Dan Chaon Knihy

Největší potíž má u brilantního románu amerického autora z Clevelandu v Ohiu kritika s žánrovým zařazením - hranice mezi pulp fiction a vysokou literaturou je velmi úzká. Od počátku je jasné, že tři nesourodé vyprávěcí roviny budou do sebe nějak zapadat. V jedné sledujeme příběh Milese Cheshirea, který nepřestává ani po letech hledat svého bratra-dvojče -­­ ten za sebou nechává tajemné, pracně a podivně konstruované stopy a svého bratra vodí z jednoho neuvěřitelného místa na druhé. Ve druhé linii sledujeme příběh vyprávěný očima studentky střední školy, znuděné životem na malém městě, která uteče se svým charismatickým profesorem matematiky do opuštěného motelu kdesi v Nebrasce a která začne tušit, že všechno není, jak se zdálo být. Třetí vypravěč začíná šokující akcí: s uříznutou paží položenou v autě mezi nimi ho ve tři ráno veze jeho otec do nemocnice.

"A high speed and darkly comic road trip through a near future America with a bighearted mercenary"--

Jonah Doyle is six years old. He lives with his mother, his grandfather and their dog Elizabeth in a yellow house in South Dakota. It is a house full of tensions, for Jonah's grandfather is old and tired, and his mother often doesn't want to talk at all. And then one sunny day in early spring, when the snow has mostly melted, a terrible accident occurs that will change the course of Jonah's life. That same spring, hundreds of miles away, Troy Timmens is growing up in a very different world. He spends his afternoons at his cousins' house, watching older teenagers smoking marijuana, pretending to be uninterested. When he is ten, he receives his first kiss. When asked how it feels to be adopted, he hardly knows how to answer, for he rarely thinks about it. He is perfectly happy with his life as it is. Over the course of this spellbinding novel, the secret connections that link Troy and Jonah are gradually revealed. 'You Remind Me of Me' is an unforgettable story about the extraordinary lives of seemingly 'ordinary' people.

"A psychologist in suburban Cleveland, Dustin is drifting through his forties when he hears the news: his adopted brother Rusty is being released from prison. Thirty years ago, Rusty received a life sentence for the massacre of Dustin's parents, aunt, and uncle. The trial came to epitomize the 1980s hysteria over Satanic cults; despite the lack of physical evidence, the jury believed the outlandish accusations Dustin and his cousin made against Rusty. Now, after DNA analysis has overturned the conviction, Dustin braces for a reckoning"--Dust jacket flap.

Holland and Niles Perry are identical thirteen-year-old twins. They are close, close enough, almost, to read each other’s thoughts, but they couldn’t be more different. Holland is bold and mischievous, a bad influence, while Niles is kind and eager to please, the sort of boy who makes parents proud. The Perrys live in the bucolic New England town their family settled centuries ago, and as it happens, the extended clan has gathered at its ancestral farm this summer to mourn the death of the twins’ father in a most unfortunate accident. Mrs. Perry still hasn’t recovered from the shock of her husband’s gruesome end and stays sequestered in her room, leaving her sons to roam free. As the summer goes on, though, and Holland’s pranks become increasingly sinister, Niles finds he can no longer make excuses for his brother’s actions. Thomas Tryon’s best-selling novel about a homegrown monster is an eerie examination of the darkness that dwells within everyone. It is a landmark of psychological horror that is a worthy descendent of the books of James Hogg, Robert Louis Stevenson, Shirley Jackson, and Patricia Highsmith.

L'idea di questa antologia, pubblicata come numero unico della rivista di Dave Eggers "McSweeney's", nasce dalla volontà del curatore, Michael Chabon, di ridare dignità e visibilità alle short stories di avventure in cui un tempo si cimentavano autori quali Balzac, Conrad, Henry James ed Edith Wharton. Una raccolta in cui il racconto breve riacquista la sua dimensione più classica, tradizionale e avvincente: quella di narrarre storie avventurose e piene di thrilling. Gli autori chiamati a misurarsi con questa sfida sono tra i più rappresentativi della letteratura angloamericana da Stephen King a Rick Moody, da Michael Crichton a Neil Gaiman, da Elmore Leonard a Nick Hornby per finire con Dave Heggers e Harlan Ellison.