Amy Hempel Knihy

With her trademark compassion and wit, Hempel takes readers into the marriages, minor disasters, and moments of revelation in an uneasy America.

It is always "earthquake weather" in Amy Hempel's California, a landscape where everything can change without warning. Traditional resources—home, parents, lovers, friends, even willpower—are not dependable. And so the characters in these short, compelling stories have learned to depend on small triumphs of wit, irony, and spirit.A widow, surrounded by a small menagerie, comes to terms with her veterinarian husband's death; a young woman entertains her dying friend with trivia and reaffirms her own life; in the aftermath of an abortion, a woman compulsively knits a complete wardrobe for a friend's baby. Buffeted by rude shocks, thwarted by misconnections, the characters recognize that anything can finally become a reason to live.In a tubTonight is a favor to HollyCelia is backNashville gone to ashesSan FranciscoIn the cemetery where Al Jolson is buriedBeg, Sl Tog, Inc, Cont, RepGoingPool nightThree popes walk into a barThe man in BogotáWhen it's human instead of when it's dogWhy I'm hereBreathing JesusToday will be a quiet day

These are stories about people who make choices that seem inevitable, whose longings and misgivings evoke eternal human experience. With her trademark compassion and wit, Hempel takes readers into the marriages, minor disasters and moments of revelation in an uneasy America.

Critically acclaimed master of the short story Amy Hempel’s Tumble Home is narrated by people with skewed visions of home. Not exactly crazy, they become obsessed and irrational as their inner logic leads them astray. In the title novella, a woman living in a psychiatric halfway house writes to a man she has met only once. Proceeding in brief vignettes that link and illuminate, she recounts her peculiar life with the other patients. The accretions of anecdote lead deeper and deeper into the psyche and history of the narrator, gradually revealing the reason for her urgent letter.

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.

Amy Hempel gilt in Deutschland als eine der großen unentdeckten Stimmen der amerikanischen Literatur. Ihre vier schmalen Bände, die in den letzten 30 Jahren erschienen sind, haben in den USA und Europa bereits den Status moderner Klassiker erreicht. Ihre minimalistischen Geschichten sind Kleinode, die den Leser in eine veränderte Perspektive eintauchen lassen. Sie bieten scharfsichtige Portraits scheinbarer Nichtigkeiten und behandeln zentrale Themen wie den Tod, die Angst vor menschlichen Bindungen und die Unsicherheiten, mit denen ihre Figuren konfrontiert sind. Diese Geschichten entfalten ihren Sog bereits im ersten Satz, sind unheimlich und originell, und jede hinterlässt einen bleibenden Eindruck im Kopf des Lesers. Hempel, geboren 1951, lebt in New York City und lehrt Creative Writing an Harvard. Ihre veröffentlichten Kurzgeschichtenbände umfassen unter anderem "Reasons to Live" und "The Dog of the Marriage". Ihre Werke sind in renommierten Publikationen erschienen und in bedeutenden Anthologien vertreten. Sie erhielt zahlreiche Auszeichnungen, darunter den PEN/Malamud Award und den REA Award for the Short Story. Kritiker loben ihre Texte als lebendig und komisch, wobei sie die Leser zur Reflexion anregen.

Il nuovo e attesissimo libro di Amy Hempel, una delle voci più celebri e originali della narrativa di oggi, si apre con un proverbio arabo: "Quando il pericolo si avvicina, cantagli una canzone". Queste quindici storie raffinate rivelano la parte più umana e vivace della leggendaria scrittrice, che ci presenta figure solitarie e alla deriva in cerca di una connessione. Le loro brevi vicende affrontano le nostre paure e i nostri desideri, costringendoci a compatirli. I personaggi di Amy Hempel, immediatamente vividi e memorabili, hanno cuori danneggiati e sono perseguitati dal dolore. Lottano per perdonare se stessi e gli altri. Ne La chicane l'incontro di una donna con un attore francese suscita un diluvio di ricordi legati a una zia suicida, incapace di trovare stabilità in amore e nella vita. In Un rifugio con tutti i servizi una volontaria di un ricovero per cani si prende cura con devozione degli animali da sopprimere. In Greed una moglie respinta esamina la relazione di suo marito con una donna affascinante e anziana. E in Cloudland, la storia più lunga della raccolta, una donna rimugina sulla scelta fatta da adolescente di rinunciare al suo bambino. Seducenti e inquietanti, tenere e cupamente divertenti, queste storie sono piene di rivelazioni inattese, narrate con lo stile singolare e inimitabile di Amy Hempel.