James Salter Knihy

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" Last Night is a collection of stories about passion - by turns fiery and subdued, destructive and redemptive, alluring and devastating." In ten stories, Salter portrays men and women in their most intimate moments. A book dealer faces the truth about his life - as it is and never will be again - when he is visited unexpectedly by his brash former girlfriend. A lonely married woman, after a disturbing encounter with a drunken poet at a dinner party, finds herself irresistibly drawn to his animal surrogate, a huge tawny-eyed dog. A lover of poetry must come to terms with his wife's request to give up what may be his most treasured relationship. And in the title story, a translator, tormented by an agonizing sense of inevitability, assists in his wife's suicide even as he performs a last betrayal.

James Salter's unforgettable memoir of passion, ambition, and what it means to become a writer

From his first published story in the Paris Review in 1968, James Salter's stories have been universally acclaimed. Including his two published collections, Dusk and Other Stories (1988) and Last Night (2005), and the previously uncollected 'Charisma', this volume contains over twenty short stories by one of the finest writers of our time. Concerning men and women in their most intimate moments, struggling with loss, desire, or the burden of memory, each indelible narrative in the Collected Stories is marked by James Salter's great literary grace, his ability to show the subtleties of a character or situation with precision, and his equally assured ability to command reversals of fortune or shocking revelations.

This exquisite, resonant novel by PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter is a brilliant portrait of a marriage by a contemporary American master. It is the story of Nedra and Viri, whose favored life is centered around dinners, ingenious games with their children, enviable friends, and near-perfect days passed skating on a frozen river or sunning on the beach. But even as he lingers over the surface of their marriage, Salter lets us see the fine cracks that are spreading through it, flaws that will eventually mar the lovely picture beyond repair. Seductive, witty, and elegantly nuanced, Light Years is a classic novel of an entire generation that discovered the limits of its own happiness—and then felt compelled to destroy it.

Now available in paperback, the long-awaited first collection of short stories by the author of A Sport and a Pastime.

Vernon Rand, a mountaineer, abruptly leaves his job and wife to climb in the Alps. He and his friend Cabot attempt to scale the North Face of the Dru, but disaster strikes when Cabot falls and is left paralyzed. Rand struggles to accept this and dedicates himself to healing his friend, both physically and mentally.

The seductive classic that established Salter's reputation as one of the finest prose stylists of our time

In this anthology, 26 writers illuminate the motivations at the heart of their creative lives in original essays that are as surprising and varied as their fiction. The contributors include Pat Conroy, Norman Mailor, Rick Moody and David Foster Wallace.

From his experiences as a naval officer in battles off Okinawa during World War II, Philip Bowman returns to America and finds a position as a book editor. He soon inhabits a world where marriages fail as affairs ignite, alcohol reigns, writers struggle, and publishers hustle. It is a world in which to immerse himself, a world of intimate connections and surprising triumphs. But the deal that Philip cannot seem to close is love: one marriage goes bad; another fails to happen; and, finally, he meets a woman who enthrals, then betrays him, setting him on a course he could never have imagined for himself. Written with Salter's signature economy of prose, All That Is fiercely, fluidly explores a life unfolding in a world on the brink of change: a dazzling, sometimes devastating labyrinth of love and ambition, of the small shocks and grand pleasures of being alive. All That Is is a sweeping, seductive love story set in post-World War II America that tells of one man's great passions and regrets over the course of his lifetime and draws together the great themes of Salter's writing: warfare, love, sex and marriage, and what it means to write.

Dieser Band versammelt die Kurzgeschichten eines der besten Autoren unserer Zeit. »Salter schreibt mit Kenntnis, Präzision und Witz ... Die frühen Geschichten aus den sechziger bis hin zu den achtziger Jahren haben einen jazzigen Rhythmus und den aalglatten, kühlen Glanz der Welt von Mad Men. ... Wir befinden uns in der zweiten Hälfte des Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts und das World Trade Center befindet sich gerade erst in der Planung. Was kann schon schiefgehen? Und doch geht am Ende so ziemlich alles schief … Salter ist ein Zauberer und seine Wunderwerke sind fein gewirkt, und doch vermögen sie, die alltägliche Wirklichkeit des Lebens kraftvoll zu packen. Wieder und wieder gelingt ihm auf diesen Seiten, was John Updike als die Aufgabe des Schriftstellers definiert hat, nämlich dass er das ›Schöne am Gewöhnlichen‹ zu zeigen habe. Salter zeigt das Gewöhnliche als das, was es wirklich ist: das Wunderbare.« John Banville

Zwei Düsenjägerpiloten, zugleich Freunde und Rivalen um die Liebe einer Frau, durchleben grausame Minuten. Die Sprechfunkanlage des einen ist ausgefallen, und der andere muss ihn in einer dramatischen Aktion bei der Notlandung führen. Schlaglichtartig blitzt auf, wer sie sind, was sie treibt. Gleich wird nichts mehr sein wie es war.

Ein Roman über das Fliegen? Über den Krieg? Über Helden? Salters literarischer Erstling, nach dessen Veröffentlichung er den Dienst als Kampfpilot quittierte und sich ganz dem Schreiben widmete, ist all das und noch mehr. In »Jäger« ist schon alles da, was den großen Salter ausmacht. Bereits hier geht es ihm um den Menschen an sich, was ihn in seiner Glorie und seiner Erbärmlichkeit antreibt, siegen und scheitern lässt - das alles knapp und brillant formuliert.

Ein Geräusch im Dunkel der Nacht zieht Eddie Fenn magisch an. Er folgt der Richtung, aus der es kommt. Fenns Leben verlief nicht, wie er es erwartet hatte. Seine Träume hat er in jungen Jahren aufgegeben. Heute ist er verheiratet, Vater zweier Töchter, und hält sich selbst für einen Loser. In jener Nacht greift er verzweifelt nach dem Ton, der ihm die Erlösung zu bringen scheint. Seine Frau findet ihn schließlich auf dem Küchenboden kauernd: verstört und vollkommen außer sich.