both haunted by themes of oppression and wandering. As the narrative unfolds, a climactic revelation about the interconnected lives of these three figures prompts a reevaluation of the ties between narrative, history, art, and life.

      Three Rings
      4,0
    • Bacchae

      • 128pages
      • 5 heures de lecture

      Dionysus, god of wine and ecstasy, has come to Thebes, and the women are streaming out of the city to worship him on the mountain, drinking and dancing in wild frenzy. The king, Pentheus, denouces this so-called 'god' as a charlatan. But no mortal can deny a god and no man can ever stand against Dionysus. This stunning translation, by the award-winning poet Robin Robertson, reinvigorated Euripides' devastating take of a god's revenge for contemporary readers, bringing the ancient verse to fervid, brutal life.

      Bacchae
      3,9
    • Flüchtige Umarmung

      Von der Sehnsucht und der Suche nach Identität

      Ausgezeichnet mit dem renommierten Malaparte-Preis 2022 »Alle Menschen sehen sich demselben Rätsel gegenüber: Woher weiß man, wer man ist?« Aufgewachsen als Sohn eines Mathematikers in einem Vorort auf Long Island, treibt es Daniel Mendelsohn weg von zu Hause, um herauszufinden, wer er ist: Er stürzt sich in sein Studium der Altphilologie und erkennt sich in den Texten der griechischen Klassiker wieder; um seine Wurzeln zu ergründen, erforscht er die Geschichte seiner Familie, osteuropäischer Juden; in New York City wird er Teil der Schwulenszene; die Sehnsucht nach einer eigenen Familie erfüllt sich wider alle Erwartungen. Ein leidenschaftliches Buch über die verschlungene Suche nach der eigenen Identität mit all den Konflikten, die damit einhergehen. Ein literarisch brillanter Streifzug - und eine Meditation über das Leben. Platz 2 der Sachbuch-Bestenliste von ZEIT, ZDF und Deutschlandfunk im Februar 2022

      Flüchtige Umarmung
      3,8
    • Pijn en genot

      Van de oude Grieken tot Game of Thrones

      • 332pages
      • 12 heures de lecture

      Of hij nu schrijft over de Ilias en de Odyssee of een vergelijking maakt tussen het werk van Karl Ove Knausgård en de televisieserie Suits , Daniel Mendelsohns essays over literatuur, film en televisie verrassen stuk voor stuk. In Pijn en genot laat Mendelsohn zien hoe de Grieken en Romeinen anno nu nog steeds als voorbeelden gelden. Ook schrijft hij over Hanya Yanagihara en over de vrouwen in Game of Thrones , en hij analyseert recente films over kunstmatige intelligentie - een onderwerp, zo brengt hij ons in herinnering, dat in de achtste eeuw voor Christus al Homerus' interesse wekte. Uit deze essaybundel, speciaal samengesteld voor zijn Nederlandse lezers, blijken Daniel Mendelsohns eruditie, zijn bereik als denker en de diepte van zijn analyses. Zijn essays zijn verplicht leesmateriaal voor eenieder die net als hij onze cultuur wil ontleden.

      Pijn en genot
      3,4