John Burnside

It is 1999. Kate Lambert, a grieving, semi-alcoholic film student, invites an elderly woman to take part in an oral-history documentary. The woman, Jean Culver, declines, but makes her a bizarre counter-offer: if Kate can stay sober for four days, she will tell her a story. And if she can stay sober beyond that, there will be another, and then another, amounting to the entire history of one family's life. Though still shattered by the death of her father, and by the desultory abuse imposed by Laurits, her enigmatic collaborator and erstwhile lover - Kate is soon drawn into a Scheherazade-like matrix of tales, some painfully final, some still unfinished, in which Jean gradually offers a heartbreaking account, not only of one family, but of the American century itself, from World War II to Vietnam and the Weather Underground. A profound, mysterious, deeply moving novel - a meeting of love and grief, like water on arid soil - Ashland & Vine is the story of an unlikely friendship that transcends time, age and the limits of narrative to reveal the unexpected grace that comes of listening to another's history, while telling, as carefully as we can, what we know of our own.

It is 1999. Kate Lambert, a grieving, semi-alcoholic film student, invites an elderly woman to take part in an oral-history documentary. The woman, Jean Culver, declines, but makes her a bizarre counter-offer: if Kate can stay sober for four days, she will tell her a story. And if she can stay sober beyond that, there will be another, and then another, amounting to the entire history of one family's life. Though still shattered by the death of her father, and by the desultory abuse imposed by Laurits, her enigmatic collaborator and erstwhile lover - Kate is soon drawn into a Scheherazade-like matrix of tales, some painfully final, some still unfinished, in which Jean gradually offers a heartbreaking account, not only of one family, but of the American century itself, from World War II to Vietnam and the Weather Underground. A profound, mysterious, deeply moving novel - a meeting of love and grief, like water on arid soil - Ashland & Vine is the story of an unlikely friendship that transcends time, age and the limits of narrative to reveal the unexpected grace that comes of listening to another's history, while telling, as carefully as we can, what we know of our own.

"Mi obra se ocupa de una serie de asuntos recurrentes: la continuidad; la cualidad misteriosa del mundo natural y los momentos de revelación que a veces se presentan a los que parece que vivimos al margen de ese mundo, en los barrios de las afueras, en los pueblos o las ciudades pequeñas; las nociones de identidad como individuo aislado con una conciencia cambiante del yo y como miembro de una comunidad de vivos y de muertos; el paisaje de las afueras y del campo." JOHN BURNSIDE.

Una novela inquietante sobre el amor, el dolor, la culpa y la b#squeda de la redenci#n. La terrible noticia del suicidio de Moira junto a sus dos hijos peque#os revivir# en Michael las memorias de esos d#as que pasaron juntos pero, sobre todo, de lo que ocultaron. Buscando la redenci#n de su pasado, Michael viaja a conocer a Hazel, la hija mayor de Moira, que podr#a ser su propia hija. Cuando Hazel le ruega que la saque del pueblo y la salve de su padre, Michael descubrir# que el pasado, no importa cu#n hondo cavemos, nunca queda atr#s.

A young girl, Liv, lives with her mother on a remote island in the Arctic Circle. Then two boys drown within weeks of each other under mysterious circumstances, in the still, moonlit waters off the shores of Livs home. Were the deaths accidental or were the boys lured to their doom by a malevolent spirit?

With wit precision and grace John Burnside s second memoir traces the aftershocks of a troubled childhood into troubled adulthood With a new introduction by Sarah Perry Among the best writers of his generation fully voiced and perfectly pitched Andrew O HaganIn the early 80s after a decade of drug abuse and borderline mental illness John Burnside resolved to escape his addictive personality and find calm in a Surbiton of the mind But the suburbs are not quite as normal as he had imagined and he relapses into chaos He encounters a homicidal office worker who is obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock and Petula Clark an old lover with whom he reprises a troubled masochistic relationship and finally the seemingly flesh and blood embodiments of all his private phantoms as he drifts further into unreality The second of John Burnside s extraordinary trilogy of memoirs Waking Up in Toytown is the story of one man s search for sanity but also the story of love that outgrows its restraints and a scorching enquiry into the soul from one of our greatest contemporary writers Burnside s memoir deserves to become a classic Has anyone written about the direct experience of mental illness with such scrupulous observation and wit Daily Express

The last of John Burnside s three memoirs I Put a Spell on You is an enthralling ode to love and wonder in all its forms With a new introduction by Seán Hewitt A master of language Hilary MantelThe first time he was played I Put a Spell on You John Burnside thought he had never heard a more beautiful song it was an enchantment a fascination that would turn to obsession Implicit in the song were all the ambiguities that intrigued him love possession and danger In this exquisite and haunting book John Burnside evokes his coming of age from the industrial misery of Cowdenbeath and Corby to the new world of Cambridge and follows his drifting thoughts and memories along the way from uncanny encounters with lost girls to digressions on voodoo acid and insomnia alongside a cast that includes Kafka Narcissus Diane Arbus and Screamin Jay Hawkins The last of John Burnside s three memoirs I Put a Spell on You is a memoir of romance of lost love and the love of being lost darkened by threat illuminated by glamour Astonishing Not just brilliant but essential reading Independent Exact and enthralling Tessa Hadley

John Burnside recalls the failed relationship with his father in the first of his trilogy of exquisite memoirsWith a new introduction by Megan Nolan A master of language Hilary MantelHe had his final heart attack in the Silver Band Club in Corby somewhere between the bar and the cigarette machine A foundling a fantasist a morose threatening drinker who was quick with his hands he hadn t seen his son for years John Burnside s extraordinary story of this failed relationship is a beautifully written evocation of a lost and damaged world of childhood and the constants of his father s world men defined by the drink they could take and the pain they could stand men shaped by their guilt and machismo A Lie About My Father is about forgiving but not forgetting about examining the way men are made and how they fall apart and about understanding that in order to have a good son you must have a good father Memoir this good illuminates something larger than itself It is an exercise in understanding compassion and forgiveness Sunday TelegraphSaltire Scottish Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Non Fiction Book of the Year

Uno de los m#s recientes poemarios de John Burnside, uno de los grandes poetas brit#nicos, y una de las contribuciones m#s brillantes a la poes#a de nuestro tiempo. John Burnside es uno de los escritores brit#nicos m#s originales y relevantes de nuestros d#as. Dones es uno de sus m#s recientes poemarios y una de las contribuciones m#s brillantes a la poes#a de nuestro tiempo. Di#fanos e intensamente trascendentales, estos poemas logran crear una inmediata intimidad con el lector, invitado a sumergirse en el agua de unos versos cuyo canto perdura en la memoria, como una experiencia #ntima.