Will Self Livres

Un homme croise sa mère morte quelques mois plus tôt. Un ethnologue étudie une tribu d’Amazonie qui se considère elle-même comme la plus ennuyeuse du monde. Un médecin découvre un hôpital où les plus fous ne sont pas les patients. Un journaliste infiltre une secte de coursiers au sens de l’orientation démesuré… Six nouvelles loufoques, grinçantes et terriblement inquiétantes.

Et si les morts continuaient à vivre ? Non pas dans un autre monde, un au-delà inaccessible. Mais plutôt dans une banlieue de l'Être, une sorte de colonie située là, devant nous. Tellement visible que nous y serions aveugles... À partir de cette hypothèse, Will Self a écrit sa Divine Comédie personnelle. L'héroïne : Lily Bloom, une Américaine de soixante-cinq ans en train de mourir dans un hôpital londonien. Le guide un aborigène australien. L'époque : contemporaine. Tendre, féroce, extravagant, Will Self explore cet "intermonde" qui ressemble tant au nôtre. Trace le portrait de Lily, Jewish American Princess, mère indigne et femme d'exception. Et règle ses comptes : avec l'Angleterre, le judaïsme, l'Art moderne, la famille, la politique. Et la littérature.

En vacances sur une île avec femme et enfants, Tom Brodzinski décide d'arrêter de fumer. Mais son ultime mégot atterrit par inadvertance sur la tête d'un autochtone et sa bonne résolution tourne au cauchemar : Tom est accusé de tentative de meurtre. Il est condamné par une mystérieuse tribu, les Tayswengos, et ne peut quitter l'île. Naïf, il réagit à cette situation kafkaïenne avec passivité. Il ignore qu'un étrange périple l'attend, avec chamanes, rituels initiatiques et paysages lunaires... Déjanté, angoissant, No smoking est une satire de nos sociétés occidentales. En ligne de mire : le politiquement correct, le colonialisme post-11 Septembre et les valeurs que l'"Axe du Bien" a tenté d'imposer au monde entier.

He's like Banksy -- but not as big...They're Not Pets, Susan,' says a stern father who has just shot a bumblebee, its wings sparkling in the evening sunlight; a lone office worker, less than an inch high, looks out over the river in his lunch break, 'Dreaming of Packing it all In'; and a tiny couple share a 'Last Kiss' against the soft neon lights of the city at midnight. Mixing sharp humour with a delicious edge of melancholy, Little People in the City brings together the collected photographs of Slinkachu, a street-artist who for several years has been leaving little hand-painted people in the bustling city to fend for themselves, waiting to be discovered. . . 'Oddly enough, even when you know they are just hand-painted figurines, you can't help but feel that their plights convey something of our own fears about being lost and vulnerable in a big, bad city.' The Times

This collection features a diverse array of poetry and fiction, showcasing the author's mastery of language and themes. The poetry section includes works such as "O, Tempora! O, Mores!" and "To Helen," exploring emotions and existential musings. Notable pieces like "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee" delve into love, loss, and the supernatural, while "The Conqueror Worm" and "Dream-land" reflect on mortality and dreams. In the fiction segment, the author presents captivating stories like "Metzengerstein" and "The Fall of the House of Usher," blending horror and psychological depth. Other tales, such as "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Tell-Tale Heart," exemplify the author's pioneering contributions to the mystery and detective genres. The collection also includes whimsical narratives like "The Duc De L'Omelette" and thought-provoking fables such as "Silence: A Fable." Throughout, the author explores themes of identity, reality, and the human condition, employing a rich tapestry of characters and settings. The interplay of poetry and prose invites readers to reflect on the complexities of life, making this a compelling anthology for lovers of literature.

From the Booker-shortlisted author of Umbrella, a world-girdling collection of writings inspired by a life lived in and for literature.

How far would you go to escape the real world? The underground man had always felt like an outsider. He doesn't want to be like other people, working in the 'ant-hill' of society. So he decides to withdraw from the world, scrawling a series of darkly sarcastic notes about the torment he is suffering. Angry and alienated, his only comfort is the humiliation of others. Is he going mad? Or is it the world around him that's insane?

Snake venom that digests human flesh, a building cleared of life by tiny spiders, and an infant insect consuming its prey from within are just a few examples of the deadly natural engineering explored in this masterful, poetic, and often humorously dry examination of predators encountered in rural Oklahoma. The author serves as a witty and intrepid guide through a world where mating can lead to cannibalism and where lethal toxins challenge our notions of a benevolent God. Spider remains scattered like "the cast-off coats of untidy children" tell a story of violent self-extermination, revealing a familiar yet exotic world. Grice immerses himself in this realm, abandoning objectivity with dark humor—collecting spiders, decorating a tarantula's terrarium, or orchestrating insect battles, deeming one "too stupid to live." Through starkly graceful essays, he charts the brutal lives of these predators, leading us to startling truths about our own predatory nature. The narrative confronts the inadequacy of our distinctions between normal and abnormal, dead and alive, innocent and evil, ultimately bringing us face to fanged face with the complexities of existence.

Shark turns upon an actual incident in WWII - mentioned in the film Jaws - when the ship which had delivered the fissile material to the south Pacific to be dropped on Hiroshima was subsequently sunk by a Japanese submarine with the loss of 900 men, including 200 killed in the largest shark attack ever recorded.