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Foodie authors James Lasdun and Pia Davis offer forty walks through the extraordinary landscape of Provence, each specially designed to combine natural beauty, historical interest and, of course, world-class local cuisine. James and Pia offer a wide array of itineraries, from multi-day adventures that are linked by train to short half-day excursions. This is a guide that is perfect for both doers and dreamers — for those who are planning a trip to Provence and those who want to explore the region from the comfort of their home. From the fjord-like calanques near Marseilles, through the classic Provencal villages of the Luberon mountains, to the remote wilderness of the Mercantour National Park, Moon Walking and Eating in Provence guides travelers through the best sights — and flavors — of this remarkable region of France. ...
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The stories in this remarkable collection—including “An Anxious Man,” winner of the National Short Story Prize (UK)—are vibrant and gripping. James Lasdun’s great gift is his unfailing psychological instinct for the vertiginous moments when the essence of a life discloses itself. With forensic skill he exposes his characters’ hidden desires and fears, drawing back the folds of their familiar self-delusions, their images of themselves, their habits and routines, to reveal their interior lives with brilliant clarity. In sharply evoked settings that range from the wilds of Northern Greece to the beaches of Cape Cod, these intensely dramatic tales chart the metamorphoses of their characters as they fall prey to the full range of human passions. They rise to unexpected heights of decency or stumble into comic or tragic folly. They throw themselves open to lust, longing, and paranoia—always recognizably mirrors of our own conflicted selves. As James Wood has written, “James Lasdun seems to be one of the secret gardens of English writing . . . When we read him we know what language is for again.” This collection of haunting, richly humane pieces is further proof of the powers of an enormously inventive writer. ...
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A darkly brilliant tale by a writer whose last novel was "a masterpiece" (Washington Post) and "Poe for the 21st century" (Salon).
Part political thriller, part meditation on the nature of desire and betrayal, Seven Lies tells the story of Stefan Vogel, a young man growing up in the former East Germany, whose yearnings for love, glory, and freedom express themselves in a lifelong fantasy of going to America. By a series of blackly comic and increasingly dangerous maneuvers, he contrives to make his fantasy come true, finding himself not only in the country of his dreams but also married to the woman he idolizes. America seems everything he expected, and his secrets are safely locked away behind the Berlin Wall. A new life of unbounded bliss seems to have been granted to him. And then the world begins to fall apart.
Skillfully rendered and compulsively readable, Seven Lies secures James Lasdun's stature as a novelist of the highest order....
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The Horned Man opens with a man losing his place in a book, then deepens into a dark and terrifying tale of a man losing his place in the world. As Lawrence Miller—an English expatriate and professor of gender studies—tells the story of what appears to be an elaborate conspiracy to frame him for a series of brutal killings, we descend into a world of subtly deceptive appearances where persecutor and victim continually shift roles, where paranoia assumes an air of calm rationality, and where enlightenment itself casts a darkness in which the most nightmarish acts occur. As the novel races to its shocking conclusion, we follow Miller as he traverses the streets of Manhattan and the decaying suburbs beyond, in terrified pursuit of his pursuers. Written with sinuous grace and intellectual acuity, The Horned Man is an extraordinary, unforgettable first novel by an acclaimed writer and poet of unusual power. Reading group guide included....
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