The Prospector: J.M.G. Le Clézio
J.M.G. Le Clézio
The Prospector
Publisher: David R Godine; First Paperback Edition edition
Available at: Amazon
Le Clézio, who just received the Nobel Prize in Literature, reveals in this new paperback edition of a novel first published in 1985 some of the qualities that drew the attention of the Swedish Academy—his painterly eye, his knowledge of seemingly exotic locales (the novel is set in Mauritius), his love of nature and the sea, his concern for political themes. Buried treasure is what seems to inspire Alexis L'Etang to return to the Indian Ocean island of his childhood, where he falls in love with the mysterious Ouma. But in fact it is the lost world of his childhood, a world away from what he has come to know in the trenches of the Great War, that he seeks. The search is magical.
Hear J.M.G. Le Clézio's 2008 Nobel Prize lecture
Death With Interruptions: José Saramago
Death With Interruptions
José Saramago
Publisher: Harcourt Books
Available at: Amazon
What if Death were to take an eight-month-long break from her busy work? That is the dark premise of the Portuguese Nobel laureate's novel, a wicked fable in which a country of ten million people must come to terms with what had heretofore seemed impossible to imagine: life without end. The complications are enormous. What will the Church do without its raison d'etre, to say nothing of undertakers and insurance agents? And how can society care for increasing numbers of invalids who on the precipice of the beyond cannot take the final step? These are the kinds of questions that Saramago takes up, and thought it may take a page or two to get the hang of his long sentences it is worth the effort. Death has never looked so good as she does in the final pages of this novel.
The Toss of a Lemon: Padma Viswanathan
The Toss of a Lemon
Padma Viswanathan
Publisher: Harcourt Books
Available at: Amazon
In The Toss of a Lemon, a sprawling generational saga of life in southeastern India, ten years in the making, the Canadian-born Padma Viswanathan announces her arrival as a first-rate novelist.
Padma ViswanathanIn the story of Sivakami, who is married off at the age of ten, widowed at eighteen with two young children, and condemned to spend her next sixty years inside her family compound, lies the transformation of a traditional society into a modern secular country—a story with a wealth of incident, sensual detail, and understanding of local customs and lore, told with genuine grace. Who knew that there was so much to say about the woman in the white sari, whom no one ever saw? And who could have imagined that her story would be told so well?
Web exclusive - Author Padma Viswanathan in conversation with World producer Carol Zall
Your book tip for the holidays
Find all of our 2008 Holiday Books selections on Amazon
