Anita Brookner

La novela más emblemática de Anita Brookner, una de las grandes escritoras inglesas del siglo xx. «A veces pensaba que el tiempo que pasaba urdiendo las tramas de sus novelas había sido una preparaci

«Vidas breves» es la historia de una amistad improbable, la de la extravagante, glamurosa y muy egocéntrica Julia y la de la modesta e introvertida Fay, la narradora de esta novela, que abandonó su d

«A sus cuarenta años, la doctora Weiss comprendió que la literaturale había destrozado la vida.» Ruth Weiss es una profesora universitariainteligente y solitaria que se ha especializado en los person

«Nunca me cayó bien, ni yo a ella. Por eso es extraño que tuviéramos cierta amistad durante tantos años.» Vidas breves cuenta la historia de Fay, de sus discretas alegrías e ilusiones desde que, en l

The latecomers are Hartmann and Fibich, brought over to England as children to escape Nazi Germany, now living close to each other in London in their 60s, and still friends. Yet they could not be more different, each having adopted different strategies to reconcile themselves with their past and to cope with an uncertain world.

''He was haunted by a feeling of invisibility, as if he were a mere spectator of his own life, with no one to identify him in the barren circumstances of the here and now.'' Paul Sturgis is retired and lives alone in South Kensington. He walks alone and dines alone, taking pleasure in small exchanges with strangers. His only acquaintance is a widowed cousin whom he visits on Sundays. Unable to make sense of his solitary nature, and fearing death among strangers, he wonders whether at last he might be ready for companionship. But a chance meeting with an old girlfriend and an encounter in Venice with a recently divorced younger woman compel Sturgis to decide how (and with whom) he will spend the rest of his days

Edith has been exiled from home after embarrassing herself and her friends. She has refused to sacrifice her ideals and remains stubbornly single. But among the pampered women and minor nobility Edith finds Mr Neville, and her chance to escape from a life of humiliating spinsterhood is renewed ...

As Hertz struggles with his self-induced dilemma, he looks back over his life, searching for an answer. If he can only think things through rationally, perhaps the way forward was always there, hidden somewhere in the past, waiting for him to finally realise its significance? With a mixture of pathos and mild distaste, he reflects on his distant, ordered childhood in pre-war Germany, his unrequited love for his beautiful, haughty cousin Fanny, to whom, in desperate middle age, he would rashly propose. He remembers the family's enforced exile to London, their role as polite refugees, obligated to kindly compatriots. And then the onset of his brother's "illness", precipitating the end of his career as a concert pianist, the crumbling of his mother's dreams and his own rise as family carer. And his brief respite marriage to Josie whose pragmatism could never dovetail with his own servility.

When her widowed mother marries a wealthy older man and moves to Nice, Zoe's life changes forever. Alone in London, she discovers a new-found freedom and independence - until a sudden and tragic accident forces her to re-examine her life and expectations: maybe settling down isn't for everyone. For the first time Anita Brookner lays out the ground rules for a single life - not necessarily an uncomplicated one - and in the end shows that you can be single and happy.