Nick Laird Knihy

Druhý román mladého britského prozaika a básníka Nicka Lairda je brilantní sondou do psychiky outsidera, který je svědkem, cynickým glosátorem a ve finále sabotérem milostného vztahu rozvíjejícího se mezi jeho dvěma přáteli. Sám autor označuje román za příběh Othella nahlížený z perspektivy Jaga. Klasický motiv lásky, žárlivosti a intrik je však moderní nejen zasazením do současného Londýna, ale také nejednoznačností charakterů všech tří hlavních protagonistů. Do mysli „antihrdiny“ Davida dá autor čtenáři nahlédnout tak zblízka, že je obtížné veškeré jeho jednání později zcela jednoznačně odmítnout. Také oba milenci, naivní James i mírně afektovaná umělkyně Ruth, jsou podáni plasticky, s nadhledem i jistou ironií.

A powerful new collection from one of our leading contemporary poets, reflecting the strange and chaotic times we live in.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE T. S. ELIOT PRIZE 2018 Nick Laird has been an assured and brilliant voice in contemporary poetry since his acclaimed debut, To a Fault, in 2005. Feel Free, his fourth collection, effortlessly spans the Atlantic, combining the acoustic expansiveness of Whitman or Ashbery with the lyricism of Laird's forebears Heaney, MacNeice and Yeats. With characteristic variety, invention and wit (here are elegies, monologues, formal poems and free verse) the poet explores the sundry patterns of freedom and constraint - the family, the impress of history, the body itself - and how we might transcend them. Feel Free is always daring, always renewing, and Laird's most remarkable work to date.

In this impressive debut, Nick Laird explores the sharp edge of relationships, from the intimacy of lovers to the brutality of political violence. Formally deft, rhetorically fresh, these poems never shy from difficult choices, exploring cruelty and vengeance wherever they may be found: in love, in work and against political backdrops.

Meet Maud: a guinea pig who inexplicably wears a judo suit - and not everyone understands or approves. When Maud is thrown into a new and confusing situation, it takes brave decisions and serendipitous encounters for her to find her place and embrace her individuality. The charming characters of Magenta Fox, whose work is evocative of Raymond Briggs and Janet Ahlberg, perfectly offset Zadie and Nick's warm, wry prose. Weirdo is an endearing story about the quiet power of being different by two veteran writers, and introduces an exciting debut illustrator. Together they have created a picture book that adults and children alike will treasure.

Exploring the complexities of human relationships, this book blends wit with a poignant undertone to delve into themes of happiness, sadness, conflict, and reconciliation. It offers a thought-provoking perspective on the dynamics of interpersonal connections. The narrative culminates in a moving depiction of marriage, drawing inspiration from the renowned military treatise, The Art of War, highlighting the parallels between love and conflict.

To a Fault, Nick Laird's debut collection, won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize;

A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR A powerful, thought-provoking novel about two sisters who must reclaim themselves after their lives are dramatically upended from one of our finest authors

A very funny, energetic, wonderfully engaging novel about where we're from and where we'd like to get to...

In The Zoo of the New, poets Don Paterson and Nick Laird have cast a fresh eye over more than five centuries of verse, from the English language and beyond. They have looked for those poems which see most clearly, which speak most vividly, and which have meant the most to them as readers and writers. Above all, they have sought poetry that retains, in one way or another, a powerful timelessness- words with the thrilling capacity to make the time and place in which they were written, however distant and however foreign they may be, feel utterly here and now in the twenty-first century. This book stretches as far back as Sappho and as far forward as the recent award-winning work of Denise Riley, taking in poets as varied as Thomas Wyatt, Sylvia Plath, William Shakespeare, T. S. Eliot, Frank O'Hara and Gwendolyn Brooks along the way. Teeming with old favourites and surprising discoveries, this lovingly selected compendium is sure to win lifelong readers.