Country: A Novel
Autor Michael Hughesen Limba Engleză Paperback – 31 aug 2020
Considerăm că acest roman se adresează în primul rând cititorilor care caută în literatură o punte între mitul clasic și realismul istoric brutal. Country nu este doar o cronică a conflictului nord-irlandez, ci o transpunere viscerală a epopeii homerice într-un peisaj de la mijlocul anilor '90, marcat de sârmă ghimpată și loialități fracturate. Michael Hughes reușește să păstreze gravitatea și structura Iliadei, transformând furia lui Ahile în tăcerea auto-impusă a unui lunetist IRA pe nume Achill, într-un moment în care pacea pare mai periculoasă decât războiul deschis.
Subliniem forța limbajului folosit de Michael Hughes, care îmbină cadența arhaică a epopeii cu dialectul local dur din regiunea de graniță. Cine a citit Everything in this Country Must de Colum McCann va recunoaște aici aceeași privire necruțătoare asupra modului în care violența politică deformează destinele individuale, însă Country se distinge prin dimensiunea sa fatalistă, aproape ritualică. Spre deosebire de alte lucrări ale autorului, cum ar fi The Countenance Divine, unde explorarea istorică se întâlnește cu metafizica, aici accentul cade pe materialitatea conflictului: mirosul de motorină, frigul din posturile de observație și mecanica trădării.
Experiența lecturii este una de o intensitate constantă. Ritmul este dictat de iminența coliziunii dintre celula teroristă rebelă și forțele SAS, totul pe fondul unui armistițiu fragil. Este o tragedie despre oameni prinși între dorința de a lăsa armele și incapacitatea de a renunța la mândria care i-a definit timp de decenii.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 0062940309
Pagini: 336
Dimensiuni: 135 x 203 x 19 mm
Greutate: 0.25 kg
Editura: HarperCollins Publishers
Colecția Custom House
De ce să citești această carte
Recomandăm această carte celor care doresc să înțeleagă complexitatea psihologică a „Troubles” dincolo de faptele istorice. Cititorul câștigă o perspectivă unică asupra modului în care miturile universale despre onoare și răzbunare se repetă ciclic. Este un roman dens, care demonstrează că, deși contextul tehnologic se schimbă, natura umană și conflictele de sânge rămân neschimbate din antichitate până în prezent.
Despre autor
Michael Hughes este un scriitor și lector universitar la Școala de Istorie din cadrul Universității din Liverpool. Această dublă ipostază îi permite să abordeze ficțiunea cu o rigoare documentară remarcabilă. Opera sa este diversă, variind de la romane cu structuri complexe precum The Countenance Divine, apreciate pentru stilul care amintește de marii stiliști contemporani, până la lucrări academice despre procesele costiere. În Country, el își folosește expertiza istorică și legătura personală cu spațiul irlandez pentru a crea o narațiune care este, în egală măsură, un omagiu adus literaturii clasice și o analiză profundă a identității naționale.
Descriere scurtă
Northern Ireland, 1996.
After twenty-five years of vicious conflict, the IRA and the British have agreed to an uneasy ceasefire as a first step towards lasting peace. But, faced with the prospect that decades of savage violence and loss have led only to smiles and handshakes, those on the ground in the border country question whether it really is time to pull back—or quite the opposite.
When an IRA man’s wife turns informer, he and his brother gather their comrades for an assault on the local army base. But old grudges boil over, and the squad's feared sniper, Achill, refuses to risk his life to defend another man’s pride. As the gang plots without him, the British SAS are sent to crush the rogue terror cell before it can wreck the fragile truce and drag the region back to the darkest days of the Troubles. Meanwhile, Achill’s young protégé grabs his chance to join the fray in his place…
Inspired by the oldest war story of them all, Michael Hughes’s virtuoso novel explores the brutal glory of armed conflict, the cost of Ireland’s most uncivil war, and the bitter tragedy of those on both sides who offer their lives to defend the dream of country.
Recenzii
“A lively, convincing demotic that captures an Irish idiomatic flow and an echo of Homer’s formalities and hexametric lines. It begs to be read aloud.” — The Times (UK)
“The language is enough to keep you enthralled . . . a violent pounding demotic as memorable in its way as Homer’s hexameter.” — The Guardian
“A bold, imaginative second novel” — The Spectator
“Energetic . . . an ingenious refitting that illuminates both conflicts.” — Guardian, Books of the Year 2018
“Country explodes with verbal invention, rapid juxtaposition, brutality and fun . . . Hughes’s linguistic dexterity, his ear for dialogue, his understanding of character, the energy of his prose.“ — Times Literary Supplement (London)
“Reading this book is like sitting in the pub listening to a good friend tell you stories. It does what only the best retellings can and makes you see the myth anew.” — Daisy Johnson, author of Everything Under
“This is a hard, rigorous and necessary book which grinds out its beauty as the song cycles of empire and resistance fall silent, choked in their own blood.” — Irish Times
“A brutal and gripping thriller in its own right . . . a consistently engrossing read, written in Ulster-flavoured prose as rich and evocative as you would expect from a professional thespian.” — Irish Independent
“Consistently thrilling . . . By enlisting the visceral power of The Iliad to illustrate the violence of the Troubles . . . Hughes has written a striking, memorable book.” — Literary Review
“Prose that crackles with the vernacular of hard men, yet remains compulsively readable throughout . . . a classic story, and a gritty contemporary thriller, this book is an extraordinary achievement.” — Stuart Neville, author of The Ghosts of Belfast
“Hughes’s clever conceit in this dark take on political violence—the Irish author’s American debut—is to transport The Iliad from ancient Troy to Northern Ireland in the mid-’90s, during a cease-fire between the IRA and the British… A canny update of one of the world’s oldest stories.” — Publishers Weekly
“Gives new context to the fatal forces that drive Homer’s epic: loyalty, machismo, and entitlement to women… stellar writing… well worth reading.” — Booklist
“A story of violence and betrayal so urgent that you may miss your subway stop reading it… The voltage in this book comes from all the way from prehistory and it sparks to life again in Hughes’s gifted hands… he has something world-shaking to say and he has found the perfect medium through which to say it.” — Irish Central
Notă biografică
Michael Hughes grew up in a small town in Northern Ireland. A graduate of Oxford, he also trained in theatre at the Jacques Lecoq School in Paris. He has worked for many years as an actor under the professional name Michael Colgan, and he also teaches creative writing. He lives in London with his wife, the acclaimed historian Tiffany Watt Smith, and their two children. His first novel, The Countenance Divine, was published by John Murray/Hachette UK in 2016.
Descriere
'Reading this book is like sitting in the pub listening to a good friend tell you stories. It does what only the best retellings can and makes you see the myth anew' Daisy Johnson
That was the start of it. A terrible business altogether. Oh, it was all kept off the news, for the sake of the talks and the ceasefire. But them that were around that part of the country remember every bit.
Wait now till you hear the rest.
Northern Ireland, 1996.
After twenty-five years of conflict, the IRA and the British have agreed an uneasy ceasefire, as a first step towards lasting peace. But if decades of savage violence are leading only to smiles and handshakes, those on the ground in the border country will start to question what exactly they have been fighting for.
When an IRA man's wife turns informer, he and his brother gather their old comrades for an assault on the local army base. But the squad's feared sniper suddenly refuses to fight, and the SAS are sent in to crush this rogue terror cell before it can wreck the fragile truce, and drag the whole region back to the darkest days of the Troubles.
Inspired by the oldest war story of them all, this powerful new Irish novel explores the brutal glory of armed conflict, and the bitter tragedy of those on both sides who offer their lives to defend the honour of their country.