A. L. Kennedy Knihy

Svazek patnácti krátkých próz jedné z nejtalentovanějších současných britských prozaiček zaujme originalitou témat, rozmanitostí autorských hlasů v jednotlivých příbězích a vybroušeným úsporným stylem, jímž dokáže s ironickým odstupem i sympatiemi zachytit „nesmírný tichý křik“ svých bezvýznamných a osamělých současníků. V prestižní anketě časopisu Granta byla Kennedyová v r. 1993 vybrána jako jedna z dvacítky nejlepších mladých britských prozaiků.

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Mary, a young girl born in a beautiful city full of rose gardens and fluttering kites. When she is still very small, Mary meets Lanmo, a shining golden snake, who becomes her very best friend. The snake visits Mary many times, he sees her grow and her city change, as bombs drop and war creeps in. Lanmo wonders, can having a friend possibly be worth the pain of knowing you will lose them?

"Five years after the end of World War II, Alfie Day, an RAF airman and former World War II POW, is given the chance to relive the glory of the war as an extra on a POW film, an opportunity that leads him to new revelations about himself, the world around him, and the challenges and violence of modern life"--NoveList.

A story of Margaret and the two men in her life: her father, who brought her up, and Colin, her lover ... A tender, moving story, punctuated by flashes of comedy and one climatic moment of appalling violence.

Nathan Staples is consumed by loathing and love in roughly equal measures. Frustrated by his life and the way he lives it, he is sustained only by his passionate devotion for his estranged wife and their teenage daughter, Mary. When Nathan contrives to have Mary invited to the island where he lives in retreat, he sets in motion the possiblity of telling her he is her father, and becoming whole and complete and alive again.

Uncle Shawn and his best friend Badger Bill are back for another brilliantly bonkers adventure. With their trusty llama pals they've seen off the nasty Dr P'Klawz and everything on their farm up on the sunny side of Scotland should be just about perfect. What could possibly go wrong?

Bullfighting - the ultimate spectator sport. Beyond the theatre, the costume and the well-worn plot she focuses on the fact that a man faces his death while a crowd looks on. The result is a startling confrontation with her own, and mankind's, mortality. schovat popis

"Everything in Hannah Luckraft's life is tinted amber: her dreary job selling cardboard boxes; her strained relations with a beloved younger brother, who is about to give up on her; and especially her incipient relationship with Robert, a man who understands what it is to drink. They become constant companions, and she drinks up his tender affection with the same soul-ravaged thirst she brings to her search for paradise - the paradise of self-annihilation, a reprieve from the howling loneliness and difficulty of waking life. Together and then alone, she and Robert spiral through the beauty and depravity of a love affair with alcohol and with each other. From Scotland to Montreal, and onward, Hannah travels beyond her limits, beyond herself, in search of the ultimate altered state, the place where she can be happy: her paradise."--Jacket

Exposing and exploring the sinuous undercurrents of violence, anguish and love, A.L. Kennedy examines the nature of the individual, both in isolation and society, as characters define and deny their chosen identities. While showing us the unlikeliness of intimacy and the impossibility of communication, Kennedy also reveals the subversive liberation of impotence, the humour of discomfort as human beings chafe together, the crazed claustrophobia of the family adn the wildly funny results of an eccentricity unleashed.