A career defining tour-de-force from New York Timesbestselling, award-winning and "formidably gifted" (Chicago Tribune) authorof Peace Like a River Leif Enger.A storyteller "of great humanity and huge heart" (MinneapolisStar Tribune), Leif Enger debuted in the literary world with Peace Likea River which sold over a million copies and captured readers' heartsaround the globe. Now comes a new milestone in this boldly imaginative author'saccomplished, resonant body of work. Set in a not-too-distant America, ICheerfully Refuse is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarkingunder sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeplybeloved, bookselling wife. Rainy, an endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs and remote islands of the inland sea. Encounteringlunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, Rainy finds on landan increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire rulingclass, crumbled infrastructure and a lawless society. Amidst the Gulliver-likechallenges of life at sea and no safe landings, Rainy is lifted by physicalbeauty, surprising humor, generous strangers, and an unexpected companion in ayoung girl who comes aboard. And as his innate guileless nature begins to makean inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy's private quest for the love of his lifegrows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike inhis strengthening wake. I Cheerfully Refuse epitomizes the "musical, sometimes magical and deeplysatisfying kind of storytelling" (Los Angeles Times) for which LeifEnger is cherished. A rollickingnarrative in the most evocative of settings, this latest novel is a symphonyagainst despair and a rallying cry for the future.
Format: CONTRIBUTORS: EngerEAN: 9780802162939COUNTRY: United StatesPAGES: WEIGHT: 0 gHEIGHT: 0 cm
PUBLISHED BY: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly PressDATE PUBLISHED: 2024-04-02CITY: GENRE: FICTION / Fantasy / Action & Adventure, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / DystopianWIDTH: 0 cmSPINE:
Book Themes:
Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, Dystopian and utopian fiction, Adventure / action fiction, Fantasy
Praise for I Cheerfully Refuse "A book that reads like music, both battle hymn and love song for our world. A true epic--heartbreaking, terrifyingly prophetic, but above all, radically hopeful." -- Violet Kupersmith, author of Build Your House Around My Body"A heart-racing ballad of escape, shot-through with villainy and dignity, humor and music. Like Mark Twain, Enger gives us a full accounting of the human soul, scene by scene, wave by wave." -- Josh Ritter, singer and author of The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All Praise for Virgil Wander"Enger deserves to be mentioned alongside the likes of Richard Russo and Thomas McGuane. Virgil Wander is a lush crowd-pleaser about meaning and second chances and magic."--New York Times Book Review"[Virgil Wander] brings out the charm and downright strangeness of the defiantly normal." ―Wall Street Journal"Enger is a writer to be appreciated by anyone who cares about words."--Seattle Times Praise for Peace Like a River"Here is an author we can trust and who we are willing to follow anywhere. Enger strikes just the right balance of instinctive storytelling, narrative play and pretty prose." --San Francisco Chronicle"Book lovers inclined to complain that novelists don't write gripping yarns anymore would do well to pick up a copy of Peace Like a River, a compelling blend of traditional and artfully offbeat storytelling . . . a miracle well worth witnessing."-- Boston Globe"The narrative picks up power and majesty, then thunders to a tragic, yet joyous, climax." - People "Gripping... Filled with sharp prose and vividly realized scenes, [Peace Like a River] has the makings of that rarest commodity: the literate bestseller." - The Minneapolis Star Tribune
Leif Enger grew up in Osakis, Minnesota, and worked as a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio before writing his bestselling debut novel Peace Like a River, which won the Booksense Award for Fiction and was named one of the Year's Best Books by Time Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. His second novel, So Brave, Young, and Handsome, was also a national bestseller. It was a Midwest Booksellers Honor Book, and won the High Plains Book Award for Fiction. His third novel Virgil Wander was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was named a best book of the year by Amazon, Library Journal, Bookpage, and Chicago Public Library. He lives with his wife in Duluth, MN.
A career defining tour-de-force from New York Timesbestselling, award-winning and "formidably gifted" (Chicago Tribune) authorof Peace Like a River Leif Enger.A storyteller "of great humanity and huge heart" (MinneapolisStar Tribune), Leif Enger debuted in the literary world with Peace Likea River which sold over a million copies and captured readers' heartsaround the globe. Now comes a new milestone in this boldly imaginative author'saccomplished, resonant body of work. Set in a not-too-distant America, ICheerfully Refuse is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarkingunder sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeplybeloved, bookselling wife. Rainy, an endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs and remote islands of the inland sea. Encounteringlunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, Rainy finds on landan increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire rulingclass, crumbled infrastructure and a lawless society. Amidst the Gulliver-likechallenges of life at sea and no safe landings, Rainy is lifted by physicalbeauty, surprising humor, generous strangers, and an unexpected companion in ayoung girl who comes aboard. And as his innate guileless nature begins to makean inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy's private quest for the love of his lifegrows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike inhis strengthening wake. I Cheerfully Refuse epitomizes the "musical, sometimes magical and deeplysatisfying kind of storytelling" (Los Angeles Times) for which LeifEnger is cherished. A rollickingnarrative in the most evocative of settings, this latest novel is a symphonyagainst despair and a rallying cry for the future.
Format: CONTRIBUTORS: EngerEAN: 9780802162939COUNTRY: United StatesPAGES: WEIGHT: 0 gHEIGHT: 0 cm
PUBLISHED BY: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly PressDATE PUBLISHED: 2024-04-02CITY: GENRE: FICTION / Fantasy / Action & Adventure, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / DystopianWIDTH: 0 cmSPINE:
Book Themes:
Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, Dystopian and utopian fiction, Adventure / action fiction, Fantasy
Leif Enger grew up in Osakis, Minnesota, and worked as a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio before writing his bestselling debut novel Peace Like a River, which won the Booksense Award for Fiction and was named one of the Year's Best Books by Time Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. His second novel, So Brave, Young, and Handsome, was also a national bestseller. It was a Midwest Booksellers Honor Book, and won the High Plains Book Award for Fiction. His third novel Virgil Wander was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was named a best book of the year by Amazon, Library Journal, Bookpage, and Chicago Public Library. He lives with his wife in Duluth, MN.
Dramatiese wisselwerking tussen 'n onderhandelaar en 'n skieter
“Ons het ’n gyselaarsituasie in Stellenbosch.” Blinde kol boei vanaf hierdie openingsin, met ’n spanningslyn wat deurgaans snaarstyf volgehou word. Dit is 2 Oktober 2025 en ’n man het sy pad ingeskiet in ’n dameskoshuis. Hy hou verskeie studente aan en kort-kort klap daar nog skote. Hy vra vir Karla Blanckenberg by die naam, wil spesifiek met háár praat.
Karla onthou dat die skieter, Altus, die seun is wat sy in 2019 oorreed het om nie van ’n dak af spring nie. Die storielyn wissel behendig en ongeforseerd tussen hierdie twee tydgleuwe, ook tussen die voorgeskiedenis van die skieter en dié van Karla.
Benewens die spanningsvolle gebeure, word daar sensitiewe dinge oopgeskryf, soos selfmutilasie. “Ink kan sê hoe sy voel. Maar bloed kan dit ’n ruk lank wegvat.” (p.156) Daar is ook Altus se obsessie met mooi meisies en seks wat hy voel dat hy verdien maar nie kry nie. Daar is baie bloedvergieting, maar Martin Steyn is ’n meester wat dit verteerbaar aanbied, selfs vir ’n redelike sensitiewe leser soos ekself.
Adjudant Karla Blanckenberg en haar spanlid, Adjudant Colin Menck, het verskyn in vroeëre boeke van hierdie skrywer, maar Blinde Kol kan op eie bene staan. Dit is ’n produk van Lapa Uitgewers.
'n Joernalis soek na 'n fonds op 'n roosplaas in Marokko, en ontbloot geheime
Om ’n laaste wens van haar pa te eerbiedig, vertrek Gemma na Marokko, en spesifiek na die roosplaas, Sangrose. Die Marokkaanse landskap daarheen word goed uitgebeeld en verklaar waarom Soet rose, donker geheime, deur Frenette van Wyk uitgegee is as ’n romanse in die Reis sub-genre. Die titel is ook goed gekies, want op die pragtige plaas met duisende roosbome, is daar beslis geheime opgesluit.
Gemma is ’n joernalis met ’n ondersoekende gees. Haar pogings om die geheime te ontbloot, bring haar in uiteindelik in konflik met die eienaar van die plaas, die wewenaar, Julien, terwyl daar vanuit die staanspoor ’n definitiewe aantrekking tussen hulle was.
Die storie herinner my sterk aan Daphne du Maurier se Rebecca, hoewel dit in verskillende tye en plekke afspeel. Dalk is dit die rosetuine, maar veral die antagonis, die hatige Mrs Danvers. In hierdie verhaal is dit Samira wat openlik vyandig is en soos ’n skim verskyn oral waar Gemma beweeg.
Soet rose, donker geheime is ’n publikasie van Lapa Uitgewers onder die Romanza druknaam.
Luke en Lilihanna is lank genoeg in ’n verhouding dat sy al ’n diamantring begin verwag. Drama sommer met die intrapslag: hy verlaat die prentjie op onbedagsame wyse en laat vir Lilihanna verslae agter. Die volgende man wat te voorskyn kom is die skatryk Sebastian. Ek het nie geweet wat om te maak met hierdie karakter nie. Is hy ’n gewillige held of ’n onwaarskynlike held? Of is die held dalk die fotograaf, Leo, met sy lang hare, sy motorfiets en sy byna rebelse aantreklikheid?
Voorkoms staan sentraal in die storielyn. Sebastian, wat ’n reeks haarsalonne en ’n holostiese spa besit waar oormaaksessies aan die orde van die dag is, verras met ’n stelling: “Liefde is die onwerklike opwelling van emosie wanneer jy onverwags daardie één sien, ongeag of hulle nou in aanddrag uitgevat is of in vodde.” (p.31)
Skrywer Beatrix Smith was ook nie haastig om al my vrae te beantwoord nie, en ek gaan dit net so aan lesers oorlaat om te bepaal wié Lilihanna se hart gaan steel. My bestemde beminde is ’n Romanza uit Lapa Uitgewers se stal.
