Denis Johnson – författare

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, NOMINATED FOR FOUR ACADEMY AWARDS - INCLUDING BEST PICTUREAn epic miniature of one man's life journey through the American West at the turn of the twentieth century.Robert Grainier is a day labourer in the American West, felling the trees that feed the railways. It is the start of the twentieth century, and the world is changing at a rapid pace.Life is fragile in the wilds of the frontier; disease and forest fires are rife. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainier journeys, struggling to make sense of the bewildering changes transforming the nation.Rich and muscular, sweeping and incantatory, Train Dreams is an epic in miniature: an elegy to the ravaged beauty of a lost landscape, and a haunting indictment of the cost of our modern way of life.'A work of extraordinary power and consummate skill... A masterpiece' Observer'A masterpiece... One of the best prose writers in our time' Michael Ondaatje'I don't think there is a sentence in the book that isn't perfectly made' Ann Patchett, New York Times

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, NOMINATED FOR FOUR ACADEMY AWARDS - INCLUDING BEST PICTUREAn epic miniature of one man's life journey through the American West at the turn of the twentieth century. Robert Grainier is a day labourer in the American West, felling the trees that feed the railways. It is the start of the twentieth century, and the world is changing at a rapid pace. Life is fragile in the wilds of the frontier; disease and forest fires are rife. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainier journeys, struggling to make sense of the bewildering changes transforming the nation. Rich and muscular, sweeping and incantatory, Train Dreams is an epic in miniature: an elegy to the ravaged beauty of a lost landscape, and a haunting indictment of the cost of our modern way of life. 'A work of extraordinary power and consummate skill... A masterpiece' Observer 'A masterpiece... One of the best prose writers in our time' Michael Ondaatje'I don't think there is a sentence in the book that isn't perfectly made' Ann Patchett, New York Times

Shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Tree of Smoke – the name given to a ‘psyop’ that may or may not be hypothetical and may or may not be officially sanctioned – is Denis Johnson’s most gripping, visionary and ambitious work. Set across south-east Asia and the United States, and spanning two decades, Tree of Smoke tells the story of Skip Sands, a CIA spy who may or may not be engaged in psychological operations against the Viet Cong. Skating across Vietnam, the Philippines, and the United States, Johnson takes the reader on a surreal, vivid journey, dipping in and out of characters’s lives to reveal fundamental truths at the heart of the human condition.Part of the Picador Collection, a series celebrating fifty years of Picador books and showcasing the best of modern literature.

**A NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS' TOP BOOK OF 2018**The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson, author of the groundbreaking, highly acclaimed Jesus’ Son. Written in the same luminous prose, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating mortality, the ghosts of the past, and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves. Finished shortly before Johnson’s death, this collection is the last word from a writer whose work will live on for many years to come.

‘A dazzling and savage first novel’ New York TimesAngels tells the story of two born losers. Jamie has ditched her husband and is running away with her two baby girls. Bill is dreaming of making it big in a life of crime. They meet on a Greyhound bus and decide to team up. So begins a stunning, tragic odyssey through the dark underbelly of America – the bars, bus stations, mental wards and prisons that play host to Jamie and Bill as they find themselves trapped in a downward spiral though rape, alcohol, drugs and crime, to madness and death.From the author of Tree of Smoke, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction

A young, unnamed man, reeling from his addiction to heroin and alcohol, spirals through these interlinked stories of grief and transcendence, of rock bottom and redemption, of getting lost and found and lost again. In the course of his adventures, he meets an assortment of people, who seem as alienated and confused as he; sinners, misfits, the lost, the damned, the desperate and the forgotten. Out of their bleak, seemingly random lives, Denis Johnson creates modern-day parables of a harsh and devastating beauty.

'Daring and provocative... Startlingly original' New York TimesThe nuclear holocaust has been and gone, and now everything is different. In Twicetown, once Key West, two missiles sit unexploded, objects of awe and indifference. Mr Cheung teaches the boy Fiskadoro to play the clarinet; Grandmother Wright, the oldest person in the world, endlessly relives the fall of Saigon; Cassius Clay Sugar Ray trades in radioactive artefacts. Boats go out to comb the sea for fish, and the sea keeps some of the men. Tossing fitfully in nightmares of forgotten wars, lazing in the tropical heat, the flotsam and jetsam of a lost civilization pursue their lives through a world of fractured memories. And they wait - for the Cubans to come, for the Quarantine to be lifted, for the god Quetzalcoatl, the god Bob Marley, the god Jesus to return and build their kingdoms.From the author of Tree of Smoke, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction

Ten stories narrated by a recovering alcoholic and heroin addict whose dependencies have led him to petty crime, cruelty, betrayal, and loss.

In his poetry, short stories, novels, and plays, Denis Johnson has explored the story of America - especially of the West, land of self-made men and self-perpetuating myths - with a searing honesty and genuine sympathy. In these two plays, written in verse both hypnotic and clear, he confirms his position as one of our great verbal stylists, and a literary conscience for our times. Purvis' seven reverse-chronological scenes catalogue the fall and rise of Melvin Purvis, the G-man who brought down John Dillinger and Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd. Johnson takes us from Washington's backrooms to a Midwestern comfield, dramatizing the seductive allure of power and our own human capacity for both pettiness and grace. In "Soul of A Whore", a lively cast of characters - faith healers, pimps, strippers, actual demons - converges, with unexpected hilarity, as Bess Cassandra awaits execution for the murder of her infant daughter. In these furiously entertaining, occasionally terrifying works, Denis Johnson chronicles and questions America's myths, heroes, and everyday realities with verve and elegance, proving once again that he is at the height of his linguistic and insightful powers.

Michael Reed is a man going through the motions, numbed by the death of his wife and child. But when events force him to act as if he cares, he begins to find people who - against all expectation - help him through his private labyrinth. Poignant and beautiful, The Name of the World is a tour de force by one of the most astonishing writers at work today.

Provincetown, Cape Cod: the last outpost of civilisation, the end of the earth. In the confused aftermath of a failed suicide attempt, Leonard English – pursuing a vague vision of redemption and an even vaguer offer of employment – finds himself in a Cape resort populated by religious zealots and promiscuous transvestites. Taking a position as a part-time disc jockey-cum-private investigator, he falls hopelessly in love with a beautiful young gay woman. As winter approaches Leonard’s anguish mounts, his search for an elusive artist proves as futile as his desire and his growing obsessions lead to a tragic discovery and unexpected personal satisfaction.

Part political inquiry, part travel journal, part-self exploration, "Seek" is a collection of essays by an award-winning novelist out to explore himself and his life in the company of those who live on the edges of society. Denis Johnson travels between the extremes of human behaviour, from a hippy convention in the Achoco Natinal Forest, to war-ravaged Liberia, where he is witness to horrifying acts of torture. Along the way he joins a "Bikers for Jesus" rally in Texas, hangs out with a gun-crazed militia group, finds himself stranded in Somalia, and swaps stories with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Jimmy Luntz owes money to a man called Juarez. Trouble is, Juarez isn't the most patient of men. And when he gets bored of waiting, he sends someone round to collect. Luntz doesn't actually plan to shoot the guy, but the way he sees it, it's shoot or be shot. Either way, though, Luntz is out of his league, and he knows it: nobody messes with Juarez — or, at least, nobody messes with Juarez and lives to tell the tale. Against all the odds, however, it seems that somebody up there is looking out for Luntz, if only he can keep his cool.A story of mistaken identity, blackmail and murder, of bent judges, wronged alcoholics and colostomy bags, Nobody Move is No Country for Old Men as written by Denis Johnson.Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

Jimmy Luntz owes money to a man called Juarez. Trouble is, Juarez isn't the most patient of men. And when he gets bored of waiting, he sends someone round to collect. Luntz doesn't actually plan to shoot the guy, but the way he sees it, it's shoot or be shot. Either way, though, Luntz is out of his league, and he knows it: nobody messes with Juarez -- or, at least, nobody messes with Juarez and lives to tell the tale. Against all the odds, however, it seems that somebody up there is looking out for Luntz, if only he can keep his cool.A story of mistaken identity, blackmail and murder, of bent judges, wronged alcoholics and colostomy bags, Nobody Move is No Country for Old Men as written by Denis Johnson.Praise for Denis Johnson's previous novel, Tree of Smoke, which won the US National Book Award 2007:'A Catch-22 for our times' Alan Warner, Observer 'A heart-stopping reminder of what fiction can do' Sunday Telegraph

‘In this land of chaos and despair, all I can do is wish for magic armour and the power to disappear.’Freetown, Sierra Leone. A city of heat and dirt, of guns and militia. Alone in its crowded streets, Captain Roland Nair has been given a single assignment. He must find Michael Adriko – maverick, warrior, and the man who has saved Nair's life three times and risked it many more.The two men have schemed, fought and profited together in the most hostile regions of the world. But on this new level – espionage, state secrets, treason – their loyalties will be tested to the limit.This is a brutal journey through a land abandoned by the future – a journey that will lead them to meet themselves not in a new light, but in a new darkness.