Chang-rae Lee

Lithe and tiny, Fan is a diver at the New China settlement of B-Mor, a worker colony long-ago known as Baltimore, her circumscribed world the temperature-controlled fish tanks that feed a contaminated continent, and Reg, the golden-skinned, simple-hearted man she loves.Rigorously pressurised and demarcated, the dystopian America Fan serves is ruled by the professional Charter caste. While B-Mors are obedient and tranquillised by duty and the fear of chaos, the pampered, ruthless Charters inhabit idyllic, over-supplied communities behind whose gates they jostle ceaselessly for dominance. Estranged from nature, B-Mors and Charters alike shy from the spaces between, where ''counties'' people - outcasts, free-thinkers and renegades, bandits and pedlars - forage and grub and steal and kill. One quiet day Reg is removed from the colony - whether for a nameless infraction, or because he is disease-resistant in a world where no one is C-free, it is impossible to say. Fan decides she must follow. But her departure threatens to disrupt the whole order of B-Mor society, and only savage action can hold it together.A mesmerising narrative of courage and longing, On Such a Full Sea is an epic tale: brilliantly speculative, absolutely involving and profoundly humane.

Compelling, suspenseful and unforgettable, THE SURRENDERED is a stunning epic of war, redemption and human longing. It is a masterpiece.

Compelling, suspenseful and unforgettable, THE SURRENDERED is a stunning epic of war, redemption and human longing.

Una profunda meditación sobre la naturaleza del heroísmo y el sacrificio, y el poder del amor. Chang-rae Lee, que ya se había situado con sus tres novelas anteriores como uno de los escritores más talentosos de la literatura contemporanea, vuelve ahora con una obra todavia mas ambiciosa. Un libro caudaloso y elocuente, que explora temas como la identidad y la pertenencia, la guerra y la memoria, el amor y la compasion. En Rendidos esta todo lo que nos sedujo en sus novelas previas, con una profundidad y un alcance aun mayores. Es un relato fascinante sobre como resuenan los ecos del amor y de la guerra a lo largo de toda una vida.June Han se ha forjado una vida a miles de kilometros del lugar donde nacio: ha montado su negocio en Nueva York, ha tenido un hijo, ha sobrevivido a su marido. Pero en su pasado hay secretos de los que no ha hablado jamas con nadie, y treinta años despues de escapar de una Corea destruida por la guerra ha llegado la hora de enfrentarse a ellos.Hector Brennan, peleon, bebedor y un fracasado de principio a fin, es el hombre que hace ya mucho tiempo, apenas finalizada la guerra, salvo la vida de June. Y entre June y Hector esta la historia de la hermosa y desgarrada Sylvie Tanner, cuyo amor perseguian ambos. En una travesia que los lleva desde las laderas incendiadas y los arrozales abandonados de una Corea en ruinas hasta un antiguo, ensangrentado campo de batalla italiano, June y Hector van en busca de su pasado, unidos por un legado de espanto, violencia y amor.Chang-rae Lee despliega, en paralelo a la asombrosa historia de June, Hector y Sylvie, una profunda meditacion sobre la naturaleza del heroismo y el sacrificio, y el poder del amor y la posibilidad de salvarnos, de rendirnos el uno al otro. Combinando los complejos temas de la identidad y la pertenencia de sus primeros dos libros, En lengua materna y Una vida de gestos, con el vigor y la intensa seduccion de la narracion presentes en Desde las alturas, Chang-rae Lee nos ofrece su mejor novela hasta la fecha, una obra de un elegante suspenso, conmovedora, hipnotica.

Espionage acts as a metaphor for the uneasy relationship of Amerasians to American society in this eloquent, thought-provoking tale of a young Korean-American's struggle to conjoin the fragments of his personality in culturally diverse New York City. Raised in a family and culture valuing careful control of emotions and appearances, narrator Henry Park, son of a successful Korean-American grocer, works as an undercover operative for a vaguely sinister private intelligence agency. He and his "American wife," Lelia, are estranged, partly as a result of Henry's stoical way of coping with the recent death of their young son. Henry is also having trouble at work, becoming emotionally attached to the people he should be investigating. Ruminating on his upbringing, he traces the path that has led to his present sorrow; as he infiltrates the staff of a popular Korean-American city councilman, he discovers the broader, societal context of the issues he has been grappling with personally. Writing in a precise yet freewheeling prose that takes us deep into Henry's head, first-novelist Lee packs this story, whose intrigue is well measured and compelling, with insights into both current political events and timeless questions of love, culture, family bonds and identity. This is an auspicious debut for Riverhead Books, Putnam's new division. First serial to Granta; QPB selection; audio rights to Brilliance; author tour.

From the beloved award-winning author of Native Speaker and The Surrendered, a highly provocative, deeply affecting story of one woman''s legendary quest in a shocking, future America.Lithe and tiny, Fan is a diver at the New China settlement of B-Mor, a worker colony long-ago known as Baltimore, her circumscribed world the temperature-controlled fish tanks that feed a contaminated continent, and Reg, the golden-skinned, simple-hearted man she loves.Rigorously pressurised and demarcated, the dystopian America Fan serves is ruled by the professional Charter caste. While B-Mors are obedient and tranquillised by duty and the fear of chaos, the pampered, ruthless Charters inhabit idyllic, over-supplied communities behind whose gates they jostle ceaselessly for dominance. Estranged from nature, B-Mors and Charters alike shy from the spaces between, where ''counties'' people - outcasts, free-thinkers and renegades, bandits and pedlars - forage and grub and steal and kill. One quiet day Reg is removed from the colony - whether for a nameless infraction, or because he is disease-resistant in a world where no one is C-free, it is impossible to say. Fan decides she must follow. But her departure threatens to disrupt the whole order of B-Mor society, and only savage action can hold it together.A mesmerising narrative of courage and longing, On Such a Full Sea is an epic tale: brilliantly speculative, absolutely involving and profoundly humane.

A Gesture Life is a haunting, compelling exploration of the Japanese experience of the Second World War, and the fate of their ''comfort women''.

Franklin Hata, ciudadano modelo en una pequeña ciudad del estado de Nueva York, ha conseguido con sus modales y su dedicación al trabajo que sus conciudadanos olviden que es un japones llegado despues de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Ha llevado siempre una vida de gestos y cortesia, respetando todos los limites. Pero el impenetrable señor Hata no ha sido siempre asi ni ha sido siempre Franklin Hata... El autor va revelando los secretos oscuros del que antaño fuera Ziro Kurohata, descendiente de la menospreciada minoria coreana en Japon, donde tambien consiguio que los japoneses olvidaran que era un intruso. Y cuando se alisto en el ejercito, le encargaron la tarea de velar por la salud de las mujeres coreanas que llevaban como esclavas sexuales para consuelo de la tropa...

«Un argumento que enorgullecería a John Le Carré, narrado con la sutileza y la riqueza de matices de un gran escritor. Un debut impresionante» (James Marcus,New York Newsday).«Un argumento que enorgu

"From up here, a half mile above the Earth, everything looks perfect to me " Being a solo flyer made sense to Jerry Battle right from the start. For his 56th birthday, his longtime (and recently ex-) girlfriend Rita Reyes had given him a gift certificate for flying lessons. Once Jerry was up there he thought, ''here was the little space I was looking for, my private box seat in the world and completely outside of it too.'' As he soared far above the Earth, everything in Jerry''s life seemed perfect. But everything isn''t perfect and for such a nice guy, Jerry could wreak an amazing amount of havoc Life is about to deal Jerry Battle his toughest hand yet. With an ailing father yearning to flee his ''Ivy Acres Life Care Centre'' and a son teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, Jerry''s daughter is about to bestow on him a father''s worst nightmare. But maybe Jerry needs finally to work out what it is that separates him from his loved ones, allowing himself to be tugged back to earth to engage with one of the most compelling and unforgettable of family dramas.With Aloft, Chang-rae Lee proves himself to be a master storyteller, simultaneously observing his characters'' weaknesses and celebrating their humanity. Filled with vitality and urgency, Aloft is an unforgettable portrait of a man who has secured life''s dreams, but who now must struggle to figure out its meaning.

Viudo desde hace años -su mujer, Daisy, era una coreana que se habí­a convertido en una perfecta ama de casa americana, y murió ahogada en su piscina, en circunstancias no del todo transparentes-, Je

At 59, Jerry Battle is coasting through life. His favorite pastime is flying his small plane high above Long Island. Aloft, he can escape from the troubles that plague his family, neighbors, and loved ones on the ground. But he can't stay in the air forever. Only months before his 60th birthday, a culmination of family crises finally pull Jerry down from his emotionally distant course. Jerry learns that his family's stability is in jeopardy. His father, Hank, is growing increasingly unhappy in his assisted living facility. His son, Jack, has taken over the family landscaping business but is running it into bankruptcy. His daughter, Theresa, has become pregnant and has been diagnosed with cancer. His longtime girlfriend, Rita, who helped raise his children, has now moved in with another man. And Jerry still has unanswered questions that he must face regarding the circumstances surrounding the death of his late wife. Since the day his wife died, Jerry has turned avoiding conflict into an art form-the perfect expression being his solitary flights from which he can look down on a world that appears serene and unscathed. From his comfortable distance, he can't see the messy details, let alone begin to confront them. But Jerry is learning that in avoiding conflict, he is also avoiding contact with the people he loves most. Chapter one FROM UP H E R E, a half mile above the Earth, everything looks perfect to me.I am in my nifty little Skyhawk, banking her back into the sun, having nearly completed my usual fair-weather loop. Below is the eastern end of Long Island, and I'm flying just now over that part of the land where the two gnarly forks shoot out into the Atlantic. The town directly ahead, which is nothing special when you're on foot, looks pretty magnificent now, the late-summer sun casting upon the macadam of the streets a soft, ebonized sheen, its orangey light reflecting back at me, matching my direction and speed in the windows and bumpers of the parked cars and swimming pools of the simple, square houses set snugly in rows. There is a mysterious, runelike cipher to the newer, larger homes wagoning in their cul-de-sac hoops, and then, too, in the flat roofs of the shopping mall buildings, with their shiny metal circuitry of HVAC housings and tubes. From up here, all the trees seem ideally formed and arranged, as if fretted over by a persnickety florist god, even the ones (no doubt volunteers) clumped along the

Una profunda meditación sobre la naturaleza del heroísmo y el sacrificio, y el poder del amor.Chang-rae Lee, que ya se había situado con sus tres novelas anteriores como uno de los escritores más talentosos de la literatura contemporanea, vuelve ahora con una obra todavia mas ambiciosa. Un libro caudaloso y elocuente, que explora temas como la identidad y la pertenencia, la guerra y la memoria, el amor y la compasion. En Rendidos esta todo lo que nos sedujo en sus novelas previas, con una profundidad y un alcance aun mayores. Es un relato fascinante sobre como resuenan los ecos del amor y de la guerra a lo largo de toda una vida.June Han se ha forjado una vida a miles de kilometros del lugar donde nacio: ha montado su negocio en Nueva York, ha tenido un hijo, ha sobrevivido a su marido. Pero en su pasado hay secretos de los que no ha hablado jamas con nadie, y treinta años despues de escapar de una Corea destruida por la guerra ha llegado la hora de enfrentarse a ellos.Hector Brennan, peleon, bebedor y un fracasado de principio a fin, es el hombre que hace ya mucho tiempo, apenas finalizada la guerra, salvo la vida de June. Y entre June y Hector esta la historia de la hermosa y desgarrada Sylvie Tanner, cuyo amor perseguian ambos. En una travesia que los lleva desde las laderas incendiadas y los arrozales abandonados de una Corea en ruinas hasta un antiguo, ensangrentado campo de batalla italiano, June y Hector van en busca de su pasado, unidos por un legado de espanto, violencia y amor.Chang-rae Lee despliega, en paralelo a la asombrosa historia de June, Hector y Sylvie, una profunda meditacion sobre la naturaleza del heroismo y el sacrificio, y el poder del amor y la posibilidad de salvarnos, de rendirnos el uno al otro. Combinando los complejos temas de la identidad y la pertenencia de sus primeros dos libros, En lengua materna y Una vida de gestos, con el vigor y la intensa seduccion de la narracion presentes en Desde las alturas, Chang-rae Lee nos ofrece su mejor novela hasta la fecha, una obra de un elegante suspenso, conmovedora, hipnotica.

Una vida de gestos és la història d''un home correctíssim, un ciutadà model en una petita ciutat de l''estat de Nova York. Educat, honest i treballador, Franklin Hata, un emigrant japonès d''origen c