Emma Cline Knihy

Evie Boydová toho v životě prožila hodně, ale vzpomínky na konec divokých 60. let by nejraději pohřbila hluboko v sobě. Jednoho dne však narazí na mladý pár, jenž jí všechno připomene: čas, kdy jí bylo sladkých patnáct, i chvíli, kdy poprvé spatřila dívky z Rodiny. Evie se doma nudí a brzy zjistí, že dny strávené na ranči, kde žije komunita vedená charismatickým Russellem, jenž vyznává volnou lásku a usiluje o smlouvu na svou první desku, ji naplňují víc než maloměstské hodnoty její matky. Postupem doby nicméně zjistí, že věci se nemají tak, jak se na první pohled zdálo. Když nahrávání padne, Russell se svou Rodinou nachystá strašnou odplatu. Evie se zmítá mezi láskou k Suzanne a zdravým rozumem. Jak nakonec dokáže najít cestu ven z roztáčející se spirály násilí, drog a sexu? Literární debut Emmy Cline je thrillerem inspirovaným osudy komunity Charlese Mansona, jehož chladnokrevně provedené vraždy nevinných lidí na konci éry hippies vyděsily americkou společnost.

The eagerly-awaited new book by Emma Cline, author of the global phenomenon The Girls The stories in Emma Cline's stunning first collection consider the dark corners of human experience, exploring the fault lines of power between men and women, parents and children, past and present. A man travels to his son's school to deal with the fallout of a violent attack and to make sure his son will not lose his college place. But what exactly has his son done? And who is to blame? A young woman trying to make it in LA, working in a clothes shop while taking acting classes, turns to a riskier way of making money but will be forced to confront the danger of the game she's playing. And a family coming together for Christmas struggle to skate over the lingering darkness caused by the very ordinary brutality of a troubled husband and father. These outstanding stories examine masculinity, male power and broken relationships, while revealing - with astonishing insight and clarity - those moments of misunderstanding that can have life-changing consequences. And there is an unexpected violence, ever-present but unseen, in the depiction of the complicated interactions between men and women, and families. Subtle, sophisticated and displaying an extraordinary understanding of human behaviour, these stories are unforgettable.

*A FINANCIAL TIMES Best Book of 2023 * A NEW STATESMAN Book of the Year 2023 * A TIMES 'Book of 2023' * 'Addictive' STYLIST Books to Look Out For 2023 * 'Destined to be the status read of 2023' HARPER'S BAZAAR BEST NEW FICTION * Summer is coming to a close on Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome... One misstep at a dinner party and the older man she's been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city. With few resources, but a gift for navigating the desires of others, Alex stays on the island. She drifts like a ghost through the gated driveways and sun-blasted dunes of a rarefied world, trailing destruction in her wake. Taut, sensual and impossible to look away from, The Guest captures the latent heat and potential danger of a summer that could go either way for a young woman teetering on the edge. PRAISE FOR EMMA CLINE 'Taut, beautiful and savage' GUARDIAN 'Stunning . . . thrilling . . . a spectacular achievement' THE TIMES 'Something about Cline's intimate tone, her talent for conjuring the feeling of being alive, is entirely and uniquely her own' RACHEL KUSHNER 'An astonishingly gifted stylist' BRANDON TAYLOR

Evie Boyd is desperate to be noticed. In the summer of 1969, empty days stretch out under the California sun. The smell of honeysuckle thickens the air and the sidewalks radiate heat. Until she sees them. The snatch of cold laughter. Hair, long and uncombed. Dirty dresses skimming the tops of thighs. Cheap rings like a second set of knuckles. The girls. And at the centre, Russell. Russell and the ranch, down a long dirt track and deep in the hills. Incense and clumsily strummed chords. Rumours of sex, frenzied gatherings, teen runaways. Was there a warning, a sign of things to come? Or is Evie already too enthralled by the girls to see that her life is about to be changed forever?

A private plane cuts through the winter night, somewhere over Greenland. David, a retired executive, sits back in his leather seat, playing solitaire on his phone. Click. Click. Drag. Click. The notebook in his jacket pocket is filled with familiar phrases, urgent reminders to himself, but he struggles to recognize his own handwriting. A mystery, among many mysteries. The world, once so knowable, has been rendered inscrutable. This is what David Cody, his assistant, asleep in the seat next to him, will shepherd him along the voyage. A stopover in London. Dinner with his adult daughter. A meeting in France with an old friend, estranged for decades. His final destination is Zurich. David glides through hotel rooms and airports and foreign cities, running out the clock on his mortal life. His grasp on the present slips away, and the past rushes the Sunday roasts of childhood. The stiff clothes meant only for church. A summer at a school friend’s house. The losses and missteps that punctuate a life. As David’s arrival in Zurich looms, an exquisitely rendered portrait of an unraveling mind emerges, both darkly humorous and profoundly moving. Hypnotic and startlingly original, Switzy probes the depths of human consciousness, revealing what a man is left with when the accomplishments and compromises that have defined him, and the illusions he's relied on, vanish.