Claire-Louise Bennett

Feverish and forthright, Pond is an absorbing chronicle of the pitfalls and pleasures of a solitudinous life told by an unnamed woman living on the cusp of a coastal town. Broken bowls, belligerent cows, swanky aubergines, trembling moonrises and horrifying sunsets, the physical world depicted in these stories is unsettling yet intimately familiar and soon takes on a life of its own. Captivated by the stellar charms of seclusion but restless with desire, the woman’s relationship with her surroundings becomes boundless and increasingly bewildering. Claire-Louise Bennett’s startlingly original first collection slips effortlessly between worlds and is by turns darkly funny and deeply moving.

Stories

Pond

"From the author of the "dazzling. . . . and daring" Pond (O magazine), the adventures of a young woman discovering her own genius, through the people she meets-and dreams up-along the way. In a working-class town in a county west of London, a schoolgirl scribbles in the back pages of her exercise book, thrilling to the first sparks of her own inventiveness. As she grows, she becomes one on whom nothing is lost. Not the novels an eccentric customer slips her at the grocery store where she works as a checkout clerk, or the indelible outline of the careening creature himself. Not the growing heaps of books in which she loses-and finds-herself. Not even the sudden swerve a college friend's mounting envy of her blooming talent takes, derailing in a devastating violation. Threaded through it all, the escapades of her first fully fleshed character-one Tarquin Superbus, bouncing among various time periods and exotic locales-are matched by our delight and exhilaration as the scenarios she is learning to conjure, and the fate she is forging for herself, come together in a brilliant conflagration. Exceeding the extraordinary promise of Bennett's mold-shattering debut, Checkout 19 is a radical affirmation of the power of the imagination and the magic escape those who master it open to the rest of us"--

A Novel

Checkout 19

A NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR AND A NEW YORKER "ESSENTIAL READ" NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER AND VOGUE “Bennett writes like no one else. She is a rare talent, and Checkout 19 is a masterful novel.” –Karl Ove Knausgaard From the author of the “dazzling. . . . and daring” Pond (O magazine), the adventures of a young woman discovering her own genius, through the people she meets–and dreams up–along the way. In a working-class town in a county west of London, a schoolgirl scribbles stories in the back pages of her exercise book, intoxicated by the first sparks of her imagination. As she grows, everything and everyone she encounters become fuel for a burning talent. The large Russian man in the ancient maroon car who careens around the grocery store where she works as a checkout clerk, and slips her a copy of Beyond Good and Evil. The growing heaps of other books in which she loses–and finds–herself. Even the derailing of a friendship, in a devastating violation. The thrill of learning to conjure characters and scenarios in her head is matched by the exhilaration of forging her own way in the world, the two kinds of ingenuity kindling to a brilliant conflagration. Exceeding the extraordinary promise of Bennett’s mold-shattering debut, Checkout 19 is a radical affirmation of the power of the imagination and the magic escape those who master it open to us all.

The things that hold life in place have been lifted off and put away. Uprooted by circumstance from city to deep countryside, a woman lives in temporary limbo, visited by memories of all she's left behind. The most insistent are those of Xavier, who has always been certain he knows her better than anyone, better than she knows herself.
Xavier, whom she still loves but no longer desires, a displacement he has been unable to accept. An unexpected letter from an old acquaintance brings back a torrent of others she's loved or wanted. Each has been a match and a mismatch, a liberation and a threat to her very sense of self. The ephemera left by their passage - a spilled coffee, an unwanted bouquet, a mind-blowing kiss - make up a cabinet of curiosity she inventories, trying to divine the essence of intimacy. What does it mean to connect with another person? What impels us to touch someone, to be touched by them, to stay in touch? How do we let them go? In yet another tour de force of fiction, Claire-Louise Bennett explores the mystery of how people come into and go out of our lives, leaving us forever in their grasp.

Big Kiss, Bye-Bye

Feverish and forthright, Pond is an absorbing chronicle of the pitfalls and pleasures of a solitudinous life told by an unnamed woman living on the cusp of a coastal town. Claire-Louise Bennett's startlingly original debut collection slips effortlessly between worlds and is by turns darkly funny and deeply moving.

Gölet

“Gorgeous and a little unnerving. . .Reading it is a strange and wonderfully invigorating experience.”–The New York Times A woman confronts the afterlife of intimacy, in a deeply tender novel by one of our most acclaimed and inventive fiction writers The things that hold life in place have been lifted off and put away. Uprooted by circumstance from city to deep countryside, a woman lives in temporary limbo, visited by memories of all she’s left behind. The most insistent are those of Xavier, who has always been certain he knows her better than anyone, better than she knows herself. Xavier, whom she still loves but no longer desires, a displacement he has been unable to accept. An unexpected letter from an old acquaintance brings back a torrent of others she’s loved or wanted. Each has been a match and a mismatch, a liberation and a threat to her very sense of self. The ephemera left by their passage –a spilled coffee, an unwanted bouquet, a mind-blowing kiss—make up a cabinet of curiosity she inventories, trying to divine the essence of intimacy. What does it mean to connect with another person? What impels us to touch someone, to be touched by them, to stay in touch? How do we let them go? In yet another tour de force of fiction, Claire-Louise Bennett explores the mystery of how people come into and go out of our lives, leaving us forever in their grasp.

Damm

Een schrijfster probeert een plek te veroveren in een keiharde, patriarchale maatschappij vol klassentegenstellingen.

roman

Kassa 19

Vom Geheimtipp zur weltweit gefeierten literarischen Sensation. Claire-Louise Bennett erzählt vom Alltag in einem einsamen Cottage an Irlands Westküste und verwandelt persönliches Erleben in soghafte Sprache. „Eines der sensationellsten Debüts des Jahres.“ (Colum McCann). Sie lässt alles hinter sich – Freund, Job, Karriere - und zieht in ein kleines irisches Küstendorf. Sprachmächtig und fesselnd zeichnet Claire-Louise Bennett das Porträt einer jungen Frau, die allein in einem hundert Jahre alten Steincottage lebt - mitten in der Natur, abseits von den Zwängen der Gesellschaft. Ein Rückzug, der die Wahrnehmung schärft und den Blick auf die Welt verändert, dem Profanen eine besondere Schönheit entlockt. Mitreißend und kunstvoll beschreibt Claire-Louise Bennett ihren Alltag und zeigt, wie kleine Dinge mit einem Mal eine ungeahnte Tiefe gewinnen, wenn man auf alles Überflüssige verzichtet und die Welt auf sich wirken lässt.

Roman

Teich

Stagno

Una ragazzina scrive storie sulle ultime pagine del suo quaderno, storie che misurano la sua passione per le parole. Da grande si trasferisce dalla provincia inglese in città, si ingegna a trovare un equilibrio tra studio e lavoro e alimenta senza sosta il fuoco inestinguibile dell'immaginare. Tutto può esserle di ispirazione. Le persone, ma anche gli oggetti, i ricordi. Il russo imponente che vaga per il supermercato in cui lei lavora alla cassa 19 e le regala una copia di Al di là del bene e del male. La pila sempre più alta di libri in cui si perde e si ritrova e si perde di nuovo. La storia controversa con Dale. Tutto finisce nel magma della parola che chiede di essere scritta. Anche, soprattutto gli eventi che portano turbamento e dolore. Dopo Stagno, Claire-Louise Bennett torna con un romanzo che celebra il potere dell'immaginazione e il prodigio della letteratura. Perché voltare le pagine, avere pagine da voltare, avere pagine da leggere, avere pagine da scrivere è vivere.

Cassa 19

En kvinne har isolert seg i en liten avsidesliggende kystby. Naturen kommer stadig nærmere og blander seg inn i livet hennes. Det handler om kyrenes blikk, slappe auberginer, fullmåner og soloppganger. Etter hvert blir den fysiske verden truende på en måte kvinnen ikke hadde forutsett. «Dam» er en beretning om ensomhetens gleder og fallgruver, om besettelser og oppheng. Dette er Claire-Louise Bennetts første bok. Omtalen er utarbeidet av BS.

Claire-Louise Bennett

Books

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