The narrator in Jean-Luc Benoziglio s"Privy Portrait"has fallen on hard times. His wife and young daughter have abandoned him, he has no work or prospects, he s blind in one eye, and he must move into a horribly tiny apartment with his only possession: a twenty-five-volume encyclopedia. His neighbors, the Shritzkys, are vulgar, narrow-minded, and racist. And because he has no space for his encyclopedia in his cramped room, he stores it in the communal bathroom, and this becomes a major point of contention with his neighbors. The bathroom is also the only place he can find refuge from the...
The narrator in Jean-Luc Benoziglio s"Privy Portrait"has fallen on hard times. His wife and young daughter have abandoned him, he has no work or prosp...
When Kurt Weber inherits his great-uncle s lakeside house, he finds traces of the dark secrets of his family s past. The early inhabitants of the house haunt his dreams nightly. And one day a ghostlike woman appears before him, hiding herself in a room that had been kept locked throughout his childhood. Inside, Kurt finds a hidden stash of photographs, letters, and documents. As he deciphers them, he gradually understands the degree of complicity in wartime horrors by his family and among his neighbors. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the entire village adheres to an old and...
When Kurt Weber inherits his great-uncle s lakeside house, he finds traces of the dark secrets of his family s past. The early inhabitants of the hous...
After several years abroad, a young man returns to his hometown to seek the man he calls master. This master, a brilliant philosopher, had made the young man into a disciple before sending him out into the world to put his teachings into practice. Returning three years later, the disciple finds his master has abandoned his wife and child and moved into a squalid one-room flat, cutting himself off completely from his former life. Disillusioned and reeling from the discovery, the young man spends an entire night listening to his master s bitter denunciation of the ideals they once shared....
After several years abroad, a young man returns to his hometown to seek the man he calls master. This master, a brilliant philosopher, had made the yo...
Since his first collection of poetry appeared in 1953, Philippe Jaccottet has sought to express the ineffable that lies at the heart of our material world in his essential, elemental poetry. As one of Switzerland's most prominent and prolific men of letters, Jaccottet has published more than a dozen books of poetry and criticism. One of Europe's finest contemporary poets, Jaccottet is a writer of exacting attention. Through keen observations of the natural world, of art, literature, music, and reflections on the human condition, Jaccottet opens his readers' eyes to the transcendent in...
Since his first collection of poetry appeared in 1953, Philippe Jaccottet has sought to express the ineffable that lies at the heart of our material w...
Hans Magnus Enzensberger takes the title for this collection of daring short essays on topical themes--politics, economics, religion, society--not from Jeremy Bentham's famous prison but from a mid-1930s Cabinet of Curiosities opened in Germany by Karl Valentin. -There, - writes Enzensberger, -viewers could admire, along with implements of torture, all manner of abnormalities and sensational inventions.- And that's what he offers here: a wide-ranging, surprising look at all manner of strange aspects of our contemporary world. As masterly with the essay as he is with fiction and poetry,...
Hans Magnus Enzensberger takes the title for this collection of daring short essays on topical themes--politics, economics, religion, society--not fro...