Unspeakable Things
A Novel
(Sprache: Englisch)
A strange, haunting, exhilarating debut novel about survival and love in all its forms: about sexual awakenings and dark secrets, about European refugee intellectuals who've fled Hitler's armies and have come to an elusive new (American) world they cannot...
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A strange, haunting, exhilarating debut novel about survival and love in all its forms: about sexual awakenings and dark secrets, about European refugee intellectuals who've fled Hitler's armies and have come to an elusive new (American) world they cannot seem to find. A novel steeped in surreal storytelling and beautiful music that transports its half-broken souls to another realm of the senses.
Klappentext zu „Unspeakable Things “
Eight-year-old Maria bears witness to her family's peculiar comings and goings in early 1940s New York City and at bedtime listens to the haunting, exhilarating stories of husbands lost to the front and of a strange pact made in desperation between an exotic Hungarian countess known as the Rat and the mystic faith healer Grigori Rasputin. From award-winning poet Kathleen Spivack comes a spellbinding and surreal debut novel about a tangled web of European emigres including the Rat s second cousin Herbert, a former Austrian civil servant now powerful in New York s social scene, the Tolstoi String Quartet, who escaped to New York with their money sewn into the silk linings of their instrument cases, a German pediatrician dabbling in genetic engineering and the strange and intoxicating secrets that bind them to each other.
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***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected proof***Copyright © 2016 Kathleen Spivack
Chapter 1
THE RAT
In the drafty reading room of the New York Public Library, Herbert opened hislatest letter from the little Rat, his old friend Anna Zygorzka. Her letterswere slow to arrive, and each one bore the marks of a censor, who dutifullyopened and read and then indicated the readership before sending it on to NewYork. Even David, who worked in the war office somewhat connected withcensorship and foreign mail, could not predict the letters that arrivedoccasionally, tattered and humble, addressed in fine, studied handwriting.Herbert smoothed the paper, which crackled as he spread it out in front of him.He fixed his spectacles more firmly onto his nose and bent down happily. J arrive!
Besidehim on the bench, his grandchildren sat quietly. Philip studied his toes whilehe held a green balloon. And Maria, in her ruffled smocked dress and littlesweater, bent over her English book as seriously as Herbert now bent over thehandwriting of his letter. Maria s lips did not even move as she read; she wasconcentrating. Although the first signs of spring were coming to New York, theinterior of the library was cold and drafty. Herbert wrapped his coat moretightly around his shoulders, looking over to smile at the children. How goodthey were! So quiet and dear.
He went back to the letter.
Herbert and Anna Zygorzka, second cousins, had been writing to each other foryears. They corresponded in various languages, including Esperanto and French.Sometimes they alternated. Anna wrote to Herbert in German, and he answered inRussian. Then they corrected each other s letters and started over again. Andduring that time, they also corresponded in chess.
Herbert smiled as he deciphered the numbers and letters. Aha, now I have you! Anna had written in large, distinctive handwriting. Check to your queen!
Herbert bent over the
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letter in delight. We shall see, he thought. We shallsee. He looked more closely. Undoubtedly, he could find the loophole in this.Then he laughed. She had done it. He had taught her well. But this was not theend of this particular game. Herbert still had a few tricks up his sleeve. TheRat would regret challenging the old chess master. He smiled.
Well, my dear friend, he read in her large triumphant hand, are you not proudof me? Guard your queen indeed, my old fox!
Herbert imagined her nose twitching in triumph. That exquisite ugliness! Herdark, shiny eyes, peering at the chessboard he had loved to watch her sniffingaround the game. He imagined her little snort, a muted shriek of delight whenshe saw an opportunity for triumph. The Rat!
Underneath, Anna had written, in an equally exuberant scrawl, a few quickwords. The good news, my old dear friend, is that I am coming. I shall arrivesoon. I cannot say more. Speak to David. And then, as if to paraphrase herGerman, she wrote the same message hastily in French. J arrive!
Herbert put the letter aside for a moment. As if disbelieving the messagewritten, he bent to it again. J arrive! How could that be?
Anna s image rose in his mind. The seaside. Summer holidays with his parents.The arrival of his second cousins from Hungary. The other side of the family.The two mysterious girls, slightly younger, both, than he and his brother. Annaand her younger sister. The two girls. The two boys who awaited their arrival;a mystery unfolding.
What a disappointment it had been when he had first seen the Rat. She wassmall, unprepossessing, with a long nose. And could it be? Whiskers growing outof the mole next to her nose. Well, three long hairs, to be exact. A Rat withsevere curvature of the spine, which caused her to move in a pain
Well, my dear friend, he read in her large triumphant hand, are you not proudof me? Guard your queen indeed, my old fox!
Herbert imagined her nose twitching in triumph. That exquisite ugliness! Herdark, shiny eyes, peering at the chessboard he had loved to watch her sniffingaround the game. He imagined her little snort, a muted shriek of delight whenshe saw an opportunity for triumph. The Rat!
Underneath, Anna had written, in an equally exuberant scrawl, a few quickwords. The good news, my old dear friend, is that I am coming. I shall arrivesoon. I cannot say more. Speak to David. And then, as if to paraphrase herGerman, she wrote the same message hastily in French. J arrive!
Herbert put the letter aside for a moment. As if disbelieving the messagewritten, he bent to it again. J arrive! How could that be?
Anna s image rose in his mind. The seaside. Summer holidays with his parents.The arrival of his second cousins from Hungary. The other side of the family.The two mysterious girls, slightly younger, both, than he and his brother. Annaand her younger sister. The two girls. The two boys who awaited their arrival;a mystery unfolding.
What a disappointment it had been when he had first seen the Rat. She wassmall, unprepossessing, with a long nose. And could it be? Whiskers growing outof the mole next to her nose. Well, three long hairs, to be exact. A Rat withsevere curvature of the spine, which caused her to move in a pain
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Autoren-Porträt von Kathleen Spivack
KATHLEEN SPIVACK is an award-winning writer. She studied with Robert Lowell and remained friends with him for eighteen years, and is the author of many books, among them Moments of Past Happiness, A History of Yearning, and With Robert Lowell and His Circle. She has had residencies at the Radcliffe Institute, Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, and the American Academy in Rome, and has been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Fulbright Commission. She teaches in Boston and Paris.www.kathleenspivack.com
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Kathleen Spivack
- 2017, 304 Seiten, Maße: 13,1 x 20,3 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: VINTAGE
- ISBN-10: 0804173311
- ISBN-13: 9780804173315
- Erscheinungsdatum: 06.02.2017
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Infused with the exoticism of poetry Spivack concocts a glittering picture of many horrors, echoing the unspeakable things unfolding across the ocean, while managing to include some surprising, almost perverse tenderness. Mopsy Strange Kennedy, The Improper BostonianWildly imaginative A stirring chronicle of survival Heart-piercingly direct, ringing with poetry. Karen Campbell, Boston Globe
Brilliant, vivid, entertaining, and often quite frightening Kathleen Spivack s poetic skills are evident in the precision and evocative language, her control of the tone which is a harmony of darkness and wit and her steadiness of focus on her characters. Claire Hopley, Washington Times
Wild, erotic daring, haunting, dark, and surreal Unspeakable Things lives up to its title." The Millions (Most Anticipated Books of 2016)
Beautiful language, unusual politeness, and a tendency toward daring literature The language is this book reaches poetic heights Unspeakable Things breaks new ground in the genre of magical realism I adore Spivack s literary skills She is a not-to-be missed new star that shines and sighs on the literary horizon. Book Reviews and More
Spivack s illumination of her characters loss and fears, set against blaring, brash New York in grating contrast to shadowed, tyrannized Europe, are gorgeous and despairing in their precision, yet this is not a work of straightforward historical fiction. Instead, it is a macabre fairy tale of monstrous fascinations, horrific exploitations, and desperate strategies of survival Amid gothic eroticism and chamber-of-horrors surrealism, Spivack considers the epic betrayal of the European dream that art, culture, and rationality can triumph over hate, malevolence, and terror. Donna Seaman, Booklist (Starred Review)
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