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More copies of this ISBNFat Man and Infinity: And Other Writingsby Antonio Lobo Antunes and Margaret Jull Costas
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Antunes crafts some of the world's most vivid and lively prose. The brief selections in The Fat Man and Infinity demonstrate that he is as masterful at creating brief vignettes as he is epic novels. As two-thirds of this book is comprised of autobiographical writings, it allows the reader considerable insight into the author's life and his background (from boyhood, through his service in the Angolan civil war, and into his years of shifting his profession from psychiatry to full-time writing). The final third of the book is made up of very short stories, none longer than a mere four pages. In each section, whether fact, fiction, or on the tenuous line between the two, Antunes's writing is full of grace, humility, and tenderness, even when writing about betrayal and heartbreak. There's a depth and richness to his work that makes each piece seem so personal, as if he is relating a story that happened to someone we know as intimately as he does. His observations and insights into human frailty, the imagination, romantic yearnings, and the minutiae of everyday life are incomparably keen, yet there's a quiet, contented ease (however full of passion) that permeates each story like the subtlest of breezes barely perceptible. It is of little wonder that Antunes is widely mentioned as a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize, as nearly everything he has written is utterly exquisite and arresting. As always, Margaret Jull Costa's translation is fluid and seamless. Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Antonio Lobo Antunes's sole ambition from the age of seven was to be a writer. Here, in The Fat Man and Infinity, "the heir to Conrad and Faulkner" (George Steiner) reflects on the fractured paradise of his childhood — the world of prim, hypocritical, class-riven Lisbon in midcentury. His Proust-like memoirs, written over thirty years in chronicle form, pass through the filter of an adult who has known war and pain, and bear witness to the people whom he loved and who have gone into the dark. Stunningly translated by Margaret Jull Costa, in prose that glides like poetry, this is a modern-day chronicle of Portugal's imperfect past and arresting present, seen through the eyes of a master fiction writer, one on a short list to win a Nobel Prize. Readers particularly touched by Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes will be drawn to this journey into the heart of one of our greatest living writers. Review:"The personal essays and reminiscences of Antonio Lobo Antunes, happily gathered here, provide not only glimpses into Portuguese life but also passages that lead to the heart of experience itself. His descriptive quickness and his genius for metaphor cause the line between prose and poetry to vanish before our astonished eyes." Billy Collins Synopsis:A lyrical, searing work of autobiography, reflection, and fiction, evoking Garcia Marquez's memoirs and Pamuk's Istanbul. Synopsis:Antunes' sole ambition from the age of seven was to be a writer. In his memoir, written over 30 years in chronicle form, he reflects on the fractured paradise of his childhood — the world of prim, hypocritical, class-riven Lisbon in mid-century. Synopsis:Ant"nio Lobo Antunes's sole ambition from A lyrical, searing work of autobiography, the age of seven was to be a writer. reflection, and fiction, Here, in The Fat Man evoking Garca and Infinity, "the heir to Conrad Mrquez's memoirs and Pamuk's and Faulkner" (George Istanbul.Steiner) reflects on the fractured paradise of his childhood'"the world of prim, hypocritical, class-riven Lisbon in midcentury. His Proust-like memoirs, written over thirty years in chronicle form, pass through the filter of an adult who has known war and pain, and bear witness to the people whom he loved and who have gone into the dark. Stunningly translated by Margaret Jull Costa, in prose that glides like poetry, this is a modern-day chronicle of Portugal's imperfect past and arresting present, seen through the eyes of a master fiction writer, one on a short list to win a Nobel Prize. Readers particularly touched by Frank McCourt's Angela's Asheswill be drawn to this journey into the heart of one of our greatest living writers. About the AuthorAntonio Lobo Antunes is the author of twenty-five novels and the recipient of the 2005 Jerusalem Prize. He lives in Lisbon, Portugal. Margaret Jull Costa is the award-winning translator of the work of Fernando Pessoa, Jos Saramago, and Javier Marias.
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