Claire Messud est une romancière américaine et professeure de littérature et d'écriture créative. Elle est connue pour son exploration perspicace de l'ambition, des dynamiques familiales et de la recherche d'identité dans le monde moderne. Sa prose est souvent saluée pour sa profondeur psychologique et ses caractérisations précises. L'œuvre de Messud explore les complexités de la nature humaine et les pressions sociétales.
A collection of personal and critical essays on everything from childhood to womanhood, literature to visual arts and the relationship between form and meaning in storytelling.
"The Last Life" tells the story of the teenage Sagesse LaBasse and her family, French Algerian emigrants haunted by their history, brought to the brink of destruction by a single reckless act. Observed with a fifteen-year-old's ruthless regard for truth, it is a novel about secrets and ghosts, love and honour, the stories we tell ourselves and the lies to which we cling. It is a work of stunning emotional power, written in prose of matchless iridescence and grace. "'Powerful, Gripping, dark at its heart, this is an almost faultless novel" - "Evening Standard". "A joy to read. Messud's prose is lush, incantatory ...her observations are funnily astute, brimming with wit and imagination ...as elegant and precise as geometry" - "Independent". "Mesmerizing ...Ms Messud has written a large and resonant novel that is as artful as it is affecting" - "New York Times".
A family torn apart by war, geography, politics, religion, over the course of three generations
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Emperor's Children, a brilliant new novel: the riveting confession of a woman awakened, transformed, and betrayed by passion and desire for a world beyond her own. Nora Eldridge, a thirty-seven-year-old elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who long ago abandoned her ambition to be a successful artist, has become the "woman upstairs," a reliable friend and tidy neighbor always on the fringe of others' achievements. Then into her classroom walks Reza Shahid, a child who enchants as if from a fairy tale. He and his parents--dashing Skandar, a Lebanese scholar and professor at the École Normale Supérleure; and Sirena, an effortlessly glamorous Italian artist--have come to Boston for Skandar to take up a fellowship at Harvard. When Reza is attacked by schoolyard bullies who call him a "terrorist," Nora is drawn into the complex world of the Shahid family: she finds herself falling in love with them, separately and together. Nora's happiness explodes her boundaries, until Sirena's careless ambition leads to a shattering betrayal. Told with urgency, intimacy, and piercing emotion, this story of obsession and artistic fulfillment explores the thrill--and the devastating cost--of giving in to one's passions.
Follows three friends - and their overlapping social and family circles - through their day-to-day lives, their perceived struggles and successes and their search for meaning. This work also presents a portrait of a particular place at a particular moment, and an illustration of how the events of a single day can change everything for ever.
Marlene Dumas, an influential painter born in Cape Town and based in Amsterdam since 1976, delves into the complexities of identity and representation through her art. Her work, characterized by gestural and fluid styles, often features the human form and draws from a diverse archive of images, including art history, mass media, and personal photographs. Dumas skillfully reframes her subjects, examining the blurred lines between public and private identities, making her paintings both poignant and thought-provoking.
Julia Robertson en Cassie Burnes zijn als sinds de kleuterklas bevriend; een vriendschap waarin ze alles met elkaar delen, ook de wens om te vertrekken uit hun geboortestad Royston, Massachusetts. Naarmate de meisjes ouder worden, tekenen de verschillen zich af. Julia lijkt voorbestemd een typische middenklasseburger te worden: ze doet haar best op school en omringt zich met verstandige vriendinnen. Cassie heeft echter een steeds turbulentere relatie met haar alleenstaande moeder, Bev, en wordt beschouwd als de rotte appel. Wanneer Bev een nieuwe man ontmoet, wordt de toekomst van Cassie ongewisser, terwijl Julia’s pad steeds duidelijkere contouren krijgt. Ze kan niet anders dan toekijken hoe Cassie, die ze ooit beter kende dan wie ook, steeds verder van haar verwijderd raakt.
In intimen, scharfsinnigen und mitunter komischen Essays öffnet Claire Messud uns ein Fenster zu ihrem Leben und Schreiben. Sie erzählt vom rastlosen Aufwachsen zwischen zahlreichen Umzügen, von ihrer komplizierten wie warmherzigen Familie und von einer Reise nach Beirut, während ihr Vater im Sterben liegt. Kunstvoll verflicht sie Leben und ihre Liebe zu Literatur und Kunst, betrachtet zeitgenössische Klassiker von Kazuo Ishiguro, Rachel Cusk und Albert Camus. Mit glänzender Raffinesse erkundet sie ihren eigenen Antrieb zum Schreiben, feiert die verbindende Sprache der Literatur und die transformative Kraft eines einzigen brillanten Satzes. »Nur wenige Schriftstellerinnen verbinden eine so mitreißende Tiefe mit solch großartigem Talent.« Rachel Cusk »Großzügige Versionen unserer Welt, gezeichnet mit messerscharfem Intellekt und kompromissloser Ehrlichkeit.« The Observer »Ein ermutigendes Buch: komplex, präzise und belebend.« The Financial Times
Een vrouw denkt terug aan haar jeugd in Zuid-Frankrijk, waar ze zich een buitenstaander voelde met haar half Amerikaanse, half Frans-Algerijnse afkomst en haar gehandicapte broertje.
