In dit speelse gedachte-experiment van Michael Chabon vestigt een gemeenschap van joden uit het oude Europa zich tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog in de fictieve Amerikaans-joodse staat Alaska. In de ruige, overbevolkte hoofdstad Sitka stuit inspecteur Meyer Landsman op het lijk van een heroïnejunk annex schaakwonder. Al snel leidt deze moord naar de charismatische rabbijn Heskel Sjpilman, aanvoerder van een sekte die er maffiose praktijken op na houdt. Maar achter de sekte duikt een nog veel dreigender schaduw op. --amboanthos.nl
This contemporary and thought-provoking novel explores the deep unease felt by many in modern democracies. A seventy-two-year-old Australian writer is invited to contribute to a collection titled Strong Opinions, providing him an opportunity to express urgent concerns. He pens short essays on topics such as the origins of the state, Machiavelli, anarchism, Al-Qaida, intelligent design, and music. He questions the relationship between citizens and the state, particularly regarding the state's moral compromises and civil liberties in the ongoing war on terror, which includes torture. The writer's life takes a turn when he meets Anya, a captivating young woman in his apartment building who is between jobs. Claiming failing eyesight, he offers her work typing his manuscript, which serves as a distraction for her from her lack of interest in politics and her relationship with her boyfriend, Alan. Alan, an investment consultant with a harsh view of the world, becomes wary of Anya's time with the writer and starts to devise a plan. This novel presents a rich tapestry of ideas and relationships, reflecting the complexities of contemporary life and the challenges faced in democratic societies.
Humbert Humbert - scholar, aesthete and romantic - has fallen completely and utterly in love with Lolita Haze, his landlady's gum-snapping, silky skinned twelve-year-old daughter. Reluctantly agreeing to marry Mrs Haze just to be close to Lolita, Humbert suffers greatly in the pursuit of romance; but when Lo herself starts looking for attention elsewhere, he will carry her off on a desperate cross-country misadventure, all in the name of Love. Hilarious, flamboyant, heart-breaking and full of ingenious word play, Lolita is an immaculate, unforgettable masterpiece of obsession, delusion and lust.
Het leven in de Verenigde Staten sedert 1951 zoals weerspiegeld in de lotgevallen van een groot aantal fictieve personages en historische figuren als Frank Sinatra, J. Edgar Hoover en Lenny Bruce.
In this novel Paul Auster offers a haunting picture of a devastated world - a futuristic world - but one which may be seen to shadow our own. Auster has also written The New York Trilogy.
