Kirsty Gunn Boeken

As their family decays under the influence of alcohol, twelve-year-old Janey and her brother spend their summers by a lake, where they defend each other against the encroachments of the adult world. A first novel. 20,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo.

Infidelities by Kirsty Gunn is a new collection of short stories from the prize-winning author of The Big Music and The Boy and the Sea.

Kirsty Gunn’s first novel, Rain, was praised by the New York Times as “exquisitely written . . . every page expresses familiar feelings in ways that are unsentimental and entirely original”; “spellbinding,” raved the Boston Globe. That same resonant magnetism and emotional depth infuse her new novel. Featherstone is the story of the mysterious disappearance from an isolated town in Scotland of a young woman whose absence still reverberates in the lives of everyone whose life she touched. When Sonny Johanssen looks up from his flower bed, he is sure that he has just seen the impossible. And yet he feels her: his niece, Francie, has come home. He’s not the only one who senses her presence. Across town, Ray Weldon, Francie’s long-suffering high school sweetheart, is anxiously scouring their old haunts, convinced that she has finally returned. But has she really come home, or is her presence some kind of resurrection in the minds of those who love her? It soon becomes clear that Featherstone is not a traditional tale of small-town life, but that the enigmatic Francie is a catalyst for a different, deeper story. Her homecoming disturbs the inhabitants of this community, unraveling a sense of security and stability and turning inward people’s hopes and dreams — with dangerous but ultimately regenerative consequences.

From the author of Rain and Featherstone comes a story of a sun-drenched, sea-soaked day which changes a boy's life forever. At the start of a summer's day, Ward is waiting on the beach. His friend, Alex, wants him to come to a party at Alison's where there'll be girls and drinks and the possibilities of fun. But Ward is shy and self conscious and struggling to move from under the weight of his powerful father. He'd rather wait on the beach for the surf to come up. As the the sun moves towards its highest point and the girls' laughter carries along the wind towards Ward, the tide changes and Ward is faced with a dramatic event that will change his life forever. This beautiful and intense coming-of-age story captures perfectly the discomforts and challenges of being fifteen years old with the world stretching out in front of you. Sensual, heady, as though dazed by the heat of her pages, Gunn slowly unfolds a tale of danger and sexuality, of mothers and sons and the fathers who rule them, and of the sea.

Pretty Ugly by Kirsty Gunn is the inaugural title in a new series of short story collections from Landfall Tauraka and Otago University Press, celebrating the art of short fiction in Aotearoa New Zealand.In Pretty Ugly, Kirsty Gunn reminds us that ambiguity and complication are elemental forces in a human life, and grist to the storyteller’s mill. These 13 darkly compelling stories, set in New Zealand and in the UK, are testament to Gunn’s unrivalled ability to look directly into the troubled human heart and draw out what dwells there. The ‘ugly’ of these stories, she writes, is to do with ‘considering how much a person’s life can bear’.Longings, compulsions, jealousies, dreams; ambitions realised, desires denied: Gunn’s steady, clear-eyed gaze unsettles complacencies, reveals duplicities, and gathers us all into the fold. She brings unease and compassion for the human condition in equal measure to the page. Each of these stories is an exquisite, thorn-sharp bouquet.

„Regentage“ erzählt von der zwölfjährigen Janey und ihrem Bruder, die während eines Sommerurlaubs am See von ihren Eltern vernachlässigt werden. Sie erkunden die Natur und träumen von Flucht, bis ein tragischer Vorfall ihre kindliche Unschuld bedroht.

Liebe – schwarz auf weiß Es hat gefunkt beim ersten Anblick. Evan ist in Liebe zu Caroline entbrannt. Alles Weitere soll seine gute alte Freundin Nin für ihn festhalten, auf dem Papier. Am besten als Roman. Den sie bei unzähligen Treffen in diversen Londoner Pubs bereden. Und sollte der Plot zu wünschen übrig lassen … Es gibt ja berühmte Vorlagen für diese Art von Liebe. Überraschend, herausfordernd, geistreich und witzig.

Plötzlich scheren sie aus. Gehen fort aus dem Gewohnten. Weg von Mann und Kindern, Familie. Unerwartet für sich selbst und die anderen. Es ist ganz offenbar ein unvermeidlicher Moment in ihrem Leben. Ob sie zurückkommen? Nicht jede tut es. Präzise und poetisch durchscheinend erzählt Kirsty Gunn Geschichten von wortlosen Aufbrüchen und stillen Selbstbesinnungen.

Eine bewegende Hommage an die große Katherine Mansfield Ein Forschungsstipendium führt Kirsty Gunn nach dreißigjähriger Abwesenheit zurück in ihre Heimatstadt Wellington in Neuseeland, an den Ort, an dem auch Katherine Mansfield aufgewachsen ist. Die Stadt, für beide viel mehr als nur bloßer Schauplatz, entpuppt sich als Anlaufstelle für Erinnerungen, Charakterisierungen und Kulissen. Daran entlang erkundet Gunn die Ideen von Heimat und Zugehörigkeit und den tiefgreifenden Einfluss von Mansfield auf ihre eigene kreative Reise. Spurensuche, Heimatbild und Erkenntnisprozess gleichermaßen - eine funkelnde Studie über Freiheit, Vertrautheit, Liebe und Einsamkeit.