Jim Crace – författare

In this award-winning collection, the world is “skewed just enough . . . to make us see our own world more clearly. . . . brilliant, provocative and delightful.” (TheNew York Times Book Review).Jim Crace’s internationally acclaimed first book explores the tribes and communities, conflicts and superstitions, flora and fauna of a wholly spellbinding place: an imaginary seventh continent. In these seven short stories, Crace travels a strange and wonderful landscape: “Talking Skull” takes the reader to a tiny agricultural village renowned for the sexually-charged, mystical milk of its calves; “Electricity” introduces a remote flatland region where a monumental ceiling fan changes an entire town’s attitude toward modernization. From the acacia scrub of the flatlands to a city bazaar jammed with vegetable stalls, tourists, and beggars, Crace’s invented world is as fabulous as it is eerily familiar.“Crace has invented epigraphs, cities, landscapes, even an entire landmass. The idea, of course, is the first faith of fiction: What matters most is what we hold in our minds.” —Los Angeles Times“Hard and actual in observation, clearly and richly imagined, remarkably original.” —The Guardian“This is stunningly powerful, visionary writing.” —Publishers Weekly

Winner of the Whitbread First Novel Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize and the David Higham Award.

‘The intense story of the pre-historical moment when stone yielded to bronze . . . Crace is a virtuoso’ Frank Kermode, New York Times A coastal community live prosperously crafting fine stone tools. But their proud insularity is breached by raiders, and in the violence a boy loses his arm. Useless as a knapper, he finds a role as the village storyteller, roaming far and returning home with fantastically embellished tales. When the arrival of a new metal threatens all their livelihoods, his fearless imagination becomes a lifesaving gift.‘His style is as simple as it is beautiful . . . Crace reveals the dignity in human labour and the power of the passing of time’Herald‘A deceptively simple book that explores profound ideas with a rare delicacy of touch’ Los Angeles Times‘Bewitching . . . brings a lost world to life and imbues it with a sense of wonder’ Sunday Times

Victor, an eighty-year-old multimillionaire, surveys his empire from the remoteness of his cloud-capped penthouse. Expensively insulated from the outside world, he nonetheless finds that memories of his impoverished childhood will not be kept so easily at bay. Focusing on the one area of vitality and chaos that remains in the streets below him, he formulates a plan to leave a mark on the city – one as indelible and disruptive as the mark the city left on him.Victor, an eighty-year-old multimillionaire, surveys his empire from the remoteness of his cloud-capped penthouse. Expensively insulated from the outside world, he nonetheless finds that memories of his impoverished childhood will not be kept so easily at bay. Focusing on the one area of vitality and chaos that remains in the streets below him, he formulates a plan to leave a mark on the city – one as indelible and disruptive as the mark the city left on him.

Winter 1836, and the Belle of Wilmington discharges its doomed crew on Wherrytown. Little daunted, the Captain and his sailors flirt, drink and brawl their way through the village, marooned along with Aymer Smith, a virgin and a blunderer in search of a wife. As vivid and alive as characters by Dickens, these men play out their dreams against a haunting, monumental landscape, bringing the New World back to the Old, with fresh discoveries, fresh hazards, fresh hopes.'The passions and mores of the 1830s are flawlessly delineated in this masterly novel, imbued with the tang and power of the sea' Independent

A devastated America exists in an imagined future. Its technologies are forgotten, its communities have splintered and its refugees, reversing the course of history, travel eastwards in search of safety and a new start. Among them are Franklin and Margaret, young, bereft, forced together by circumstance; but finding that love, courage and determination can endure even as a country breaks slowly apart.

Victor, an eighty-year-old multimillionaire, surveys his empire from the remoteness of his cloud-capped penthouse. Expensively insulated from the outside world, he nonetheless finds that memories of his impoverished childhood will not be kept so easily at bay. Focusing on the one area of vitality and chaos that remains in the streets below him, he formulates a plan to leave a mark on the city – one as indelible and disruptive as the mark the city left on him.Victor, an eighty-year-old multimillionaire, surveys his empire from the remoteness of his cloud-capped penthouse. Expensively insulated from the outside world, he nonetheless finds that memories of his impoverished childhood will not be kept so easily at bay. Focusing on the one area of vitality and chaos that remains in the streets below him, he formulates a plan to leave a mark on the city – one as indelible and disruptive as the mark the city left on him.

‘Hard and actual in observation, clearly and richly imagined, remarkably original’ GuardianA novel in seven stories, Continent is an exploration of the cultures, communities and natural life of an entirely imaginary realm. Built on rich seams of myth and metaphor, this new, seventh continent is strange, atmospheric and yet not wholly a mirage, for its inhabitants are disarmingly familiar, known to us through their loves, their hopes and their struggles to make sense of life.On its first publication over twenty years ago, this spellbinding book marked the arrival of one of the most inventive minds at work in modern fiction.‘Fuses folklore and political parable, moral fable and myth, into something rather original and also very modern’ The Times ‘Makes us see our own world more clearly . . . brilliant, provocative and delightful’ New York Times

November 1836, and Aylmer Smith is making the voyage from his London home to coastal Wherrytown to deliver bad news. Once there he becomes embroiled with the American crew of the Belle, torn from their ship by a fierce storm and left stranded to wreak havoc in the village.A Dickensian cast of characters and Jim Crace’s characteristically poetic prose make for an extraordinary novel: a historical yet timeless exploration of clashing cultures, communication and technology, which sees Crace at his illuminating and expansive best.

‘A tender, erotic comedy set in a fictitious European city so intricately imagined that you itch to book a weekend break there’ IndependentFelix Dern is a celebrated actor, revered for his talent and his looks. Unbeknownst to those he seduces, he is exceptional in other ways, too. ‘Every woman he dares to sleep with bears his child . . .’Gifted or cursed, Lix now has six living reminders of what he did, with whom, and all in the pursuit of the elusive dream of love. Set in the beguiling City of Kisses, this seamless novel charts the history of a loving, baffled man in what emerges as a mischievous meditation on eternal sexual conundrums of love, power, parenthood and desire.‘As a study in love, sex and relationships, Six is as involving and original as anything Crace has written’ Literary Review‘Ingenious and beautifully written’ Daily Telegraph Books of the Year

One night when there are guests and all the wine has gone, they put the can into the candlelight amongst the debris of their meal and play the guessing game. An aphrodisiac. perhaps; “Let’s try . .” ’Bursting with delightfully subversive ingredients and mischievous behaviour, The Devil’s Larder is a sensuous portrait — in sixty-four parts — of a community in which meals cater not for taste buds but to satisfy the imagination This is a book about our loves. and hates, our appetites and desires, rendered with startling beauty and devilish invention.

‘The intense story of the pre-historical moment when stone yielded to bronze . . . Crace is a virtuoso’ Frank Kermode, New York Times A coastal community live prosperously crafting fine stone tools. But their proud insularity is breached by raiders, and in the violence a boy loses his arm. Useless as a knapper, he finds a role as the village storyteller, roaming far and returning home with fantastically embellished tales. When the arrival of a new metal threatens all their livelihoods, his fearless imagination becomes a lifesaving gift.‘His style is as simple as it is beautiful . . . Crace reveals the dignity in human labour and the power of the passing of time’Herald‘A deceptively simple book that explores profound ideas with a rare delicacy of touch’ Los Angeles Times‘Bewitching . . . brings a lost world to life and imbues it with a sense of wonder’ Sunday Times

Leonard Lessing once cast a spell on stage, hypnotizing crowds with his improvised jazz, easy in his music, at home in the moment. Now, home is somewhere he never leaves. His sax is silent, his marriage faltering, his stepdaughter vanished, and his life shrinking – until one afternoon the TV brings news he can’t ignore. A figure from his firebrand past has arrived in town, with hair-raising results. Can Leonard face the limelight one last time?‘Rich, cleverly constructed . . . a funny, heartwarming and hugely enjoyable read’ Herald‘All That Follows sends an artist in the doldrums on a quest to recover his valour. Crace writes gloriously’ Independent‘Alive and kicking . . . Crace writes with real feel and imagination about music’ Sunday Times‘Blending comedy with a touch of pathos, this is an unexpectedly joyful novel’ Daily Mail

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD.A couple lie naked in the dunes at Baritone Bay, at the spot where, almost thirty years before, they had first had sex as students. Nostalgia has sent Celice and Joseph back to their singing stretch of coast, but in the seeming calm of the afternoon they meet a brutal and unexpected fate – one which will still their bodies but not their love, and certainly not their story.Winner of the National Book Critics Circle AwardA couple lie naked in the dunes at Baritone Bay, at the spot where, almost thirty years before, they had first had sex as students. Nostalgia has sent Celice and Joseph back to their singing stretch of coast, but in the seeming calm of the afternoon they meet a brutal and unexpected fate – one which will still their bodies but not their love, and certainly not their story.

Winner of the Whitbread Novel AwardShortlisted for the Booker Prize‘Dazzling, gritty brilliance’ – Sunday Times‘Completely captivating’ – Literary ReviewJim Crace's provocative retelling of Jesus' forty day fast in the desert is a classic that tampers with tradition. Moving and fascinating in equal measure, Quarantine is a stunningly realized novel from one of the great writers of our time. Under an endless and unforgiving sky, five travellers venture into the Judean wilderness in search of redemption. Instead, amidst the barren rocks, they are met by a dangerous man, Musa, and fall under his dark influence. As the unforgiving days and bitter nights erode their resolve, it becomes clear that one among them will go further than the rest: a fervent, solitary figure, he denies the temptations of his neighbours, and, ultimately, the needs of his own body.‘One of the finest novels I’ve read in years’ – The Times‘Crace’s desert shimmers with a sense of the miraculous’– Express on Sunday‘Stunning. A writer of hallucinatory skill’ – John UpdikePart of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and now a film adaptation starring Caleb Landry Jones. Jim Crace creates a haunting world in Harvest.‘Extraordinary’ – The Guardian‘Inimitably excellent’ – Boyd Tonkin, The IndependentAs late summer steals in and the final pearls of barley are gleaned, a village comes under threat. A trio of outsiders – two men and a dangerously magnetic woman – arrive on the woodland borders triggering a series of events that will see Walter Thirsk’s village unmade in just seven days: the harvest blackened by smoke and fear, cruel punishment meted out to the innocent, and allegations of witchcraft.But something even darker is at the heart of Walter’s story, and he will be the only man left to tell it . . .‘Terrible, lyrical beauty that is nothing like any other novel I have ever read’ – Spectator‘He is, quite simply, one of the great writers of our time’ – Colum McCannWinner of the James Tait Black PrizeWinner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary AwardShortlisted for the Goldsmiths PrizeShortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical FictionNow part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and now a film adaptation starring Caleb Landry Jones. Jim Crace creates a haunting world in Harvest.‘Extraordinary’ – The Guardian‘Inimitably excellent’ – Boyd Tonkin, The IndependentAs late summer steals in and the final pearls of barley are gleaned, a village comes under threat. A trio of outsiders – two men and a dangerously magnetic woman – arrive on the woodland borders triggering a series of events that will see Walter Thirsk’s village unmade in just seven days: the harvest blackened by smoke and fear, cruel punishment meted out to the innocent, and allegations of witchcraft.But something even darker is at the heart of Walter’s story, and he will be the only man left to tell it . . .‘Terrible, lyrical beauty that is nothing like any other novel I have ever read’ – Spectator‘He is, quite simply, one of the great writers of our time’ – Colum McCannWinner of the James Tait Black PrizeWinner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary AwardShortlisted for the Goldsmiths PrizeShortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical FictionNow part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD.A couple lie naked in the dunes at Baritone Bay, at the spot where, almost thirty years before, they had first had sex as students. Nostalgia has sent Celice and Joseph back to their singing stretch of coast, but in the seeming calm of the afternoon they meet a brutal and unexpected fate – one which will still their bodies but not their love, and certainly not their story.Winner of the National Book Critics Circle AwardA couple lie naked in the dunes at Baritone Bay, at the spot where, almost thirty years before, they had first had sex as students. Nostalgia has sent Celice and Joseph back to their singing stretch of coast, but in the seeming calm of the afternoon they meet a brutal and unexpected fate – one which will still their bodies but not their love, and certainly not their story.

A devastated America exists in an imagined future. Its technologies are forgotten, its communities have splintered and its refugees, reversing the course of history, travel eastwards in search of safety and a new start. Among them are Franklin and Margaret, young, bereft, forced together by circumstance; but finding that love, courage and determination can endure even as a country breaks slowly apart.