Rick Gekoski Knihy

Darke Matter is a brilliant, mordant examination of the nature and obligations of love. Both immensely sad and extremely funny, the story wrestles with one of the great moral issues of our time. číst celé

The captivating and amusing account of the twenty-five books that have influenced the life of bibliophile Rick Gekoski.

'A riot of eloquent bigotry and bluster' THE TIMES BEST BOOKS OF 2022'Unbroken, unbowed and raging against the wokeness of the modern world' MAIL ON SUNDAY BEST NEW FICTIONReleased from prison after serving his sentence for the assisted death of his wife, his health failing and his chronic impatience exacerbated, Dr James Darke self-isolates. But on his return he understands that he is now a displaced person, lost in a new world for which his education and inclinations have not prepared him.Irascible, misanthropic, intensely bookish, fastidious in his tastes and rich enough to indulge them, Darke is a happy shut-in, busily writing oppositional pamphlets and composing a literary hoax. But his daughter and the Bulgarian housekeeper she hired to look after him have other ideas.After Darke is a moving, witty reflection on grief, ageing and love in all its forms, and James Darke is one of the most memorable, exasperating yet loveable characters of contemporary fiction.

Like Sherlock Holmes' dog in the night time, sometimes the true significance of things lies in their absence. Rick Gekoski tells the very human stories that lie behind some of the greatest losses to artistic culture - and addresses the questions such disappearances raise. Some of the items are stolen (the Mona Lisa), some destroyed (like Philip Larkin's diaries) and some were lost before they even existed, like the career of the brilliant art deco architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which floundered amid a lack of cash - but behind all of them lies an often surprising story which reveals a lot about what art means to us. Gekoski explores the greater questions these tremendous losses raise - such as the rights artists and authors have over their own work, the importance of the search for perfection in creativity, and what motivated people to queue to see the empty space where the Mona Lisa once hung in the Louvre.

Guarded by Dragons follows rare book dealer Rick Gekoski as he uncovers the mysteries behind the most unusual manuscripts and archives, where stories are weaved within stories.

A novel about 1950s America, a marriage in crisis, and a family falling apart at the seams, from the critically-acclaimed author of Darke

A daringly entertaining debut about the nature of a good life, and a good death

Bücher erzählen nicht nur großartige Geschichten, es lassen sich auch wunderbare Geschichten über Bücher erzählen. Das weiß niemand besser als Rick Gekoski, Buchhändler und Sammler aus Leidenschaft. Täglich begegnet er berühmten Autoren und großen Werken der Weltliteratur: Mit Graham Greene verbringt er zum Beispiel einen feuchtfröhlichen Abend im Londoner Ritz und ersteht am Ende dessen Erstausgabe von Lolita. An der Seite von Salman Rushdie muß er feststellen, daß er leider nicht zum Helden geboren wurde. Und der menschenscheue J. D. Salinger nötigt den notorischen Plauderer Gekoski auf seine ganz eigene Weise zur Diskretion. Das Leben als Büchernarr und Raritätensammler bietet reichlich Stoff für Anekdoten, aber auch Anlaß, sich über literarische Vorlieben Gedanken zu machen. Beides bringt Gekoski meisterhaft zusammen, und so hat er einen sehr persönlichen Literaturkanon verfaßt, der Lust aufs Weiterlesen, Wiederlesen und Entdecken macht.