Vintage Books strana 8 z 75

A mother following her heart. A father with the law on his side. A child caught in the middle. 1982 Dawn is a young wife and mother hemmed in by village life. Then Hazel appears like a torch in the dark. Their attraction is instant and suddenly Dawn’s world is more joyful, and more complicated, than she ever expected. 2022 Maggie has always lived with an absence where her mother should be. Her father never speaks of her and it feels impossible to ask. Then an official letter arrives with news from the past, and Maggie must face a truth far bigger than just her family’s secret.

A road-trip across Europe and back in time: the debut graphic memoir from the prize-winning author of A Funeral In Freiburg. When her imperious, chain-smoking German Jewish grandmother dies, it falls to Astrid and her father to drive a hire van to the Black Forest and collect the family heirlooms from Gisela's nicotine-stained apartment. In Freiburg, they are faced with several lifetimes' worth of belongings to sort through - infested Persian rugs, mysterious photographs, a toy monkey that started a marriage - and a grasping landlord, impatient to renovate. As the list of demands from uncles, sisters and cousins grows longer, the rabbit-holes of history and memory grow deeper. Long-buried secrets and tales of survival are revealed - from Nazi Germany to colonial Africa - and old feuds are reignited, as father and daughter struggle with the responsibility of preserving the family legacy. More importantly, will they be able to fit everything into a medium wheel-base transit van? Funny, bittersweet and beautifully drawn, The Crystal Vase is an odyssey of family arguments, identity crises, and late discoveries.

We live in time - it holds us and molds us - but I never felt I understood it very well. Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, Tony Webster and Adrian Finn swore to stay friends for life. Now in middle age, a lawyer's letter proves that Tony's memory may be imperfect. The story of one man coming to terms with the mutable past, The Sense of an Ending is laced with Julian Barnes' trademark precision, dexterity and insight, and won him the Booker Prize for Fiction in 2011.

History isn't what happened. History is just what historians tell us. From the Titanic to the Amazon, the raft of the Medusa to an ecclesiastical court in medieval France where a bizarre case is about to begin, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters presents a surprising, subversive, fictional history of earth told from several kaleidoscopic perspectives. Ambitious yet accessible, witty and playfully serious, this is no ordinary history, but something stranger: a challenge and a delight for the reader's imagination.

The first of the hilarious novels in the campus trilogy, Changing Places is a funny and wise tale of academic ill-manners - David Lodge at his comic best. When Philip Swallow and Professor Morris Zapp participate in their universities' Anglo-American exchange scheme, the Fates play a hand, and each academic finds himself enmeshed in the life of his counterpart on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Nobody is immune to the exchange: students, colleagues, even wives are swapped as events spiral out of control. And soon both sundrenched Euphoric State university and rain-kissed university of Rummidge are a hotbed of intrigue, lawlessness and broken vows... 'One of the funniest but - much more importantly - one of the most truthful of postwar British novelists' Jonathan Coe

Today's dominant tech platforms are the most effective tools ever created for extracting wealth, destabilising the societies they plunder by creating vast inequality. One of the world's pre-eminent anti-monopoly experts explains how and why we must take back control. Our world is ruled by a handful of tech platforms. They provide great conveniences and entertainment but also stand as some of the most effective instruments of wealth extraction ever invented, seizing immense amounts of money, data and attention from all of us. An economy driven by tech and AI could enrich us, yet it could also marginalize entire industries, widen the wealth gap and foster a two-class nation. As technology evolves and our markets adapt, can society cultivate a better way? Is it possible to balance economic growth and egalitarianism, or are we too late? Tim Wu, the preeminent scholar and former White House official who coined the phrase 'net neutrality', tells the story of an internet that promised widespread wealth and democracy, only to aid the spread of autocracy instead. From generative AI and predictive social data to antitrust and cryptocurrency, Wu frames our current moment within key lessons from recent history. And, perhaps most importantly of all, Wu envisions a future where technological advances serve the greatest possible good - for everyone.

A joyful and enlightening masterclass in how reading attentively can change our lives As an English literature professor, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst has delighted in sharing his love of reading with his students. Bringing together more than twenty years of teaching, Look Closer explores the iconic works of literature that have formed, sustained and entertained him, from timeless classics like Wuthering Heights and Dracula to modern masterpieces such as Normal People and The Handmaid's Tale, as well as children's books, poetry, plays, short stories and comics. By revealing the simple techniques to slow down, take note and bring a text to life, Look Closer makes clear how literature works and why, in these turbulent times, reading is more relevant than ever. Funny, illuminating and personal, this book ultimately shows us how great writing can change a person's life. It is a celebration of the simple joy of reading, and how becoming more attentive readers can open up worlds and bring us closer to ourselves in delightful and unexpected ways.

The life and times of one of the most important writers of our time, from her peripatetic childhood in the Canadian far north, through the writing of The Handmaid's Tale, to her position today as revered truth-teller and literary icon How does one of the greatest storytellers of our time write her own life? The long-awaited memoir from one of our most lauded and influential cultural figures ‘Every writer is at least two beings: the one who lives, and the one who writes. Though everything written must have passed through their minds, or mind, they are not the same.’ Raised by ruggedly independent, scientifically minded parents – entomologist father, dietician mother – Atwood spent most of each year in the wild forest of northern Quebec. This childhood was unfettered and nomadic, sometimes isolated (on her eighth birthday: 'It sounds forlorn. It was forlorn. It gets more forlorn. ’), but also thrilling and beautiful. From this unconventional start, Atwood unfolds the story of her life, linking seminal moments to the books that hav e shaped our literary landscape, from the cruel year that spawned Cat’s Eye to div ided 1980s Berlin where she began The Handmaid’s Tale. Bursting with bohemian gatherings, her magical life with the wildly charismatic writer Graeme Gibson and major political turning points, we meet poets, bears, Hollywood actors and larger-than-life characters straight from the pages of an Atwood novel. As we travel with her along the course of her life, more and more is rev ealed about her writing, the connections between real life and art – and the workings of one of our greatest imaginations.

Urgent and inspiring lessons from the frontlines of the climate catastrophe - by one of our most important and influential environmental writers. ** A New Yorker Best Book of the Year ** From Greenland's melting ice sheets to New Zealand's protected mountaintops, we join Kolbert on the road as she travels to the places most dramatically affected by climate change - revealing a world which is both dangerously fragile and remarkably resilient. We encounter newly discovered species and meet the last surviving members of others, witness the power of rewilding up close and are reminded of the abounding wonders of our natural world. Along the way we also meet countless brilliant individuals who are steering us towards a better future: scientists harnessing AI to commune with whales; activists successfully lobbying for the rights of nature; and ordinary people making extraordinary moves, such as the Samso islanders leading completely carbon-neutral lives. The natural world is changing profoundly, and the threats to our planet are only growing more serious. Now is the time to deepen our understanding of this incredible world we are in danger of losing - and to act, while we still can.

The classic political study of how elite forces shape mass media. Edward S Herman and Noam Chomsky investigate how an underlying elite consensus structures mainstream media. Here they skilfully dissect the way in which the marketplace and the economics of publishing significantly shape the news. This book reveals how issues are framed and topics chosen, and the double standards underlying accounts of free elections, a free press, and governmental repression between Nicaragua and El Salvador; between the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the American invasion of Vietnam; between the genocide in Cambodia under a pro-American government and genocide under Pol Pot. What emerges from this ground-breaking work is an account of just how propagandistic our mass media can be, and how we can learn to read them and see their function in a radically new way.

'...Without surprise I see him now in evil company. A wicked face - but oh those eyes could charm - Heart, sudden heart, don't beat me to my knees.' Long hidden in an attic, vivid and revelatory poems shine a new light on the life and loves of Iris Murdoch. *As seen in the Guardian* **With an introduction by Booker-shortlisted author Sarah Hall, and an essay from the editors.* In the dusty attic of Iris Murdoch's Oxford home lay a battered, black chest. In 2016, when the chest was finally opened, Murdoch's life in poems was revealed. Renowned for her fiercely intelligent novels and groundbreaking philosophy, Murdoch was one of the great writers of the twentieth century. Yet she is also known for her equally radical life - intense friendships, relationships with both men and women, and an open marriage - about which much has, often controversially, been written. Now, her tightly wrought and vivid poems reveal a new, deeply personal account in Murdoch's own voice. They range over the preoccupations closest to her heart, from the state of Ireland to memories of a first love lost in the Second World War. Murdoch kept her poems private or addressed them to specific individuals. This did not affect the attention she paid to her craft. Always 'obsessed' with poetry, her technical skill is clear even in the musicality of the early pieces, maturing in the extraordinary, impassioned cycle 'Conversations with a Prince' and in the liberation of free verse. Above all, these are masterful poems about love; there is no writer who reveals its secrets quite like Iris Murdoch. These are essential poems for those who, like her, think deeply about romance and friendship, jealousy and commitment, and about all the shades of love in our lives.

'I like to talk about wine the way normal humans talk about things they love - it's not about showing off how many fancy wine terms I know. The point is to share something I love with someone else in a way that makes them want to love it too.' Thirsty is the story of Tom Gilbey (The Wine Guy) and his life in wine, a celebration of the bleedin' beautiful people who make it, and a history of his family's love affair with winemaking - and let's be honest, drinking - since the 1800s. Learn how to: - read a label (even if you can't speak the language) - talk wine without sounding naff - choose wine in a restaurant - explain why some wine smells like your granny's cardigan Along the way you'll discover 100 Wine W*nker approved bottles: wines for friendships and long lunches, for autumn afternoons and winter evenings. Whether yours is a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Kylie Minogue's rosé or - God forbid - orange wine, Tom will help you find the good stuff, always. Let Tom show you how this gloriously gluggable elixir is, at its heart, made to bring pleasure, and that there is no right or wrong to enjoy wine: just go for it. 'Entertaining and engaging' Helen McGinn of @knackeredmother

If old age was thought of as an evening, ending in midnight oblivion, they were well into the eleventh hour. Two quarrelsome old men in Chennai, India, experience private tragedy against the backdrop of national calamity. Revisiting the Bombay neighbourhood of Midnight's Children, a magical musician is unhappily married to a multibillionaire. In an English university college, an undead academic asks a lonely student to avenge his former tormentor. These five dazzling works of fiction move between the three countries that Salman Rushdie has called home – India, England and America – and explore what it means to approach the eleventh hour of life. They are the reckoning with mortality that we all must one day make, and speak deeply to what the author has come from and through. Do we accommodate ourselves to death, or rail against it? How can we bid farewell to the places that we have made home? How do we achieve fulfilment with our lives if we don't know the end of our own stories? The Eleventh Hour ponders life and death, legacy and identity with the penetrating insight and boundless imagination that have made Salman Rushdie one of the most celebrated writers of our time. ‘More than 40 years after Midnight's Children, there is still nobody who spins a yarn quite like Salman Rushdie’ Spectator ‘Rushdie has not just enlarged literature’s capacities, he has expanded the world’s imaginative possibilities’ The Times ‘Salman Rushdie is a genius’ A.M. Homes

A PASSENGER IS MISSING...BUT WAS SHE EVER ON BOARD AT ALL? This was meant to be the perfect trip. The Northern lights. A luxury press launch on a boutique cruise ship. A chance for travel journalist Lo Blacklock to recover from a traumatic break-in that has left her on the verge of collapse. Except things don’t go as planned. Woken in the night by screams, Lo rushes to her window to see a body thrown overboard from the next-door cabin. But the records show that no-one ever checked in to that cabin, and no passengers are missing from the boat. Exhausted and emotional, Lo has to face the fact that she may have made a mistake –- either that, or she is now trapped on a boat with a murderer...

Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement—and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he’s supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget about being paid, to deal with. Surrounded by history he has no grasp on and can’t see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it’s the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he’s a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to Lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which may no longer exist, is another question.

What does it mean for us all when death is treated as a glitch and Silicon Valley invests in the "science" of eternal life? From the epic of Gilgamesh to the alchemy of the philosopher's stone, humanity's eternal quest for immortality - and its rejuvenation tricks, therapies and tinctures - has always been our most mortal endeavour. But now the giants of invention and investment are building a fountain of youth of their own creation: one they not only engineer, but also own and control. Death is simply their next problem to solve, an expression of a hubris that regards humans as appliances to be fixed and machines to be upgraded. By harnessing technology to 'cure' ageing, and funding cutting-edge - and often controversial - research, today's immortalists are locked in an arms race to pocket the profits of longevity. What was once a wild west of experimentation has wormed its way into Washington's corridors of power. Award-winning broadcaster and academic Aleks Krotoski journeys from cult fringes to the heartlands of government to meet the moguls, effective altruists, geroscientists and entrepreneurs who are disrupting death. Along the way she encounters radical life extensionists transfusing their teenage son's blood, transhumanists who want to upload consciousness to the cloud, biohackers flogging AI-powered wellness apps and billionaire kingmakers building brand-new nations. This razor-sharp investigation asks: do we really want a handful of Silicon Valley powerbrokers to be the architects of our forever?