Bob Comet, a retired librarian, spends his solitary days in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. During a routine walk, he helps a confused elderly woman lost in a market, returning her to the senior center that is her home. Seeking to fill the emptiness left by retirement, he begins volunteering at the center. As he connects with a community of quirky peers and confronts a painful complication from his past, the layers of his character and life story unfold. Beneath Bob's straight man facade lies a narrative of a troubled childhood during the final days of World War II, experiences of love gained and lost, and the pride found in his librarian vocation. His life, marked by melancholy, is also infused with bright comedy, as he has a knack for attracting eccentric characters into his world. With his distinct humor and compassion for outcasts, the author crafts a wide-ranging exploration of the introvert's experience. This work celebrates the extraordinary within ordinary lives and beautifully illustrates the turbulence that can lurk beneath a calm exterior.
Patrick deWitt Volgorde van de boeken (chronologisch)
Patrick de Witt wordt geprezen om zijn kenmerkende stem en scherpe humor. Zijn verhalen duiken vaak in de levens van excentrieke personages die zich door ongebruikelijke omstandigheden manoeuvreren, gekenmerkt door droge humor en onverwachte wendingen. Met een scherp oog voor het absurde en een diep begrip van de menselijke natuur creëert de Witt gedenkwaardige verhalen die lezers aantrekken. Zijn vermogen om duistere thema's te combineren met komische elementen zorgt voor een werkelijk unieke leeservaring.
French Exit
- 256bladzijden
- 9 uur lezen
A comedy/tragedy of manners. The new novel from the Man Booker-shortlisted author of The Sisters Brothers Frances Price - tart widow, possessive mother and Upper East Side force of nature - is in dire straits, beset by scandal. Her adult son Malcolm is no help, mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then there's their cat, who Frances believes houses the spirit of her late husband, an infamously immoral world-class cad whose gruesome tabloid death rendered Frances and Malcolm social outcasts. The curious trio head for the exit, escape pariahdom and land in Paris - a backdrop for self-destruction and economic ruin, and peopled by a number of singular characters: a bashful private investigator, an aimless psychic and Mme. Reynard, aggressive houseguest and friendly American expat. Brimming with pathos and wit, French Exit is a one-of-a-kind tragedy of manners, a riotous send-up of high society and a moving story of mothers and sons
The raucous, poignant and spectacularly enjoyable novel by the author of Man Booker Prize-shortlisted The Sisters Brothers .
Ablutions
- 172bladzijden
- 7 uur lezen
From the author of the Booker shortlisted Sisters Brothers - a dark, boozy and hilarious tale from the LA underworld.
De gebroeders Sisters
- 248bladzijden
- 9 uur lezen
Shortlisted for: International Author of the Year - Specsavers National Book Awards 2012 Oregon, 1851. Eli and Charlie Sisters, notorious professional killers, are on their way to California to kill a man named Hermann Kermit Warm. On the way, the brothers have a series of unsettling experiences in the landscape of Gold Rush America. And they bicker a lot. Arriving in California, and discover that Warm has invented a magical formula, which could make all of them very rich. What happens next is utterly gripping, strange and sad....