Knihobot

Deborah Levy

    6. srpen 1959

    Deborah Levyová je autorkou s neobyčejně bohatým literárním životem, která začínala psaním divadelních her, jež se vyznačovaly intelektuální přísností a poetickou fantazií. Po úspěších na divadelní scéně objevila svobodu románové tvorby, která jí umožnila plně rozvinout její jedinečný hlas. Její díla zkoumají složité psychologické krajiny a často se dotýkají témat identity a hledání smyslu. Levyová se nebojí experimentovat s formou i obsahem, čímž čtenářům nabízí provokativní a nezapomenutelný literární zážitek.

    Deborah Levy
    Things I Don't Want to Know
    Billy & Girl
    The Cost of Living
    Real Estate
    Doplavat domů
    Horké mléko
    • Horké mléko

      • 218 stránek
      • 8 hodin čtení

      Mladá antropoložka Sofia se již celé roky snaží vyřešit záhadu matčiny nevysvětlitelné choroby. Z Rose a jejích věčných nářků a stížností je už celá zničená, ale na druhé straně pro ni představují únik před vlastním neuspokojivým životem, za který se stále zdráhá převzít zodpovědnost. Společně s matkou odcestují na vyprahlé pobřeží Španělska, kde hodlají navštívit věhlasného lékaře, do něhož vkládají naději, že by mohl vyléčit Rosino matoucí ochrnutí. Je to její poslední šance. Doktor Gómez však používá velmi zvláštní metody, které mají pramálo společného s klasickou medicínou, a jak léčba pokračuje, Rosin stav se i pro něj stává stále větší záhadou. Krize ve vztahu mezi matkou a dcerou se stupňuje a rozptýlení hledající Sofia se zaplétá do svůdné a pomíjivé milostné aféry. Tento takřka snový hypnotický příběh o síle ženy je jako labyrint plný tužeb, pudů a surrealisticky přesvědčivé logiky. Autorka v něm prozkoumává otázky lidské sexuality, potlačovaného hněvu, svůdnosti sklouznutí k hypochondrii a užívání farmaceutik i prazvláštní povahu mateřství a zároveň oslavuje hodnotu experimentování se životem – hodnotu zvídavosti, prostého úžasu a snahy žít naplno.

      Horké mléko
      3,5
    • Doplavat domů

      • 160 stránek
      • 6 hodin čtení

      Francouzská Riviéra, rodinka na dovolené. Osoby a obsazení: Joe je uznávaný básník, jeho manželka Isabel pracuje jako reportérka. Plus pubertální dcera plus dva rodinní přátelé. Tuhle idylku naruší neznámá dívka, která se jednou ráno koupe nahá v jejich bazénu. Kitty je výstřední, nevypočitatelná, možná duševně narušená mladá žena… Během jednoho týdne se životy všech obrátí naruby.

      Doplavat domů
      3,5
    • Three bicycles. Seven ghosts. A crumbling apartment block on the hill. Fame. Tenderness. The statue of Peter Pan. Silk. Melancholy. The banana tree. A Pandemic. A love story. From a leading thinker and writer, this final installment in a critically acclaimed series offers an exhilarating and intimate meditation on home and the spectres that haunt it. Following the success of the previous volume, this work explores what women, both seen and unseen, possess at the end of their lives—both tangible property and intangible values often overlooked by society. It questions ownership and the impact of patriarchy on identity. Real estate becomes a complex metaphor for the lives women navigate, as they buy, sell, and inherit while also confronting what must be discarded. Levy's prose is wise, subtle, and ironic, with each sentence reflecting clarity and poise. Critics have praised her work as extraordinary and beautiful, filled with wit and sharp insights. This book promises to resonate deeply with readers, inviting them to reflect on the intricate relationship between identity, ownership, and the legacies we leave behind.

      Real Estate
      4,3
    • The Cost of Living

      • 208 stránek
      • 8 hodin čtení

      A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF THE 21ST CENTURY WINNER OF THE PRIX FEMINA ETRANGER 2020 Following on from the critically acclaimed Things I Don't Want to Know, discover the powerful second memoir in Deborah Levy's essential three-part 'Living Autobiography'. 'I can't think of any writer aside from Virginia Woolf who writes better about what it is to be a woman' Observer _________________________________ 'Life falls apart. We try to get a grip and hold it together. And then we realise we don't want to hold it together . . .' The final instalment in Deborah Levy's critically acclaimed 'Living Autobiography', Real Estate, is available now. _________________________________ 'I just haven't stopped reading it . . . it talks so beautifully about being a woman' Billie Piper on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs 'It is the story of every woman throughout history who has expended her love and labour on making a home that turns out to serve the needs of everyone except herself. Wonderful' Guardian 'Wise, subtle and ironic, Levy's every sentence is a masterpiece of clarity and poise . . . a brilliant writer' Daily Telegraph 'A graceful and lyrical rumination on the questions, "What is a woman for? What should a woman be?"' Tatler 'Extraordinary and beautiful, suffused with wit and razor-sharp insights' Financial Times

      The Cost of Living
      4,3
    • Billy & Girl

      • 192 stránek
      • 7 hodin čtení

      In this brilliant, inventive, tragic farce, Deborah Levy creates the ultimate dysfunctional kids, Billy and his sister Girl. Apparently abandoned years ago by their parents, they now live alone somewhere in England. Girl spends much of her time trying to find their mother, going to strangers' doors and addressing whatever Prozac woman who answers as "Mom." Billy spends his time fantasizing a future in which he will be famous, perhaps in the United States as a movie star, or as a psychiatrist, or as a doctor to blondes with breast enlargements, or as the author of "Billy England's Book of Pain." Together they both support and torture each other, barely able to remember their pasts but intent on forging a future that will bring them happiness and reunite them with the ever-elusive Mom. Billy and Girl are every boy and girl reeling from the pain of their childhoods, forgetting what they need to forget, inventing worlds they think will be better, but usually just prolonging nightmares as they begin to create--or so it seems--alternative personalities that will allow them to survive and conquer and punish. In the end, the reader is as bewildered as Billy and Girl--have they found Mom and a semblance of family, or are, they completely out of control and ready to explode?

      Billy & Girl
      4,0
    • Things I Don't Want to Know

      A Response to George Orwell's 1946 Essay 'Why I Write'

      • 108 stránek
      • 4 hodiny čtení

      'In her powerful rejoinder to Orwell, Deborah Levy responds to his proposed motives for writing -- 'sheer egoism', 'aesthetic enthusiasm', 'historical impulse' and 'political purpose' -- with illuminating moments of autobiography. A vivid, striking account of a writer's life, which feminises and personalises Orwell's blunt assertions' Spectator

      Things I Don't Want to Know
      4,2
    • 20 Under 35

      Original Stories by Britain's Best New Young Writers

      • 336 stránek
      • 12 hodin čtení

      A collection of short stories by young British writers, this provides an introduction to the work of Iain Banks, Peter Benson, H.S. Bhabra, James Buchan, Patricia Ferguson, Ronald Frame, Patrick Gale, Carlo Gebler, James Lasdun, Deborah Levy, Adam Lively, Aidan Mathews, Candia McWilliam, Geoff Nicholson, Tim Parks, Philip Ridley, Joan Smith, Rupert Thomson, Daisy Waugh and Mathew Yorke. Many of these have already received critical acclaim. The collection is introduced by Graham Swift, author of "Waterland" and "Out of this World".

      20 Under 35
      3,5
    • The mesmerising new novel from the twice Booker-shortlisted author of Hot Milk and Swimming Home At the height of her career, concert pianist Elsa M. Anderson - former child prodigy, now in her thirties - walks off the stage in Vienna, mid-performance. Now she is in Athens, watching as another young woman, a stranger but uncannily familiar - almost her double - purchases a pair of mechanical dancing horses at a flea market. Elsa wants the horses too, but there are no more for sale. She drifts to the ferry port, on the run from her talent and her history. So begins a journey across Europe, shadowed by the elusive woman who bought the dancing horses. A dazzling portrait of melancholy and metamorphosis, August Blue uncovers the ways in which we seek to lose an old story, find ourselves in others and create ourselves anew. 'A writer at the peak of her talents' Lisa Appignanesi 'There's no one touching the brilliance of Deborah Levy's prose today' Lee Rourke 'Levy's strength is her originality of thought and expression' Jeanette Winterson

      August Blue
      3,9
    • "She is a shimmering, melancholy angel, flown from Paradise to save him from the suburbs of hell. He an accountant, dreaming of a white Christmas, a little garden and someone to love. A storm of romance and slapstick, of heavenly and earthly delights, in this dystopian philosophical poem about individual freedom and the search for the good life."--Back cover

      An Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs of Hell
      3,8
    • The man who saw everything

      • 208 stránek
      • 8 hodin čtení

      This exciting new masterpiece from Deborah Levy, longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, is a beguiling fever dream of a novel. It offers an ice-cold critique of patriarchy and the darkness of 20th-century Europe. In 1988, Saul Adler, a narcissistic young historian, is hit by a car on Abbey Road but appears unscathed. After a brief encounter with his art student girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau, he leaves for communist East Berlin just months before the Wall falls. There, he meets his assigned translator and her sister, who claims to have seen a jaguar in the city. As Saul navigates love, his troubled relationship with his authoritarian father, and a friendship with a possibly dubious hippy named Rainer, he grapples with the complexities of history and memory. The narrative slips between time zones, exploring what we perceive and overlook, the consequences of carelessness, and the burdens of history. Levy's electrifying prose is described as clever and raw, presenting a dizzying tale that challenges conventions and delves into life across time and borders.

      The man who saw everything
      3,7