Beethoven Was One-sixteenth Black and other stories
Author(s): Nadine Gordimer
Senses play a telling part in three of the stories in Nadine Gordimer's magnificent new collection. In one we meet a woman who can gauge the stability of her marriage by the tone of her husband's cello, and in another by the scent in the nape of her husband's neck. For one couple who emigrate to South Africa, the husband's gaze remains firmly fixed on their native Budapest, while his wife is spellbound by the visual pleasures of their new homeland. There is lively conversation amongst recently departed literary luminaries in the Chinese restaurant of "Dreaming of the Dead", and a widow seeks an incarnation of her husband which she never knew in life when she meets his former gay lover in "Allesverloren". In "A Frivolous Woman", an old woman compromises not just her own, but others' safety escaping from war-time Germany, while the title story illuminates a new discrimination, where people seek to claim - not hide - a trace of 'the tar brush'. With consummate artistry, Nadine Gordimer illustrates the show-downs, standoffs and highlights of human intimacy while penetrating the nuances of immigration, national identity and race.
Product Information
In addition to her illustrious literary prize portfolio, Nadine Gordimer's most recent novel, Get A Life, was longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker PrizeGordimer is known for her work on the inhumanity of apartheid and has in 2007 became one of the few South Africans to be awarded the Legion of Honour - France's highest accolade.
'Nadine Gordimer is one of the best story-writers in English today.' Observer 'Gordimer's stark sentences and emotional depth make most modern fiction seem trivial.' The Times 'Gordimer has undoubtedly become one of the World's Great Writers ... her rootedness in a political time, place and faith has never dimmed her complex gifts as an artist.' Independent 'Nadine Gordimer writes of blacks and whites, but her steady, unblinking eye sees something grey there. You could call it human nature, and you would be right.' Daily Telegraph
Nadine Gordimer's many novels include The Lying Days (her first novel), The Conservationist, joint winner of the Booker Prize, Get A Life, Burger's Daughter, July's People, My Son's Story, None to Accompany Me, The House Gun and The Pickup. Her collections of short stories include Something Out There, Jump and, most recently, Loot. She also edited the anthology of stories Telling Tales. In 1991 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. She lives in South Africa.
General Fields
- :
- : 55652
- : 55652
- : 19 November 2007
- : 216mm X 135mm
- : United Kingdom
- : books
Special Fields
- : Nadine Gordimer
- : Hardback
- : 823.914
- : 192