La neve di Yuzawa (The Snow of Yuzawa)

La neve di Yuzawa. Immagini dal Giappone
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,
Einaudi
March 30th 2021
eBook
314
Italian
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October 31, 2021 November 2, 2021

An evocative journey that from the districts of Tokyo reaches the most remote places in Japan, to discover authors from the most diverse eras: from the court lady Murasaki Shikibu, author of the Genji monogatari, against the background of the twin cedars of Mount Hatsuse, to the iconoclast Shibusawa Tatsuhiko, with its corner of the Six Paths, in Kyoto, where the well that leads to the underworld is hidden. And then of course Mishima Yukio, Kawabata Yasunari and Tsushima Yuko, who summarize the contradictions of the century that has just ended, and the poets of the last decades. Twenty-eight stages that touch both the places made famous by a literary quote, and others less known: the pond inside the University of Tokyo described by Natsume Soseki, the underground bar in Shinjuku made famous by Murakami Haruki, the extreme edge of the Ryukyu , Hiroshima risen from its ashes, the island of Sado refuge of the crested ibis… The constant intertwining of history, contemporary reality and the resulting poetic and literary representation gives rise to an original cultural geography of a civilization with inimitable characters.


About the book

The book is about some Japanese places which are the main location of other literal works or places where certain tales were written. All seasoned with long philosophical digressions on the authors. At the end, the author talks about writers and their works.

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The Monk

The Monk


Oxford University Press
1796
Paperback
456
English
November 1, 2021 November 5, 2021

Set in the sinister monastery of the Capuchins in Madrid, The Monk is a violent tale of ambition, murder, and incest. The struggle between maintaining monastic vows and fulfilling personal ambitions leads its main character, the monk Ambrosio, to temptation and the breaking of his vows, then to sexual obsession and rape, and finally to murder in order to conceal his guilt.

Inspired by German horror romanticism and he work of Ann Radcliffe, Lewis produced his masterpiece at the age of 19. It contains many typical Gothic elements - seduction in a monastery, lustful monks, evil abbesses, bandits an beautiful heroines. But Lewis also played with convention, ranging from gruesome realism to social comedy, and even parodied the genre in which he was writing.


About the book

We are in Madrid, in the 18th century, a period in which the Inquisition and death by burning existed. Here preaches Ambrosio, abbot of the Capuchin monastery present in the city, a virtuous man who manages to charm the congregation with his sermons. He never leaves the monastery and preaches in church only on Thursdays.

Antonia is a young woman who is bewitched by the abbot one Thursday when she goes to hear the homily with her aunt. Here, however, she also meets Lorenzo, a young noble who gives her his seat.

Agnes is a nun of the convent of Santa Chiara adjacent to the monastery and Lorenzo’s sister. As we learn, she hides a secret that will be the beginning of Ambrosio’s ruin (even if it has nothing to do with it directly).

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Mini Review: The Boy in the Headlights

Gutten som elsket rådyr
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, Book # 3
Doubleday
September 2018
Paperback
384
Norwegian
October 15, 2021 October 19, 2021
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Winter 1999. An old man is driving home when his headlights catch an animal on the empty road up ahead. He stamps hard on the brakes. But it is not an animal at all. It is a young boy, frightened and alone, with a set of deer antlers strapped firmly to his head.

Fourteen years later, a body is found in a mountain lake. Within weeks, three people have died. Each time, the killer has left a clue, inviting Special Investigations Detectives Munch and Krüger to play a deadly game – a game they cannot possibly win. Against the most dangerous and terrifying kind of serial killer. One who chooses their victims completely at random.

To find the killer they must look deep within their own dark pasts, but how can you stop a murderer when you cannot begin to predict their next move?


About the book

The body of a young woman is found in a lake by a little boy who can finally go fishing with his father. Mia is about to leave for the Caribbean, Munch lives with his ex-wife to be close to his daughter after the events of the last book. Due to the new case, the team is reunited.

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