La Seix-Barral Publishing House, has published what will be some of the literary news for the months of September, October and November. They come loaded with good news that we take care of informing you here with opinions from newspapers and authors included.
If you like to be aware of editorial news and / or Seix-Barral is among your favorite publishers, don't stop reading this article.
News - titles by months
September
- "The way of the dog" by Sam Savage.
- "Screams in the drizzle" by Yu Hua.
- "What a shame" by Paulina Flores.
- 2084. World's End" by Boualem Sansal.
- Remember that you are going to die. It lives" by Paul Kalanithi.
October
- "I'm here" by Jonathan Safran Foer when we have the information.
- "The seventh function of language" by Laurent Binet
- "Between the world and me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
- "A better life" by Anna Gavalda.
November
- "Time to wake up together" scored by Kirmen Uribe.
- "The beautiful Annabel" by Lee Kenzaburo Oé.
- "One way. Complete poetry » scored by Erri de Luca.
- "Irene's Story" scored by Erri de Luca.
Book by book, opinion by opinion
"The way of the dog" by Sam Savage
Harold Nivenson is a minor painter, critic, and patron who reflects on his career. What begins as a rejection of a certain type of art and a bitter resentment towards his family gives way to a feeling of inner peace as he steps out of the shadow of the past and finds a reason to live in the present. Perhaps life — like art — does not have to be measured by success; perhaps we should look for the missing pieces between our mistakes and the ruins that, because of them, we inhabit.
The way of the dog is a lesson in art and life. Sam Savage takes up in an extraordinary way the themes that populate his previous novels: loneliness, regret and broken dreams. And, flying over everything, literature.
Reviews
- "An elegiac, eloquent and intense story about the meaning of the artist", Publishers Weekly.
- Savage has written his masterpiece; a firm and exceptional, beautiful and at the same time painful analysis of an old repentant intellectual », The Star Tribune.
- "Savage's ability lies in creating complex characters using only their own voice", Los Angeles Times.
"Screams in the drizzle" by Yu Hua
Originally published in 1992,"Screams in the drizzle" is a harrowing first-person survival story that details the tumultuous experience of a clan in rural China; a caustic critique of the family ideals of a mortally wounded paternalistic nation, which guides us towards the miraculous complexities of the human being in a community in full transformation.
Reviews
- "This first novel by Yu Hua is a pixelated collage of pain and survival", Kirkus Reviews.
- Yu Hua's writing is not cheerful. Even so, in the emotionally more complicated fragments, he manages to provide the scene with humor. A recommended reading for a wide audience ”, LibraryJournal.
"What a shame" by Paulina Flores
The middle class populates these nine stories that take place on the streets of peripheral neighborhoods, in port cities, in blocks of buildings or at the entrance of a library. Nobody starts from scratch: there are those who go out in search of work, those who spy on the neighbors, meet an old friend or plan a robbery. The narration reaches all of them without warning, in the throes of life.
In this shocking volume, the fleeting moment in which innocence is left behind, the moment of revelation in which everything changes, merges, free of drama, with apparently everyday situations that contain their own mystery.
Reviews
- "A very particular and necessary voice", Patricia Espinosa. The latest news.
- "A book of mature and mature quality", Pedro Gandolfo, The Mercury.
2084. World's End" by Boualem Sansal
In the immense empire of Abistan a totalitarian regime based on submission to a single god dominates everything; any personal thought is eradicated, and a ubiquitous monitoring system allows the population to be controlled. Ati, our hero, tries to understand this dictatorial system by investigating the renegades, a people that lives alien to religion, and undertakes a long exodus through the desert in search of the truth.
"Religion may make God love, but there is nothing like it to make people hate and hate humanity." Thus begins 2084. The End of the World, an Orwellian fable that satirizes the abuses and hypocrisy of a religious radicalism that threatens democracy. What would the world be like if they win? This novel gives us the answer.
Reviews
- "A black, scathing text, so precise that it gives vertigo", Le Point.
- "An exceptional novel and a voice of alarm", Telerama.
- "As shocking as it is prophetic," Read.
Remember that you are going to die. It lives" by Paul Kalinithi
At the age of thirty-six, and about to finish a decade of residency to obtain a permanent position as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. He went from being a doctor treating terminal cases to being a patient struggling to live.
Remember that you are going to die. Vive is an unforgettable reflection on the meaning of our existence. A humble and wonder-filled meditation that shows the power of empathy; the infinite capacity of resilience of the human being to give the best of himself when faced with what he fears most.
Reviews
- "Piercing. And beautiful. The memories of the young doctor Kalanithi are the proof that the one who knows that he is going to die is the one who teaches us the most about life », Atul Gawande, author of "Being Mortal."
- "An eloquent and heartfelt meditation on the decisions that lead you to love life even when death is near", Booklist.
"I'm here" by Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer has taken more than a decade to complete this monumental novel that addresses the crisis of concepts considered sacred, such as family, home, tradition or our role in the community. A masterful literary exercise, at times irreverent, agile and hilarious like a television comedy, and at others, a relentless and uncondescending descent to the worst part of ourselves.
An earthquake threatens to tear Jacob Bloch apart. He is not going through his best moment, neither as a father nor as a husband, nor as an American Jew, although at forty-three this does not take away the dream. His marriage is faltering and his three children no longer need him: they have the new technologies to look out into the world. This personal rift spreads on a global scale when another earthquake strikes the Middle East and Jacob must decide his place in the world.
Reviews
- Foer's hand does not tremble when dealing with complex issues and their implications. His dark humor punctuates the dialogue and melancholy permeates his remarks about the loneliness of human relationships and a world divided by ethnic hatred. […] A writer gifted with the gift of moving us », Publishers Weekly.
- "The story of Jonathan Safran Foer's family dilemmas is an irreverent, polyphonic and voluminous comedy bordering on exaggeration, openly confronting the human capacity for ridicule and transcendence, for cruelty and love", Booklist.
"The seventh function of language" by Laurent Binet
The seventh function of language is an intelligent and cunning novel that speculates on the murder of Roland Barthes as a parody, loaded with political satire and a detective plot. As in HHhH, Binet mixes real facts, documents and characters with fiction to build a bold and hilarious tale about language and its power to transform us.
On March 25, 1980, Roland Barthes was killed by a car. The French secret services suspect that he has been assassinated, and Inspector Bayard, a tremendously conservative man, is in charge of the investigation. Together with the young Simon Herzog, an assistant professor at the university and a leftist progressive, he begins an investigation that will lead him to interrogate figures such as Foucault, Lacan or Althusser, and to discover that the case has a strange global dimension.
Reviews
- «A funny, pop and mischievous novel between Fight Club, The Name of the Rose and Tíntín in the country of French Theory», Les Inrock.
- "Delirious structuralist detective novel that tries to elucidate the death of Roland Barthes", Le Nouvel Observatore.
"Between the world and me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
A letter from a father to his son. A deep reflection on the social reality of today's North America that includes great universal issues such as discrimination, inequality and the activism necessary to combat them.
Reviews
- "Between the world and me is a monologue as violent as the reality of many African Americans and as thoughtful and slow as all the literature of an author who has spent his life trying to understand the reality that surrounds him", The country.
- "The powerful story of a father's past and a son's future ... A moving and powerful testament", Kirkus Reviews.
"A better life" by Anna Gavalda
Anna Gavalda's unmistakable style turns these two delicious stories into a little gem that shows us that in all of us, no matter how insignificant we sometimes feel, there are seeds of passion, courage and greatness.
Mathilde and Yann have a lot in common. They both hate their life. The lack of a decent job increases their frustration and their love relationships are a complete disaster. One day, she loses her bag in a cafeteria, and the stranger who returns it, in addition to changing her luck, will change her life. Yann will also see his destiny turn upside down after an unexpected dinner with his neighbors, in whom he will recognize the enthusiasm he seeks.
Reviews
- «Anna Gavalda takes us into her universe, where the smallest of destinations is also the most important. Gavalda moves us with her freshness and optimism. He always has that wonderful ability to illuminate the blackness of the world with words », The Independent.
- "I loved. With her sharp prose, Gavalda slaps our time. He has written a great book about the haunting and sadness of loneliness. A wonderful work », Telematin.
"Time to wake up together" by Kirmen Uribe
The Time to Wake Up Together is the story of a woman who lived to tell several exiles, whose plans were truncated by historical events that defined the fate of several generations.
Karmele Urresti is surprised by the civil war in her native Ondarroa. At the end of the war he left for France. There she meets her husband, the musician Txomin Letamendi, and together they flee to Venezuela. But History breaks into his life again. When Txomin decides to join the Basque secret services, the family returns to Europe, where he carries out espionage work against the Nazis until he is arrested in Barcelona. Karmele will have to take a risk and leave, alone this time, with the blind hope of someone who leaves behind what is most precious.
Reviews
- «Very close to the aesthetics of Emmanuel Carrère and his De Lives of Others, and the JM Coetzee of The Petersburg Master», Jon Kortazar, Babelia.
- "Absolutely modern ... like Emmanuel Carrere, WG Sebald, JM Coetzee and Orham Pamuk", Southwest.
- "It has the rare quality of serving tradition without making it sound like folk, and of being modern without giving up those that were before", P. Yvancos, ABCD Arts and Letters.
"The beautiful Annabel Lee" by Kenzaburo Oé
The beautiful Annabel Lee invokes, from her title, the girl-woman who fell in love with Poe and delves into the pain and tragedy that often accompany, like an ancient curse, innocence and beauty. In this novel, the first in which Kenzaburo Oé introduces a female main character, the Japanese masterfully explores his usual themes: friendship, art, political commitment.
As a child, Sakura starred in the film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's poem Annabel Lee, marking the start of a successful career. Years later, turned into an international actress, recognized from Hollywood to her native Japan, she embarks with the writer Kensanro and the film producer Komori in bringing a peasant uprising to the big screen. What Sakura could not imagine is that during filming she would end up remembering a traumatic experience from her childhood.
Reviews
- "The most fascinating writer, the most important in his country", Enrique Vila-Matas.
- "The pinnacle of contemporary Japanese literature is to be found in Kenzaburo Oé"Yukio Mishima.
"One way. Complete poetry » by Erri de Luca
Solo ida brings together for the first time in one volume all the poetry of Erri De Luca, in a bilingual edition and a translation by Fernando Valverde. A unique and imperishable work, full of beautiful moments and of great force, which portrays reality with a stark sensitivity and devoid of all artifice.
«My father had a record of poems by Lorca […]. With the gramophone turned off, he reread the verses. They sounded like heartbeats, they walked with the steps of new sandals, they creaked and smelled of skin. […] Since then, poetry has the voice that forms itself in the skull of those who read it. […] My verses translated into the language of Lorca take me back to a room in Naples, where a silent child was learning to syllable the verses of a Spanish poet », Erri De Luca.
Reviews
- «De Luca is a poet and he is not afraid of anything, neither good feelings nor the banality of good or evil; what matters is the unpredictable glow, the memory that explodes before their eyes, the imagination that gives meaning ", Il Tempo.
- «The only true writer of category that for now has given the XXI century», Corriere della Sera.
"Irene's Story" by Erri de Luca
This luminous triptych on memory and oblivion begins with a fable without a moral that could appear in any compilation of Greek mythology; the main character, Irene, possesses the legendary character of magical creatures. The two shocking stories that follow show the nature of the human being, capable of forging his best qualities in adverse circumstances.
Sea and land face off on an island dazed by the sun and overwhelmed by stars; a miraculous and cruel place that does not accept the beautiful mystery of Irene. She will reveal her fascinating story to a Neapolitan writer, the ultimate narrator of Irene's Story.
Reviews
- "A luminous triptych that reminds us that Erri De Luca is one of the great writers of world literature", Books Hebdo.
- "A very intense short book", Tuttolibri, La Stampa.