Vendela Vida

An achingly beautiful and wickedly funny story of female friendship, betrayal, and a mysterious disappearance, set in the changing landscape of San Francisco Teenage Eulabee and her alluring best friend, Maria Fabiola, own the streets of Sea Cliff, their foggy, oceanside San Francisco neighborhood. They know the ins and outs of the homes and beaches, Sea Cliff's hidden corners and eccentric characters--as well as the swanky all-girls' school they attend. Their lives move along uneventfully, with afternoon walks by the ocean and weekend sleepovers. Then everything changes. Eulabee and Maria Fabiola have a disagreement about what they did or didn't witness on the way to school one morning, and this creates a schism in their friendship. The rupture is followed by Maria Fabiola's sudden disappearance--a potential kidnapping that shakes the quiet community and threatens to expose unspoken truths. Suspenseful and poignant, We Run the Tides is Vendela Vida's masterpiece depiction of an inimitable place on the brink of radical transformation. Pre-tech boom San Francisco finds its mirror in the changing lives of the teenage girls at the center of this story of innocence lost, the pain of too much freedom, and the struggle to find one's authentic self. Told with a gimlet eye and great warmth, We Run the Tides is both a gripping mystery and a tribute to the wonders of youth, in all its beauty and confusion. --Mary Beth Keane, author of Ask Again, Yes

We Run the Tides

From the acclaimed author of Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name and The Lovers comes a tensely drawn, spellbinding literary thriller that gets to the heart of what defines us as human beings—the singular identity we create for ourselves in the world and the myriad alternative identities that lie just below the surface. In Vendela Vida’s taut and mesmerizing novel of ideas, a woman travels to Casablanca, Morocco, on mysterious business. Almost immediately, while checking into her hotel, she is robbed, her passport and all identification stolen. The crime is investigated by the police, but the woman feels there is a strange complicity between the hotel staff and the authorities—she knows she’ll never see her possessions again. Stripped of her identity, she feels both burdened by the crime and liberated by her sudden freedom to be anyone at all. Then, a chance encounter with a film crew provides an intriguing opportunity: A producer sizes her up and asks, would she be willing to be the body-double for a movie star filming in the city? And so begins a strange journey in which she’ll become a stand-in—both on-set and off—for a reclusive celebrity who can no longer circulate freely in society while gradually moving further away from the person she was when she arrived in Morocco. Infused with vibrant, lush detail and enveloped in an intoxicating atmosphere—while barely pausing to catch its breath—The Diver's Clothes Lie Emptyis a riveting, entrancing novel that explores freedom, power and the mutability of identity.

The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty

Yvonne, a recently widowed American mother of two grown children, returns to Datça, Turkey, to relive memories of a happier time, but instead is troubled by her past and finds solace in her friendship with Ahmet, a young local boy.

a novel

The lovers

Sheila Heti

Ross Simonini

Presents a collection of conversations between writers of fiction and nonfiction, occurring between 2007 and 2012.

The Believer Magazine Presents Twenty-two Conversations Between Writers

Always Apprentices

Debutante Dips, Drive-bys, and Other Initiations

Girls on the Verge

Roman

Die Gezeiten gehören uns

The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers

Een Amerikaanse weduwe probeert op de plaats van haar huwelijksreis in Turkije haar verlies te verwerken.

roman

De minnaars

"Believer Books collects thirty-five interviews with some of today's most influential musicians and includes such conversational treasures as Bjèork on e.e. cummings, Lucinda Williams on writing about sex, Trey Anastasio on improvisation games, M.I.A. onthe power of the internet, and Jack White on upholstering a couch. The interviews are conducted in the Believer magazine's intimate, casual, long-form style, and while they focus on the music--creating it, playing it, touring it, living with it--they never hesitate to explore the subjects' other passions. This collection is perfect for fans, lovers of the interview format, cultural aficionados, and aspiring polymaths"--Page [4] of cover.

The Best of the Believer Music Interviews

Confidence, Or the Appearance of Confidence

From the acclaimed author of the 2007 "New York Times" Notable Book "Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name" comes a stunning novel about the love between husbands and wives, mothers and children. Twenty-eight years ago, Peter and Yvonne honeymooned in the beautiful coastal village of DatCa, Turkey. Now Yvonne is a widow, her twin children grown. Hoping to immerse herself in memories of a happier time--as well as sand and sea--Yvonne returns to DatCa. But her plans for a restorative week in Turkey are quickly complicated. Instead of comforting her, her memories begin to trouble her. Overwhelmed by the past and unexpectedly dislocated by the environment, Yvonne clings to a newfound friendship with Ahmet, a local boy who makes his living as a shell collector. But a devastating accident upends her delicate peace and throws her life into chaos--and her sense of self into turmoil. With the crystalline voice and psychological nuance for which her work has been so celebrated, Vendela Vida has crafted another unforgettable heroine in a stunningly beautiful and mysterious landscape.

The Lovers

This collection of conversations between writers and their mentors includes Zadie Smith with Ian McEwan; Jonathan Lethem with Paul Auster; Adam Thirlwell with Tom Stoppard; Susan Choi with Francisco Goldman; ZZ Packer with Edward P. Jones; and Dave Eggers with David Foster Wallace.

“Vendela Vida has written a riveting and suspenseful novel about an American woman’s voyage to self-discovery.” —Joyce Carol Oates “Stunning. A masterful meditation on grief and love. The Lovers is a sensational novel from one of our finest writers at the height of her craft.” —Stephen Elliott, author of The Adderall Diaries In 2007, Vendela Vida’s novel Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. With her new novel, The Lovers, former Kate Chopin Writing Award winner Vida tells a powerful and beautiful tale of a widow returning alone to the site of her honeymoon in Turkey, and her subsequent journeys through her past and her present.

A Novel

Vendela Vida erzählt ein subtiles Drama über Freundschaft und Verrat, Sexualität und Lügen im San Francisco der 80er Jahre. "Scharfsinnig, traurig, überraschend und fesselnd. Und außerdem lustig." Nick Hornby Eulabee und ihrer charismatischen Freundin Maria Fabiola gehören die Straßen von Sea Cliff, wo die Häuser prachtvoll und die Strände wild sind. Morgens gehen sie im Faltenrock zur Mädchenschule, nachmittags spüren sie ihre Macht, wenn sie frei und furchtlos über die Klippen rennen. Eines Morgens werden sie von einem Mann in einem weißen Auto angehalten. Er fragt nach der Uhrzeit, Eulabee schaut auf ihre Swatch. Doch was danach passiert, darin sind sich die Mädchen uneinig. Angefasst habe der Mann sich, erzählt Maria Fabiola der Polizei. Eulabee widerspricht ihr – und wird plötzlich zur Ausgestoßenen. Vor der Kulisse der sich verändernden Landschaft von San Francisco erzählt Vendela Vida von der Grausamkeit der Jugend, von verlorener Unschuld, Lügen und Verrat.

Heidi Julavits

Andrew Leland

The Believer is a monthly magazine where length is no object. There are book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and that are very often long. There are also interviews that are very long. Focusing on writers and books they like, The Believer gives people and books the benefit of the doubt. The working title of this magazine was The Optimist.

The Believer, Issue 102

From the acclaimed author of Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name and The Lovers comes a taut, spellbinding literary thriller that probes the essence and malleability of identity. In Vendela Vida’s taut and mesmerizing novel of ideas, a woman travels to Casablanca, Morocco, on mysterious business. While checking into her hotel, the woman is robbed of her wallet and passport—all of her money and identification. Though the police investigate, the woman senses an undercurrent of complicity between the hotel staff and the authorities—she knows she’ll never recover her possessions. Stripped of her identity, she feels burdened by the crime yet strangely liberated by her sudden freedom to be anyone she chooses. A chance encounter with a movie producer leads to a job posing as a stand-in for a well-known film star. The star reels her in deeper, though, and soon she’s inhabiting the actress’s skin off set, too—going deeper into the Casablancan night and further from herself. And so continues a strange and breathtaking journey full of unexpected turns, an adventure in which the woman finds herself moving further and further away from the person she once was. Told with vibrant, lush detail and a wicked sense of humor, The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty is part literary mystery, part psychological thriller—an unforgettable novel that explores free will, power, and a woman’s right to choose not her past, perhaps not her present, but certainly her future. This is Vendela Vida’s most assured and ambitious novel yet.

Diver's Clothes Lie Empty

NATIONAL BESTSELLER An achingly beautiful story of female friendship, betrayal, and a mysterious disappearance set in the changing landscape of San Francisco Teenage Eulabee and her magnetic best friend, Maria Fabiola, own the streets of Sea Cliff, their foggy oceanside San Francisco neighborhood. They know Sea Cliff's homes and beaches, its hidden corners and eccentric characters--as well as the upscale all-girls' school they attend. One day, walking to school with friends, they witness a horrible act--or do they? Eulabee and Maria Fabiola vehemently disagree on what happened, and their rupture is followed by Maria Fabiola's sudden disappearance--a potential kidnapping that shakes the quiet community and threatens to expose unspoken truths. Suspenseful and poignant, We Run the Tides is Vendela Vida's masterful portrait of an inimitable place on the brink of radical transformation. Pre-tech boom San Francisco finds its mirror in the changing lives of the teenage girls at the center of this story of innocence lost, the pain of too much freedom, and the struggle to find one's authentic self. Told with a gimlet eye and great warmth, We Run the Tides is both a gripping mystery and a tribute to the wonders of youth, in all its beauty and confusion.

A fascinating compendium of conversations between writers includes dialogues between Zadi Smith and Ian McEwan, Jonathan Lethem and Paul Auster, Dave Eggers and David Foster Wallace, and many, many others. Original.

This sharply humorous and fast-paced debut novel is about the effects--some predictable, some wildly unexpected--that an encounter at gunpoint have on a (previously) assured young woman.

And Now You Can Go

The Believer is het broertje, of beter gezegd, zusje van McSweeneys: het is een maandelijks tijdschrift, waarin de lengte van de artikelen niet doorslaggevend is, de recensies niet altijd op tijd, en vaak ook veel te lang zijn, en ook de interviews zijn lang. Voordeel daarvan is wel dat ze makkelijker te bundelen zijn, en dat is precies wat we hebben gedaan. De focus is op schrijvers waar The Believer van houdt en de redactie geeft zowel schrijvers als boeken het voordeel van de twijfel. De werktitel van het tijdschrift, voor het The Believer heette, was De Optimist. Toevalligerwijs is dat ook de titel van het online tijdschrift van Henk van Straten. Zie: www.deoptimist.net. Maar waar waren we gebleven? In deze speciaal voor Nederland samengestelde Believer treft u een keur aan van interviews van schrijvers met andere schrijvers! Zo sprak: Jonathan Lethem met Paul Auster Dave Eggers met Joan Didion Zadie Smith met Ian McEwan Alexandra Rockingham met Orhan Pamuk Sean Wilsey met Haruki Marukami Om maar eens vijf voorbeelden te noemen. U zult versteld staan van de 25 conversaties in dit boek, tussen geliefde schrijvers en de schrijvers die zij adoreren.

Vendela Vida

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