I came late to this book, which was written in the 1940’s, and not published for the first time, until 1977, but it instantly became one of my all-time favourites, and the one I would take to a desert island should the occasion arise. It’s an astonishing piece of writing that runs counter to everything in our contemporary fast-paced, consumer-driven society. Nan Shepherd is writing about a single mountain, with a depth of knowledge that seems unavailable now that tourism has become a massive part of our economy, and there is no far-flung place on the planet that some celebrity hasn’t been filmed in. In my edition, Robert Macfarlane has written the introduction, and Jeanette Winterson the afterword. Macfarlane suggests that The Living Mountain is a kind of ‘geo-poetic quest’. Shepherd herself described it as a ‘traffic of love’, and in fact only love, in the truest sense, could give this short volume such depth and magnitude. ‘Knowing another is endless,’ she says, and, ‘the thing to be known grows with the knowing.’ It is a life-affirming, and life-changing, read. One in which to become wholly absorbed, and to lose yourself, in the ultimate sense of that term.
'The finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain' Guardian
Introduction by Robert Macfarlane. Afterword by Jeanette Winterson
In this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape.
Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the 'essential nature' of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and…
One of the most delightful and memorable short story collections I have ever read. The author creates a kind of alternative European world that is at once surreal and vividly realised. By focusing on bizarre events and strange quests to discover some ultimate truth, and employing an inventive approach to narrative, the author does indeed capture something of the evanescent nature of reality. Often satirical, frequently poignant, these stories are always engrossing, and the collection as a whole is a stylistic tour de force.
“A book that belongs on the same shelf as Italo Calvino’s “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler,” Nabokov’s “Pale Fire”, and several works by Zoran Zivkovic, Stanislaw Lem and David Markson.” — Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
A collection of entrancing literary fables from an underrated master of the form …
Perfect for the fans of David Mitchell, Julio Cortázar and Steven Barthelme are these 15 dreamlike tales.
Welcome to the fictional universe of C. D. Rose, whose stories seem to be set in some unidentifiable but vaguely Mitteleuropean nation, and likewise have an uncanny sense of timelessness —…
I loved Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell so much that I actually put off reading Piranesi, afraid of disappointment. But now I can say it has actually supplanted the earlier novel in my affections! It is again somewhat difficult to describe; dreamlike and surreal, magical and mysterious, but certainly not a ‘typical’ fantasy novel, whatever that might be. The main character, Piranesi, lives alone in a house full of statues, that is wreathed in clouds and deluged by floods. He is visited mainly by birds, and by the mysterious ‘Other’. This may not sound like much of a premise for a plot, and indeed it would be easy just to write about the imagery in Piranesi, which is exquisite, or the profundity of the ideas and themes, but this would not do justice to a narrative that is as propulsive as any thriller. A compellingly beautiful read.
Winner of the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction A SUNDAY TIMES & NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The spectacular new novel from the bestselling author of JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL, 'one of our greatest living authors' NEW YORK MAGAZINE __________________________________ Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has.
In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend,…
At the International Conference Centre in Geneva, Hannah Rossier, formerly Annie Price, comes face to face with Neville Weir, someone from her childhood whom she never expected, or wanted, to meet again.
As Neville's reasons for attending the conference become clear, the dark waters of Hannah's past start to rise. Hannah has reinvented herself successfully, moving from a small northern town in England to Lucerne, Switzerland, with her husband, Thibaut.
Nobody, not even Hannah, knows the full truth about herself. Her 'memories' consist of glimpses of the place where she played in childhood, known simply as 'The Wild'. Over the three days of the conference she has to decide whether she can avoid Neville, or whether she should submit to an encounter with him and with her past.
