Het werk van Bernard MacLaverty duikt in de complexiteit van menselijke connecties en de manieren waarop individuen navigeren door de omgevingen die hen vormen. Zijn proza, vaak gesitueerd tegen onderscheidende Ierse en Schotse achtergronden, verkent thema's als identiteit, vervreemding en de zoektocht naar verbondenheid. Hij staat bekend om een precieze, maar poëtische stijl die diepe emoties en universele waarheden blootlegt in alledaagse ervaringen. Lezers voelen een band met zijn schrijven vanwege de eerlijkheid en de inzichtelijke portrettering van de menselijke conditie.
`Characters all but leap off the page with believability in these marvellous stories of life (and death) in Belfast' Sunday TimesMelding his native Irish sensibilities to those of his adopted west-coast Scotland, these tales attend to life's big events: love and loss, separation and violence, death and betrayal.
The extraordinary new story collection from one of Ireland's greatest writers and bestselling author of Mindwinter Break. Bernard MacLaverty is a consummately gifted short-story writer and novelist whose work - like that of John McGahern, William Trevor, Edna O'Brien or Colm Tóibín - is deceptively simple on the surface, but carries a turbulent undertow. Everywhere, the dark currents of violence, persecution and regret pull at his subject matter: family love, the making of art, Catholicism, the Troubles and, latterly, ageing. Blank Pages is a collection of twelve extraordinary new stories that show the emotional range of a master. 'Blackthorns', for instance, tells of a poor out-of-work Catholic man who falls gravely ill in the sectarian Northern Ireland of 1942 but is brought back from the brink by an unlikely saviour. The most recently written story here is the harrowing but transcendent 'The End of Days', which imagines the last moments in the life of painter Egon Schiele, watching his wife dying of Spanish flu - the world's worst pandemic, until now. Much of what MacLaverty writes is an amalgam of sadness and joy, of circumlocution and directness. He never wastes words but neither does he ever forget to make them sing. Each story he writes creates a universe.
Bernard Mac Laverty's beautifully turned stories are full of humour, terse realism and moments of touching or shocking surprise. Nelson plays truant and sees something he wishes he hadn't in the title story, 'A Time to Dance'. In Phonefun Limited Sadie and Agnes, retired prostitutes hit upon an inventive new way of making someone happy with a phone call, while in ‘My Dear Palestrina' a remarkable music teacher initiates her pupil into the mysteries of art and maturity.
Für das Niveau B2, ab dem 6. Lernjahr. Ungekürzter englischer Originaltext mit Annotationen
Set in the Northern Ireland of the 1980’s, Cal tells the story of a young Catholic man living in a Protestant area. For Cal, some choices are devastatingly simple: he can work in an abattoir that nauseates him or join the dole queue; he can brood on his past or plan a future with Marcella. Springing out of the fear and violence of Ulster, Cal is a haunting love story that unfolds in a land where tenderness and innocence can only flicker briefly in the dark.
Eleven stories tell of a sword swallower, a lonely old lady who writes letters to herself, a retired policeman, a parish priest, a shy young boy, and a famous architect and his son
In Phonefun Limited Sadie and Agnes, retired prostitutes hit upon an inventive new way of making someone happy with a phone call, while in My Dear Palestrina' a remarkable music teacher initiates her pupil into the mysteries of art and maturity.
Any book of stories from Bernard MacLaverty is a cause for celebration, but Matters of Life and Death is more than that, as it is - without question - one of the finest contemporary examples of the short story as a genre.
Married love, male friendship, a small boy intruding upon secret adult grief, a husband contemplating infidelity - in these wonderful stories Bernard MacLaverty catches his characters at moments of epiphany, when ordinary life is set alight with sudden knowledge, memory, regret or desire.
Returning to Belfast after a long absense, to attend her fathers funeral. This is a novel, about coming to terms with the past and the healing power of music, GRACE NOTES is a master story-tellers triumphant return to the long form: a powerful lyrical novel of great distinction.
A collection of stories that examines worlds in collision, relationships fragmenting, and innocence face to face with real life, real death.
