New Fiction at the Libraries, June 9
June 9, 2010 – 4:14 PMThe Devil’s Elixirs by E.T.A. Hoffman
PT2361.E5 E62 2009
The son of a heinous sinner, Medardus is brought up in a monastery to atone for his father’s wicked ways. After succumbing to temptation, however, Medardus himself is lured into a life of sin, and he embarks upon a fantastical journey in which he meets his doppelganger, involves himself in a game of double impersonation, and becomes embroiled in murderous intrigues at the Vatican. First published in 1815, this is a macabre masterpiece of German literature.
Listen to My Voice by Susanna Tamaro; Translated by John Cullen.
PQ4880.A445 A8813 2008
Marta is raised by her grandmother in her house in Trieste, a safe haven of stories, books and enchantment. She knows that her mother died when she was young, and she believes that her father is a Turkish prince. As she grows older and this fairy-tale disintegrates, Marta feels only anger towards her grandmother for withholding information about her parents. When her grandmother dies, Marta is alone in the world. One day, in the dusty attic, she finds a box belonging to her mother which may help to uncover her own past. With clues found in her mother’s journal and a worn photograph, Marta decides to track down her father, who she believes may still be alive. Feeling the need to escape her grandmother’s house, which is populated by secrets, Marta embarks on a journey to Israel, seeking what is left of her mother’s family in an attempt to make sense of where she came from. Written as a young woman’s narrative addressed to the memory of her grandmother, Listen to My Voice is a poignant coming of age story, and a meditation on the importance of history and belonging.Told in Tamaro’s vivid prose, this compelling and beautifully crafted novel is the companion volume to Susanna Tamaro’s bestselling Follow Your Heart.
86’d: A novel by Dan Fante
PS3556.A545 A15 2009
In Los Angeles, struggling telemarketer-writer and part-time drunk Bruno Dante is jobless again. The publication of his book of short stories has been put off indefinitely. Searching the want ads for a gig, he finds a chauffeur job. When Bruno calls the number in the ad, he discovers the boss is his former Manhattan employer David Koffman, who is opening a West Coast branch of his thriving limo service. Koffman hires Bruno as resident manager of Dav-Ko Hollywood under one condition: he must remain sober. But instant business success triggers an abrupt booze-and-blackout-soaked downward spiral for Bruno, forcing him to confront his own madness as he struggles to keep his old familiar demons from getting the best of him yet again.
The Abyss of Human Illusion: A novel by Gilbert Sorrentino; with a preface by Christopher Sorrentino.
PS3569.O7 A74 2009
Titled after a line from Henry James, Gilbert Sorrentino’s final novel consists of fifty narrative set pieces full of savage humor and cathartic passion-an elegiac paean to the bleak world he so brilliantly captured in his long and storied career. Mirroring the inexplicable coincidences, encounters, and hallmarks of modern life, this novel revisits familiar characters-the aging artists, miserable couples, crackerjack sa
lesmen, and drunken soldiers of previous books, placing them in familiar landscapes lost in time between the Depression era and some fraudulent bohemia of the present.
The Woman at the Window by Emyr Humphreys
PR6015.U478 W66 2009
Gentle but haunting, this selection of short stories takes a closer look at the importance of parental and filial love down the generations. The protagonists reminisce over the pattern of their lives, looking back as well as forward, for the chance to rekindle lost loves and find a home for themselves. Throughout these eclectic tales, three comfortably retired men find their sedate dinner transformed into a conflict with a knife-wielding escaped prisoner in a pre-Celtic tomb, a trip to the site of their first meeting brings a married couple face to face with a corpse, and illusions are shattered when a retired teacher reunites with his first love. Examining the threads of survivors’ lives from childhood to old age, this anthology utilizes the backdrop of a shifting postwar Europe and Wales. Weighing the best part of a century of European history, this is a complex study of mature reflection, loss, and survival.
