Un auteur britannique réputé pour ses écrits de voyage, ses essais critiques et ses romans. Ses œuvres abordent souvent des thèmes profonds à travers le prisme du voyage, révélant la nature humaine et les nuances sociétales. Le style de Raban se caractérise par son observation aiguë et son talent littéraire, offrant aux lecteurs une exploration captivante du monde.
'Raban's journey, made through empty landscaped that once brimmed with optimism, reveals what happened when American innocence begins to curdle. The tale, borne along by its superlative writing, is a riveting one' Observer
Sharp...funy...a marvellous attempt to discover the meaning of home' Ian Jack, Observer
An entrancing chronicle of the voyage from Seattle to the Alaskan capital from the late Anglo-American master of letters, Jonathan Raban.
Teems with acerbic humour . . . 600 relentlessly intelligent pages of erudite, witty and combative prose.' Patrick McGrath, Guardian Book of the Week'
‘A wonderful, rushing, crowded, enlightening voyage . . . A book which, in its ingenious understanding, its acceptance of a very imperfect world, and its energetic and constant fascination with human variety, should do a great deal to dispel the easiest and therefore the most prolific paranoid deception which the Western imagination has now fabricated in its desperate attempt to avoid facing reality’ Angus Wilson, Observer ‘A gem of a book, full of events and people and philosophy’ Sunday Telegraph ‘With an eye for the striking scene and entertaining incident he combines a perceptiveness of deeper realities that makes Arabia more than an amusing travellers’ journal’ Daily Telegraph ‘A very enjoyable book . . . It is racy and entertaining travel writing’ Cosmopolitan ‘The advent of a new travel writer of the first rank is an occasion to celebrate. Such a discovery is Jonathan Raban, whose Arabia is a tour de force’ Yorkshire Post
In the city we can live deliberately: inventing and renewing ourselves, carving out journeys, creating private spaces. But in the city we are also afraid of being alone, clinging to the structures of daily life to ward off the chaos around us. How is it that the noisy, jostling, overwhelming metropolis leaves us at once so energized and so fragile? In Soft City, Jonathan Raban, one of our most acclaimed novelists and travel writers seeks to find out. First published in the 1970s, his account is a compelling exploration of urban life: a classic in the literature of the city, more relevant to today’s overcrowded planet than ever."
An extraordinary memoir about family, the past and mortality, and the final work from the peerless Jonathan Raban.
For over 30 years, George Grey has been a ship bunker in the west African nation of Montedor, a land of malaria and political upheaval. But now he's returning to England, to a life and world essentially foreign, and to the terra incognita of retirement.
Jonathan Raban’s powerful novel is set in Seattle in 1999, at the height of its infatuation with the virtual. It’s a place that attracts immigrants. One of these is Tom Janeway, a bookish Hungarian-born Englishman who makes his living commenting on American mores on NPR. Another, who calls himself Chick, is a frenetically industrious illegal alien from China who makes his living any way he can. Through a series of extraordinary but chillingly plausible events, the paths of these newcomers converge. Tom is uprooted from his marriage and must learn to father his endearing eight-year old son part-time. Chick claws his way up from exploited to exploiter. Meanwhile Seattle is troubled by rioting anarchists, vanishing children, and the discovery of an al-Qaeda operative; it is a city on the brink. Savage and tender, visionary and addictively entertaining, Waxwings is a major achievement. From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the bestselling novelist, travel writer, and "master of the short story" (NPR) comes a brilliant new collection. The stories in The Vanishing Point are both exotic and domestic, their settings ranging from Hawaii to Africa and New England. Each focuses on life's vanishing points--a moment when seemingly all lines running through one's life converge, and one can see no farther, yet must deal with the implications. With the insight, subtlety, and empathy that has long characterized his work, Theroux has written deeply moving stories about memory, longing, and the passing of time, reclaiming his status, once again, as a master of the form. 'The most gifted, most prodigal writer of his generation' Jonathan Raban 'The most exciting contemporary practitioner of a literary tradition honed to elegantly crafted terseness by Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene. A terrific teller of tales and conjurer of exotic locales' Sunday Times
