Anne Tyler, página 2 de 8

It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon...This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she and Red fell in love that day in July 1959. The whole family on the porch, relaxed, half-listening as their mother tells the same tale they have heard so many times before.And yet this gathering is different. Abby and Red are getting older, and decisions must be made about how best to look after them and their beloved family home. Theyve all come, even Denny, who can usually be relied on only to please himself.

No one does family like Anne Tyler does family. Are the Battistas her most appealing yet?You cant get around Kate Battista as easily as all thatKate Battista is feeling stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and uppity, pretty younger sister Bunny? Plus, shes always in trouble at work her pre-school charges adore her, but the adults dont always appreciate her unusual opinions and forthright manner.Dr Battista has other problems. After years out in the academic wilderness, he is on the verge of a breakthrough. His research could help millions. Theres only one problem: his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. And without PyotrWhen Dr Battista cooks up an outrageous plan that will enable Pyotr to stay in the country, hes relying as usual on Kate to help him. Kate is furious: this time hes really asking too much. But will she be able to resist the two mens touchingly ludicrous campaign to win her round?Anne Tylers retelling of The Taming of the Shrew asks whether a thoroughly modern, independent woman like Kate would ever sacrifice herself for a man. The answer is as individual, off-beat and funny as Kate herself.

With the humour and poignancy of her classic The Accidental Tourist (though with a protagonist who doesn't venture far from home) Anne Tyler's brilliant new novel tells the story of a year in the life of Liam Pennywell, a man in his 61st year. A classical pedant, he's just been 'let go' from his ... Show more With the humour and poignancy of her classic The Accidental Tourist (though with a protagonist who doesn't venture far from home) Anne Tyler's brilliant new novel tells the story of a year in the life of Liam Pennywell, a man in his 61st year. A classical pedant, he's just been 'let go' from his schoolteaching job and downsizes to a tiny little out of town apartment, where he goes to bed early and alone on the first night, tucking himself in tightly ...and wakes up in hospital unable to recall how he got there. Widowed, re-married, divorced and the father of three daughters, Liam is a man who is proud of his recall but has learned to dodge issues and skirt adventure. Obsessed with the gap in his memory, however, he sets out to uncover what happened to him, and finds instead an unusual woman with secrets of her own. His ex-wife, sensible Barbara, and his daughters worry about him but Liam blunders on. This is a novel about memory and memory loss, about incidents and relationships which open up sight lines into a painful past long dead for a man who becomes aware that he hasn't really been present in his own life ...There's late-flowering love, but that brings its own thorny problems. The title is the metaphor for Liam's life. One of Liam's three daughters is a born-again Christian (much to Liam's sceptical bewilderment) and her son, Jonah, colours in Bible stories. His grandson asks Liam if Noah had a gas-driven boat or a sailboat. Neither, replies Liam, he wasn't going anywhere, so he didn't need a compass either: he was just bobbing up and down, staying afloat, because the whole world was covered in water ...

Anne Tyler's richest, most deeply searching novel-a story about what it is to be an American, and about Iranian-born Maryam Yazdan, who, after 35 years in this country, must finally come to terms with her "outsiderness." Two families, who would otherwise never have come together, meet by chance at the Baltimore airport - the Donaldsons, a very American couple, and the Yazdans, Maryam's fully assimilated son and his attractive Iranian wife. Each couple is awaiting the arrival of an adopted infant daughter from Korea. After the instant babies from distant Asia are delivered, Bitsy Donaldson impulsively invites the Yazdans to celebrate: an "arrival party" that from then on is repeated every year as the two families become more and more deeply intertwined. Even Maryam is drawn in - up to a point. When she finds herself being courted by Bitsy Donaldson's recently widowed father, all the values she cherishes - her traditions, her privacy, her otherness-are suddenly threatened. A luminous novel brimming with subtle, funny, and tender observations that immerse us in the challenges of both sides of the American story. "From the Hardcover edition."

Quintessential Tyler, yet full of surprises a perfectly pitched, enchanting and affecting novel about a man adrift in his own life, Noah's Compass chimes gently, heartbreakingly with our times. With the humour and poignancy of her classic The Accidental Tourist (though with a protagonist who doesn't venture far from home) Anne Tyler's new novel tells the story of a year in the life of Liam Pennywell, a man in his sixty-first year. A classical pedant, he's just been let go from his schoolteaching job and downsizes to a tiny out-of-town apartment, where he goes to bed early and alone on his first night. Widowed, re-married, divorced and the father of three daughters, Liam is a man who is proud of his recall but has learned to dodge issues and skirt adventure. An unpleasant event occurs, though, to jolt him out of his certainty. Obsessed with a frightening gap in his memory, he sets out to uncover what happened, and finds instead an unusual woman with secrets of her own, and a late-flowering love that brings its own thorny problems. His ex-wife (sensible Barbara) and daughters worry about him but Liam blunders on, His teenage daughter Kitty is sent to stay - though its not clear who is minding whom. His middle daughter, Louise, is a born-again Christian with a son called Jonah, but her certainties leave Liam still more perplexed. Noahs Compass is about memory and its loss, about incidents and relationships which open up sight lines into a painful past long dead for a man who becomes aware that merely trying to stay afloat may not be enough.

When eighteen-year-old Ian Bedloe pricks the bubble of his familys optimistic self-deception, his brother Danny drives into a wall, his sister-in-law falls apart, and his parents age before his eyes. Consumed by guilt, Ian finds the hope of forgiveness at the Church of the Second Chance, and leaves college to cope with the three children he has inherited and his own embarrassing religion. Twenty years on, Ian''s prospects of a second chance are receding fast when, out of the heart of the domesticity that has engulfed him, strides a new figure who will bring him new life.

Michael and Pauline seemed like the perfect couple - young, good-looking, made for each other. The moment she walked into his mothers grocery store in Baltimore, he was smitten, and in the heat of

Her brilliance in capturing the ripples on the surface of family life gives her a claim to be the Jane Austen of our age Daily Mail Having sacked her handyman, newly-widowed Mrs Emerson finds a replacement in Elizabeth, a lanky, awkward girl.

Quintessential Tyler, yet full of surprises - a perfectly pitched, enchanting and affecting novel about a man adrift in his own life, Noah's Compass chimes gently, heartbreakingly with our times. With the humour and poignancy of her classic The Accidental Tourist (though with a protagonist who doesn't venture far from home) Anne Tyler's new novel tells the story of a year in the life of Liam Pennywell, a man in his sixty-first year. A classical pedant, he's just been 'let go' from his schoolteaching job and downsizes to a tiny out-of-town apartment, where he goes to bed early and alone on his first night. Widowed, re-married, divorced and the father of three daughters, Liam is a man who is proud of his recall but has learned to dodge issues and skirt adventure. An unpleasant event occurs, though, to jolt him out of his certainty. Obsessed with a frightening gap in his memory, he sets out to uncover what happened, and finds instead an unusual woman with secrets of her own, and a late-flowering love that brings its own thorny problems. His ex-wife (sensible Barbara) and daughters worry about him but Liam blunders on, His teenage daughter Kitty is sent to stay - though it's not clear who is minding whom. His middle daughter, Louise, is a born-again Christian with a son called Jonah, but her certainties leave Liam still more perplexed. Noah's Compass is about memory and its loss, about incidents and relationships which open up sight lines into a painful past long dead for a man who becomes aware that merely trying to stay afloat may not be enough.

Barnaby Gailtin has less in life than he once had. His ex-wife Natalie left him and their native Baltimore several years ago, taking their baby daughter Opal with her, and he has acquired an unalterably fixed position as the black sheep of the family in a family where black sheep arent tolerated.

Another quiet masterpiece from the author of The Accidental Tourist - a funny, poignant and unsettling novel about marriage, families and the triumph of hope over experience. On a beach holiday, 40-year-old Cordelia Grinstead walks away from her family, and just keeps walking. She re-invents herself in a new town as a serious-minded woman without ties. But gradually the messy emotions of family life catch up with her once more.

Caleb Peck vanished in 1912, a voluntary refugee from an all-embracing Peckness of the Pecks. Sixty-one years later his half brother Daniel is still on trial, helped by his grand-daughter Justine, a character cursed with a Peckish necessity to see every side of a question. The moving search for the family's deepest roots, from the ragtime era at the end of the last century to small town America in the mid seventies is a haunting story about growing up and breaking away, rebellion and acceptance.