Ordesa: A Novel by Manuel Vilas (English) Paperback Book

Description: Ordesa by Manuel Vilas, Andrea Rosenberg "A meditation on yearning, solitude, and self; a soul storm, a mirage of phantom figures . . . a book of deep reckoning." —The New York Times Book Review The #1 international bestselling phenomenon—a profound and riveting story of love, loss, and memory. A man at a crossroads in the middle of his life considers the place where hes from, and where his parents have recently died. In the face of enormous personal tumult, he sits down to write. What follows is an audacious chronicle of his childhood and an unsparing account of his lifes trials, failures, and triumphs that becomes a moving look at what family gives and takes away. With the intimacy of a diarist, he reckons with the ghosts of his parents and the current specters of his divorce, his children, his career, and his addictions. In unswervingly honest prose, Vilas explores his identity after great loss—what is a person without a marriage or without parents? What is a person when faced with memories alone? Already an acclaimed poet and novelist in Spain, Vilas takes his work to a whole new level with this autobiographical novel; critics have called it "a work of art able to cauterize pain." Elegiac and searching, Ordesa is a meditation on loss and a powerful exploration of a person who is both extraordinary and utterly ordinary—at once singular and representing us all—who transforms a time of crisis into something beautiful and redemptive. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Manuel Vilas is one of Spains most acclaimed poets and writers. Born in Barbastro, in the Huesca region of Spain, Vilas has published six novels, thirteen books of poetry, and has been widely published in newspapers and literary journals. Andrea Rosenberg is a translator from Spanish and Portuguese. Her translations include novels and graphic narrative by Tomás González, Paco Roca, Inês Pedrosa, and Aura Xilonen. Review Praise for Ordesa: "Manuel Vilas writes both novels and poetry, and this book falls somewhere in between. Its a meditation on yearning, solitude, and self; a soul storm, a mirage of phantom figures—resurrected images of dead ancestors, childhood memories, the changing face of Spain itself. And all of these visions come in waves to Manuel after his parents deaths, as he struggles to make sense of his own midlife sorrow and emptiness. Its a book of deep reckoning—of the meaningful and mundane—but written with an airy, even whimsical touch. . . . Despite the melancholy at its heart, this is ultimately a book of light." —The New York Times Book Review"Its beyond impressive that Vilas can pack so much emotional resonance into [these] pages without resorting to anything manipulative. And when it comes to limning the everyday sadnesses of the world, Vilas is a master." —NPR"[A] sober yet elegant autobiographical novel...Painfully observant and poetically inclined…" —The New Yorker "Sometimes there arises a snapshot so striking and definitive it resembles the universal. Manuel Vilas Ordesa is one such novel...With the cadence of poetry, Ordesa unearths a fraught but tender reality in which each moment weve inhabited with those we love is synonymous with the present moment—inextricable from everything that comes after." —ZYZZYVA "Poignant and sensitive portrait of a wounded man . . . A journey both nostalgic and melancholic." —Library Journal (starred review) "Vilas is a Spanish poet, novelist, and essayist born in 1962 who has enjoyed critical and commercial success in his homeland with this book. . . . Vilas also conveys—and Rosenberg smoothly translates—many moments of pain and happiness any reader might recognize as the narrator plunges into the maelstrom of closely examined memory. A dark and challenging but emotionally rich work." —Kirkus Reviews "Vibrant English-language debut . . . Despite lacking a central arc, the novel hums with magnetic and lively scenes. This is an indelible portrait of a man facing the costs of a life dedicated to remembrance." —Publishers Weekly "Ordesa is a poets novel, or maybe a novelists prose poem. Its both things at once, and also the saddest and most candid autobiography Ive read in recent times. Ive been through this book twice and I still dont know how Vilas does it. I know, however, that this book is a gift, and maybe thats enough." —Juan Gabriel Vásquez, author of The Shape of the Ruins "[Ordesa] is the album, the archive, the memory without lies or consolation. . . . Whats left in the end is the clean emotion of truth and the distress of everything lost." —Antonio Muñoz Molina, author of Like a Fading Shadow "A book full of compassion towards the underdogs of history, the everyday men. An extraordinary book." —El País (Spain) Review Quote Praise for Ordesa : "Manuel Vilas writes both novels and poetry, and this book falls somewhere in between. Its a meditation on yearning, solitude, and self; a soul storm, a mirage of phantom figures--resurrected images of dead ancestors, childhood memories, the changing face of Spain itself. And all of these visions come in waves to Manuel after his parents deaths, as he struggles to make sense of his own midlife sorrow and emptiness. Its a book of deep reckoning--of the meaningful and mundane--but written with an airy, even whimsical touch. . . . Despite the melancholy at its heart, this is ultimately a book of light." -- The New York Times Book Review "Its beyond impressive that Vilas can pack so much emotional resonance into [these] pages without resorting to anything manipulative. And when it comes to limning the everyday sadnesses of the world, Vilas is a master." -- NPR "[A] sober yet elegant autobiographical novel...Painfully observant and poetically inclined..." -- The New Yorker "Sometimes there arises a snapshot so striking and definitive it resembles the universal. Manuel Vilas Ordesa is one such novel...With the cadence of poetry, Ordesa unearths a fraught but tender reality in which each moment weve inhabited with those we love is synonymous with the present moment--inextricable from everything that comes after." -- ZYZZYVA "Poignant and sensitive portrait of a wounded man . . . A journey both nostalgic and melancholic." -- Library Journal (starred review) "Vilas is a Spanish poet, novelist, and essayist born in 1962 who has enjoyed critical and commercial success in his homeland with this book. . . . Vilas also conveys--and Rosenberg smoothly translates--many moments of pain and happiness any reader might recognize as the narrator plunges into the maelstrom of closely examined memory. A dark and challenging but emotionally rich work." -- Kirkus Reviews "Vibrant English-language debut . . . Despite lacking a central arc, the novel hums with magnetic and lively scenes. This is an indelible portrait of a man facing the costs of a life dedicated to remembrance." -- Publishers Weekly " Ordesa is a poets novel, or maybe a novelists prose poem. Its both things at once, and also the saddest and most candid autobiography Ive read in recent times. Ive been through this book twice and I still dont know how Vilas does it. I know, however, that this book is a gift, and maybe thats enough." -- Juan Gabriel V Excerpt from Book 1 If only human pain could be measured with precise numbers, not vague words. If only there were some way to assess how much weve suffered, to confirm that pain has mass and measure. Sooner or later, every man must confront the insubstantiality of his own passage through this world. Some human beings can stomach that. Not me-not ever. I used to look at the city of Madrid, and the unreality of its streets and houses and humans felt like nails through my flesh. Ive been a man of sorrows. Ive failed to understand life. Conversations with other humans seemed dull, slow, destructive. It pained me to talk to others; I could see the pointlessness of every human conversation that has been and will be. Even as they were happening, I knew theyd be forgotten. The fall before the fall. The futility of conversations-the futility of the speaker, the futility of the spoken-to. Futilities weve agreed to so the world can exist. At that point Id start thinking about my father again. The conversations I used to have with him seemed like the only thing that was worth a damn. Id go back to those conversations, hoping for respite from the universal deterioration of things. It felt like my brain was fossilized; I couldnt perform simple mental operations. I would add up cars license plate numbers, and the activity plunged me into a deep sadness. I stumbled over my words. It took me a long time to get a sentence out; when I went silent, the person I was talking to would look at me with pity or scorn and end up finishing it for me. I used to stammer, repeating the same thing over and over. Maybe there was beauty in my stuttering emotions. I called my father to account. I was constantly thinking about my fathers life. Seeking an explanation for my own life in his. I became racked by fear and delusions. When I looked in the mirror, I saw not my own self growing old but someone else whod already been here in this world. I saw my father growing old. It made it easy to remember him in meticulous detail; all I had to do was look in the mirror and hed appear, like in some unfamiliar liturgy, a shamanic ceremony, an inverted theological order. There was no joy or happiness in this reunion with my father in the mirror-only another turn of the screw of grief, a further descent, the hypothermic pall of two corpses in conversation. I see what was not intended to be visible; I see death in the breadth and basis of matter; I see the universal weightlessness of all things. I was reading Saint Teresa of Details ISBN0593084055 Author Andrea Rosenberg Short Title Ordesa Pages 304 Language English Year 2021 ISBN-10 0593084055 ISBN-13 9780593084052 Format Paperback Publication Date 2021-11-30 Subtitle A Novel Publisher Penguin Putnam Inc Imprint Riverhead Books,U.S. Country of Publication United States Translated from Spanish AU Release Date 2021-11-30 NZ Release Date 2021-11-30 US Release Date 2021-11-30 UK Release Date 2021-11-30 Illustrations BLACK-AND-WHITE PHOTOS T/O Translator Andrea Rosenberg DEWEY 863.7 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:137982209;

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