George Saunders

Ölmek nasıl bir şey? Çağımızın en iyi öykücülerinden George Saunders ilk romanında; yanıtını kimsenin bilmediği, bilse de insanlara aktaramayacağı bu yegâne sorunun peşine düşüyor. Arafta kalan kişi, Amerikan İç Savaşı’nın kahramanı Abraham Lincoln’ın oğlu Willie ve ona eşlik eden onlarca başka hayalet. Herkes geriye dönmenin, Lincoln ise devam etmenin peşinde. Amerika ile aynı anda Türkiye’de de yayımlanan Arafta, zihin zorlayan kurgusu, alışık olunmadık biçimi ve acıyı bile bir mizah ögesi haline getirebilen üslubuyla, okurun önünde yepyeni ve deneysel bir patika açıyor. “Sevdiğimiz her şey sonlanmak zorundaysa sevmeye ve yaşamaya nasıl devam ederiz?” “Kimse acı, kayıp, talihsizlik ve mahrumiyet üzerine George Saunders kadar etkili yazamaz.” Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We’re going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn’t fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?” He approaches the stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster. The process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is a technical craft, but also a way of training oneself to see the world with new openness and curiosity. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.

In six stories and the novella, Bounty, Saunders introduces readers to people struggling to survive in an increasingly haywire world.

Three months after George Saunders gave a graduation address at Syracuse University in 2013, a transcript of that speech was posted on the website of The New York Times, where its simple, uplifting message struck a deep chord. Within days, it had been shared more than one million times. Why? Because Saunders's words tap into a desire in all of us to lead kinder, more fulfilling lives. Powerful, funny, and wise, Congratulations, by the Way is an inspiring message from one of today's most influential and original writers.

Da anni, George Saunders è riconosciuto come una delle voci più originali e influenti della narrativa americana contemporanea; senza aver mai scritto un romanzo, ma solo racconti, ha ricevuto elogi unanimi dalla critica, nonché da colleghi come Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Franzen. Ora, giunto alla sua quarta raccolta, ha definitivamente raggiunto anche il grande successo di pubblico. Dieci dicembre è la sua opera più accessibile: quella che, senza rinunciare alla vena surreale e immaginifica, si avvicina di più al realismo. Accanto a racconti ambientati in laboratori dove si creano improbabili psicofarmaci, o in sobborghi residenziali dove donne moldave o filippine in abiti bianchi penzolano da fili tesi fra gli alberi come decorazioni, ci sono storie di famiglie comuni la cui normalità è turbata dal ritorno di un figlio dalla guerra o dall’irruzione di un malintenzionato: in tutti i casi, i personaggi si trovano a dover scegliere fra l’egoismo e la compassione, l’orgoglio e il sacrificio. Commoventi e sorprendenti, mai banali o buoniste, queste dieci storie sono originalissime parabole per il nostro tempo.

Diez de Diciembre es un libro de relatos de George Saunders publicado en 2013. Finalista del National Book Award. Mejor libro del año según The New York Times. Tras seis años de silencio, George Saunders regresa con Diez de diciembre, su esperado nuevo libro de relatos. Diez extraordinarias piezas ubicadas en la América suburbana y periférica, escritas con una de las voces más particulares de la narrativa estadounidense contemporánea. El amor, el tedio en el trabajo, el sexo y la muerte son algunos de los temas que el autor trata con un estilo que ha sido destacado por la crítica como innovador, intenso y profundamente emotivo. Los relatos reunidos en este volumen juegan con la hibridación de géneros y se acercan muchas veces a lo cómico, a la ciencia ficción distópica o a lo grotesco. Descubrir a Saunders implica descubrir una nueva forma de entender la literatura, una nueva forma de trabajar con el lenguaje y, sobre todo, implica para el lector la posibilidad de alcanzar estados de exaltación únicos e irrepetibles.

A darkly comic short story, a fable about the all too real impact that we humans have on the environment Fox 8 has always been known as the daydreamer in his pack, the one his fellow foxes regarded with a knowing snort and a roll of the eyes. That is, until Fox 8 develops a unique skill: He teaches himself to speak "Yuman" by hiding in the bushes outside a house and listening to children's bedtime stories. The power of language fuels his abundant curiosity about people—even after "danjer" arrives in the form of a new shopping mall that cuts off his food supply, sending Fox 8 on a harrowing quest to help save his pack.

The stories In Persuasion Nation are easily his best work yet. "The Red Bow," about a town consumed by pet-killing hysteria, won a 2004 National Magazine Award and "Bohemians," the story of two supposed Eastern European widows trying to fit in in suburban USA, is included in The Best American Short Stories 2005. His new book includes both unpublished work, and stories that first appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, and Esquire. The stories in this volume work together as a whole whose impact far exceeds the simple sum of its parts. Fans of Saunders know and love him for his sharp and hilarious satirical eye. But In Persuasion Nation also includes more personal and poignant pieces that reveal a new kind of emotional conviction in Saunders's writing. Saunders's work in the last six years has come to be recognized as one of the strongest—and most consoling—cries in the wilderness of the millennium's political and cultural malaise. In Persuasion Nation's sophistication and populism should establish Saunders once and for all as this generation's literary voice of wisdom and humor in a time when we need it most.

Bestseller „New York Times’a”. Jedna z najważniejszych książek 2021 roku w USA. Autor nagrodzonego Bookerem Lincolna w Bardo George Saunders sięga po mistrzów opowiadania: Czechowa, Gogola, Tołstoja i Turgieniewa. Te fascynujące opowieści o czytaniu klasyków są jednocześnie lekcjami czytania świata, rozumienia innych ludzi i odkrywania samych siebie. Kąpiel w stawie podczas deszczu stała się fenomenem czytelniczym. Sięgają po nią nie tylko ci, którzy nie mają szansy wziąć udziału w elitarnych zajęciach pisarskich prowadzonych przez Saundersa na uniwersytecie Syracuse, ale i ci, którzy nigdy wcześniej nie czytali opowiadań i nazwiska ich twórców niewiele im mówią. Autor zaprasza nas do udziału w niezwykłej, inspirującej przygodzie, podczas której błyskotliwie i z humorem pokazuje zaskakującą możliwość przeglądania się jak w lustrze w prozie sprzed ponad stu lat i odkrywania uniwersalnych praw o sobie i współczesnym świecie. Sztuka czytania (i pisania) opowiadań okazuje się być niepokojąco bliska innej sztuce – sztuce życia.

George Saunders è uno degli autori più amati e influenti della scena letteraria americana di oggi. La sua raccolta di racconti Dieci dicembre è stata uno dei casi letterari del 2013, sia negli Stati Uniti, dove ha scalato le classifiche ed è stata finalista alNational Book Award, sia in Italia, dove sia "La Repubblica" che il "Corriere della Sera" l’hanno inserita fra i migliori libri dell’anno. La rivista "Time" ha incluso Saunders nella sua lista delle 100 persone più influenti al mondo. Nel dicembre 2013, "La Repubblica" e minima&moralia, il blog di minimum fax, hanno pubblicato un memorabile discorso di Saunders agli studenti della Syracuse University in cui lo scrittore invita i neolaureati a basare la propria vita sulla gentilezza verso il prossimo invece che sull’ambizione personale. In poche ore il pezzo è stato letto da decine di migliaia di persone (20.000 solo le condivisioni su Facebooke e Twitter) e ripreso da altri blog e testate. Per chi non l’avesse ancora letto, perchi vuole conservarlo o regalarlo, minimum fax lo ripubblica ora in questo volumetto, accompagnato da un attualissimo saggio («L’uomo col megafono») contro la retorica politica urlata e violenta, e da un’intervista inedita all’autore.

The "best short story writer in English" (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose--wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned--Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: here is a collection of prismatic, deeply resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality. Love Letter is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the not-too-distant future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and each other. Ghoul is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado, and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his "reality." In Mother's Day, two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. And in Elliott Spencer, our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed--his memory "scraped"--a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters. Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention as Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.

In his long-awaited first novel, American master George Saunders delivers his most original, transcendent, and moving work yet. Unfolding in a graveyard over the course of a single night, narrated by a dazzling chorus of voices, Lincoln in the Bardo is a literary experience unlike any other—for no one but Saunders could conceive it. February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. "My poor boy, he was too good for this earth," the president says at the time. "God has called him home." Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returned to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy's body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a thrilling, supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory, where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie's soul. Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction's ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices—living and dead, historical and invented—to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?

Man Booker Prize 2017 Cu un sâmbure de adevăr istoric şi sprijinindu-se pe o imaginaţie luxuriantă, George Saunders construieşte o poveste în care fantasticul se îmbină cu veridicul. O poveste despre iubire şi pierdere, despre vinovăţie şi asumare, despre şovăirile omului sub vremi şi sub istorie. Personajele din Lincoln între vieţi vin de la Casa Albă, de pe câmpul de luptă, din conace opulente şi cocioabe povârnite, din bordeluri şi biserici, de sub cerul liber sau de sub lacătul închisorii. Ele se adună într-un purgatoriu straniu (Bardo, în mitologia tibetană), unde se dedau şi actelor de penitenţă, dar şi ritualurilor scandaloase. Umanizate de suferinţă şi egale în faţa morţii, personajele acestea compun o galerie pitorească şi pestriţă, în faţa căreia tu, cititor, treci de la compasiune la hohot şi înapoi.

Febbraio 1862, la Guerra civile è iniziata da un anno, e il presidente degli Stati Uniti, Abraham Lincoln, è alle prese con ciò che sta assumendo tutti i contorni di una catastrofe. Nel frattempo Willie, il figlio prediletto di undici anni, si ammala gravemente e muore. Verrà sepolto a Washington, nel cimitero di Georgetown. A partire da questa scheggia di verità storica - i giornali dell'epoca raccontano che Lincoln si recò nella cripta e aprì la bara per abbracciare il figlio morto - Saunders mette in scena un inedito Aldilà romanzesco popolato di anime in stallo. Il Bardo del titolo, un riferimento al «Libro tibetano dei morti», allude al momento di passaggio in cui la coscienza è sospesa tra la morte e la prossima vita. È questo il limbo in cui si aggirano moltitudini di creature ancora troppo attaccate all'esistenza precedente, come Willie, che non riesce a separarsi dal padre, e il padre, che non riesce a separarsi dal figlio. Accompagnati da tre improbabili guide di ascendenza dantesca, assisteremo allo sconvolgimento prodotto nel mondo di queste anime perse dall'arrivo di Willie Lincoln, che è morto e non lo sa, e di suo padre, il presidente, che è come morto ma deve vivere per il bene del proprio paese. Sentiremo le voci - petulanti, nostalgiche, stizzose, accorate - degli spiriti e il controcanto della storia. Leggeremo nei pensieri di Lincoln e nella mente di suo figlio, uniti da un amore che trascende il dolore e il distacco fisico. Il romanzo si svolge in una sola notte, eppure abbraccia le epoche e arriva fino a noi, spaziando in un territorio dove tutto è possibile, dove la logica convive con l'assurdo, le vicende vere con quelle inventate, dove tragedia e farsa non sono due categorie distinte e separate ma un'unica realtà indifferenziata e contraddittoria, che proprio per questo appare spaventosa e viene negata. Come si può vivere, amare e compiere grandi imprese, sapendo che tutto finisce nel nulla?

With this new collection, George Saunders takes us even further into the shocking, uproarious and oddly familiar landscape of his imagination. The stories in Pastoralia are set in a slightly skewed version of America, where elements of contemporary life have been merged, twisted, and amplified, casting their absurdity—and our humanity—in a startling new light. Whether he writes a gothic morality tale in which a male exotic dancer is haunted by his maiden aunt from beyond the grave, or about a self-help guru who tells his followers his mission is to discover who's been "crapping in your oatmeal," Saunders's stories are both indelibly strange and vividly real.

One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet. In the taut opening, "Victory Lap," a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice: Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from his parents and act? In "Home," a combat-damaged soldier moves back in with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the one to which he has returned. And in the title story, a stunning meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the dying man a final chance to recall who he really is. A hapless, deluded owner of an antique store; two mothers struggling to do the right thing; a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush with reality; a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments that force him to lust, to love, to kill—the unforgettable characters that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly infused with Saunders' signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic innovation. Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human. Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, the stories in Tenth of December—through their manic energy, their focus on what is redeemable in human beings, and their generosity of spirit—not only entertain and delight; they fulfill Chekhov's dictum that art should "prepare us for tenderness."

The breakout book from "the funniest writer in America"—not to mention an official Genius—a trade paperback original and his first nonfiction collection ever. George Saunders's first foray into nonfiction is composed of essays on literature, travel, and politics. At the core of this unique collection are Saunders's travel essays based on his trips to seek out the mysteries of the "Buddha Boy" of Nepal; to attempt to indulge in the extravagant pleasures of Dubai; and to join the exploits of the minutemen at the Mexican border. Saunders expertly navigates the works of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, and Esther Forbes, and leads the reader across the rocky political landscape of modern America. Emblazoned with his trademark wit and singular vision, Saunders's endeavor into the art of the essay is testament to his exceptional range and ability as a writer and thinker.

In a profoundly strange country called Inner Horner, large enough for only one resident at a time, citizens waiting to enter the country fall under the rule of the power-hungry and tyrannical Phil, setting off a chain of injustice and mass hysteria.An Animal Farm for the 21st century, this is an incendiary political satire of unprecedented imagination, spiky humor, and cautionary appreciation for the hysteric in everyone.

From the bestselling author of Tenth of December comes a splendid new edition of his acclaimed collaboration with the illustrator behind The Stinky Cheese Man and James and the Giant Peach! Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious images, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a modern fable for people of all ages that touches on the power of kindness, generosity, compassion, and community. In the seaside village of Frip live three families: the Romos, the Ronsens, and a little girl named Capable and her father. The economy of Frip is based solely on goat’s milk, and this is a problem because the village is plagued by gappers: bright orange, many-eyed creatures the size of softballs that love to attach themselves to goats. When a gapper gets near a goat, it lets out a high-pitched shriek of joy that puts the goats off giving milk, which means that every few hours the children of Frip have to go outside, brush the gappers off their goats, and toss them into the sea. The gappers have always been everyone’s problem, until one day they get a little smarter, and instead of spreading out, they gang up: on Capable’s goats. Free at last of the tyranny of the gappers, will her neighbors rally to help her? Or will they turn their backs, forcing Capable to bear the misfortune alone? Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious illustrations by Lane Smith and a brilliant story by George Saunders that explores universal themes of community and kindness, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a rich and resonant story for those that have all and those that have not.

Questo non è l’ennesimo manuale di scrittura creativa, ma un libro dove ci si fa un sacco di domande. Sette racconti (riportati integralmente) di quattro giganti della letteratura russa (Turgenev, Tolstoj, Čechov, Gogol’) vengono analizzati come scatole nere cariche di dati e informazioni insospettabili dal meno ortodosso degli autori americani. Sulla scorta del corso che tiene da vent’anni alla Syracuse University, George Saunders diventa il nostro istruttore personale e ci propone di entrare in questi racconti come se entrassimo nella testa dei loro autori, per scoprire, al di là dei ferri del mestiere, un nuovo approccio alla lettura, alla scrittura e alla vita, e per rendersi finalmente conto che il mondo non gira solo intorno a noi. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.

Ніч на 26 лютого 1862 року, цвинтар Оук-Гілл у Вашингтоні. Один із найславетніших американських президентів, Абрагам Лінкольн, серце якого розривається від болю через утрату 11-річного сина та через кривавий хаос, що охопив цілу країну: громадянська війна саме у розпалі. Багатоголосий хор найрізноманітніших неприкаяних душ, які з власної волі застрягли тут, на цвинтарі, між цим світом та потойбіччям, діляться своїми історіями, а тепер не зводять з президента пильних очей. Цитати з реальних і вигаданих творів реальних і вигаданих сучасників. Все це — «Лінкольн у бардо» Джорджа Сондерса, прониклива і пронизлива оповідь, сповнена співчуттям та насичена глибокими сенсами, написана надзвичайно майстерно і скомпонована неймовірно химерно. «Шедевр», — кажуть літературні критики. І додають: «Перш ніж розгорнути цю книжку, забудьте про все, що ви читали раніше. Так чи інак, вона ні на що не схожа».