What Are You Going Through
A Novel
(Sprache: Englisch)
A woman describes a series of encounters she has with various people in the ordinary course of her life. In each of these people the woman finds a common need: the urge to talk about themselves and their experiences. The narrator orchestrates this chorus of...
lieferbar
versandkostenfrei
Buch (Kartoniert)
15.30 €
- Lastschrift, Kreditkarte, Paypal, Rechnung
- Kostenlose Rücksendung
Produktdetails
Produktinformationen zu „What Are You Going Through “
A woman describes a series of encounters she has with various people in the ordinary course of her life. In each of these people the woman finds a common need: the urge to talk about themselves and their experiences. The narrator orchestrates this chorus of voices as a passive listener, until one of them makes an extraordinary request, drawing her into a transformative experience of her own.
Klappentext zu „What Are You Going Through “
NATIONAL BESTSELLERThe New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-winning author of The Friend brings her singular voice to a story about the meaning of life and death, and the value of companionship.
A woman describes a series of encounters she has with various people in the ordinary course of her life: an ex she runs into by chance at a public forum, an Airbnb owner unsure how to interact with her guests, a stranger who seeks help comforting his elderly mother, a friend of her youth now hospitalized with terminal cancer. In each of these people the woman finds a common need: the urge to talk about themselves and to have an audience to their experiences. The narrator orchestrates this chorus of voices for the most part as a passive listener, until one of them makes an extraordinary request, drawing her into an intense and transformative experience of her own.
In What Are You Going Through, Nunez brings wisdom, humor, and insight to a novel about human connection and the changing nature of relationships in our times. A surprising story about empathy and the unusual ways one person can help another through hardship, her book offers a moving and provocative portrait of the way we live now.
Story Locale: New York City
Lese-Probe zu „What Are You Going Through “
I went to hear a man give a talk. The event was held on a college campus. The man was a professor, but he taught at a different school, in another part of the country. He was a well-known author, who, earlier that year, had won an international prize. But although the event was free and open to the public, the auditorium was only half full. I myself would not have been in the audience, I would not even have been in that town, had it not been for a coincidence. A friend of mine was being treated in a local hospital that specializes in treating her particular type of cancer. I had come to visit this friend, this very dear old friend whom I had not seen in several years, and whom, given the gravity of her illness, I might not see again.It was the third week of September, 2017. I had booked a room through Airbnb. The host was a retired librarian, a widow. From her profile I knew that she was also the mother of four, the grandmother of six, and that her hobbies included cooking and going to the theater. She lived on the top floor of a small condo about two miles from the hospital. The apartment was clean and tidy and smelled faintly of cumin. The guest room was decorated in the way that most people appear to have agreed will make a person feel at home: plush area rugs, a bed with a hedge of pillows and a plump down duvet, a small table holding a ceramic pitcher of dried flowers, and, on the nightstand, a stack of paperback mysteries. The kind of place where I never do feel at home. What most people call cozy-gem tlich, hygge-others find stifling.
A cat had been promised, but I saw no sign of one. Only later, when it was time for me to leave, would I learn that, between my booking and my stay, the host's cat had died. She delivered this news brusquely, immediately changing the subject so that I couldn't ask her about it-which I was in fact going to do only because something in her manner made me think that she wanted to
... mehr
be asked about it. And it occurred to me that maybe it wasn't emotion that had made her change the subject like that but rather worry that I might later complain. Depressing host talked too much about dead cat. The sort of comment you saw on the site all the time.
In the kitchen, as I drank the coffee and ate from the tray of snacks the host had prepared for me (while she, in the way recommended for Airbnb hosts, made herself scarce), I studied the corkboard where she posted publicity for guests about goings-on in town. An exhibition of Japanese prints, an arts-and-crafts fair, a visiting Canadian dance company, a jazz festival, a Caribbean culture festival, a schedule for the local sports arena, a spoken-word reading. And, that night, at seven thirty, the author's talk.
In the photograph, he looks harsh-no, "harsh" is too harsh. Call it stern. That look that comes to many older white men at a certain age: stark-white hair, beaky nose, thin lips, piercing gaze. Like raptors. Hardly inviting. Hardly an image to say, Please, do come hear me speak. Would love to see you there! More like, Make no mistake, I know a lot more than you do. You should listen to me. Maybe then you'll know what's what.
A woman introduces him. The head of the department that has invited him to speak. She is a familiar type: the glam academic, the intellectual vamp. Someone at pains for it to be known that, although smart and well educated, although a feminist and a woman in a position of power, the lady is no frump, no boring nerd, no sexless harridan. And so what if she's past a certain age. The cling of the skirt, the height of the heels, the scarlet mouth and tinted hair (I once heard a salon colorist say, I believe it's got to hurt a woman's ability to think if she has gray hair), everything says: I'm still fuckable. A slimness that almost certainly means going much of each day feeling hungry. It crosses such women's minds with some sad re
In the kitchen, as I drank the coffee and ate from the tray of snacks the host had prepared for me (while she, in the way recommended for Airbnb hosts, made herself scarce), I studied the corkboard where she posted publicity for guests about goings-on in town. An exhibition of Japanese prints, an arts-and-crafts fair, a visiting Canadian dance company, a jazz festival, a Caribbean culture festival, a schedule for the local sports arena, a spoken-word reading. And, that night, at seven thirty, the author's talk.
In the photograph, he looks harsh-no, "harsh" is too harsh. Call it stern. That look that comes to many older white men at a certain age: stark-white hair, beaky nose, thin lips, piercing gaze. Like raptors. Hardly inviting. Hardly an image to say, Please, do come hear me speak. Would love to see you there! More like, Make no mistake, I know a lot more than you do. You should listen to me. Maybe then you'll know what's what.
A woman introduces him. The head of the department that has invited him to speak. She is a familiar type: the glam academic, the intellectual vamp. Someone at pains for it to be known that, although smart and well educated, although a feminist and a woman in a position of power, the lady is no frump, no boring nerd, no sexless harridan. And so what if she's past a certain age. The cling of the skirt, the height of the heels, the scarlet mouth and tinted hair (I once heard a salon colorist say, I believe it's got to hurt a woman's ability to think if she has gray hair), everything says: I'm still fuckable. A slimness that almost certainly means going much of each day feeling hungry. It crosses such women's minds with some sad re
... weniger
Autoren-Porträt von Sigrid Nunez
Sigrid Nunez is the author of the novels A Feather on the Breath of God, The Last of Her Kind, The Friend, and What Are You Going Through, among others. She is also the author of Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag. She has been the recipient of several awards, including the National Book Award, the Rome Prize in Literature, and a Guggenheim. Her books have been translated into thirty languages. She lives in New York City.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Sigrid Nunez
- 2021, 224 Seiten, Maße: 12,9 x 20,1 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Riverhead Books
- ISBN-10: 0593191420
- ISBN-13: 9780593191422
- Erscheinungsdatum: 30.08.2021
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Praise for What Are You Going Through: It takes something more than intelligence to be able to write intelligently. . . . Whatever it is, Sigrid Nunez has it. When I open one of her novels, I almost always know immediately: This is where I want to be . . . [What Are You Going Through is] as good as The Friend, if not better. The New York Times
Emotionally intense and impossible to put down, this intimate novel about a woman asked to help a terminally ill friend end her life is leavened with wit and tenderness. People
[A] short, satisfying meditation on life, connection, and more . . . a book as luminous as it is deep . . . as beautifully told as they come. The Seattle Times
Powerful . . . The narrator, and in turn the reader, are transformed. The Boston Globe
Cultivating care for others is the crowning achievement of the novel. . . . offering a touching, poignant illustration of what it means to have empathy for the lives around you. It is especially apt, given how the book is published during a time of collective mourning. USA Today
Reading Sigrid Nunez s absorbing new novel is somewhat akin to having a long conversation with someone who is telling you something very important, but is telling it in a very quiet voice. You have to really pay attention. Be assured, however, that the experience will be worth it. You will emerge calmer, meditative, more thoughtful, as if you have benefited from an excellent literary massage of sorts. The New York Times Book Review
One s moved by the scope and pith of this novel s ambition, as it addresses our biggest questions by naming the particular. . . . But most striking may be how Nunez s narrator transfigures, through deepening compassion, from a wry, circumspect observer into someone raked raw with hapless love for her vanishing friend. . . . It s the
... mehr
here-and-now of What Are You Going Through that spears us, its chorale-like testimonies, their preemptive requiem. The Washington Post
I was dazed by the novel s grace: its creation of a narrative consciousness that, by emptying and extending itself to others, insured that its vitality would never dwindle, never dim. . . . Radiant with meaning. The New Yorker
Sigrid Nunez is on a roll. She s tapped into a smart, wry voice which feels right for our times, as do her concerns with friendship, empathy, loss, and loneliness. . . . The marvel of this novel is that it encompasses so much sadness yet is not grim. . . . Nunez has written another deeply humane reminder of the great solace of both companionship and literature. NPR
There is no better chronicler of empathy. . . . This book is profound, devastating, and uplifting all at once. Refinery29
A master class in empathy and humanity . . . Told with humor and insight, What Are You Going Through is a deep look at how relationships change through hardship, and what it truly means to be there through struggles big and small. Shondaland
Nunez is unparalleled when it comes to emotional fluency, tapping into the immediacy of grief, love, and exhaustion, and translating it sparely, powerfully on the page. . . . profound exploration of empathy . . . It s painful but beautiful, too, and it will stick with you for a long time. BuzzFeed, 21 Best New Books this Fall
Nunez crafts an aching look into the ways people can support one another through crisis. Time, Best Books of Fall
Richly interiorized . . . With both compassion and joy, Nunez contemplates how we survive life s certain suffering, and don t, with words and one another. Booklist (starred review)
Short, sharp, and quietly brutal . . . spare and elegant and immediate . . . [What Are You Going Through] is concerned with the biggest possible questions and confronts them so bluntly it is sometimes jarring: How should we live in the face of so much suffering? Dryly funny and deeply tender. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Sigrid Nunez orchestrates a beautiful chorus of humanness here, and the novel asks a question we might all be thinking in these distant times: What does it mean to really be there for someone in times of hardship? Lit Hub
Much as in Rachel Cusk s recent work, the narrator is a conduit and sounding board for the stories of others. . . . Deeply empathetic without being sentimental, this novel explores women s lives, their choices, and how they support one another. . . . Highly recommended for readers who favor emotional resonance over escapism during difficult times. Library Journal (starred review)
I was dazed by the novel s grace: its creation of a narrative consciousness that, by emptying and extending itself to others, insured that its vitality would never dwindle, never dim. . . . Radiant with meaning. The New Yorker
Sigrid Nunez is on a roll. She s tapped into a smart, wry voice which feels right for our times, as do her concerns with friendship, empathy, loss, and loneliness. . . . The marvel of this novel is that it encompasses so much sadness yet is not grim. . . . Nunez has written another deeply humane reminder of the great solace of both companionship and literature. NPR
There is no better chronicler of empathy. . . . This book is profound, devastating, and uplifting all at once. Refinery29
A master class in empathy and humanity . . . Told with humor and insight, What Are You Going Through is a deep look at how relationships change through hardship, and what it truly means to be there through struggles big and small. Shondaland
Nunez is unparalleled when it comes to emotional fluency, tapping into the immediacy of grief, love, and exhaustion, and translating it sparely, powerfully on the page. . . . profound exploration of empathy . . . It s painful but beautiful, too, and it will stick with you for a long time. BuzzFeed, 21 Best New Books this Fall
Nunez crafts an aching look into the ways people can support one another through crisis. Time, Best Books of Fall
Richly interiorized . . . With both compassion and joy, Nunez contemplates how we survive life s certain suffering, and don t, with words and one another. Booklist (starred review)
Short, sharp, and quietly brutal . . . spare and elegant and immediate . . . [What Are You Going Through] is concerned with the biggest possible questions and confronts them so bluntly it is sometimes jarring: How should we live in the face of so much suffering? Dryly funny and deeply tender. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Sigrid Nunez orchestrates a beautiful chorus of humanness here, and the novel asks a question we might all be thinking in these distant times: What does it mean to really be there for someone in times of hardship? Lit Hub
Much as in Rachel Cusk s recent work, the narrator is a conduit and sounding board for the stories of others. . . . Deeply empathetic without being sentimental, this novel explores women s lives, their choices, and how they support one another. . . . Highly recommended for readers who favor emotional resonance over escapism during difficult times. Library Journal (starred review)
... weniger
Kommentar zu "What Are You Going Through"
Schreiben Sie einen Kommentar zu "What Are You Going Through".
Kommentar verfassen