Synopses & Reviews
Inspired by the process of creating a library for his fifteenth-century home near the Loire, in France, Alberto Manguel, the acclaimed writer on books and reading, has taken up the subject of libraries. and#8220;Libraries,and#8221; he says, and#8220;have always seemed to me pleasantly mad places, and for as long as I can remember Iand#8217;ve been seduced by their labyrinthine logic.and#8221; In this personal, deliberately unsystematic, and wide-ranging book, he offers a captivating meditation on the meaning of libraries.
and#160;
Manguel, a guide of irrepressible enthusiasm, conducts a unique library tour that extends from his childhood bookshelves to the and#8220;completeand#8221; libraries of the Internet, from Ancient Egypt and Greece to the Arab world, from China and Rome to Google. He ponders the doomed library of Alexandria as well as the personal libraries of Charles Dickens, Jorge Luis Borges, and others. He recounts stories of people who have struggled against tyranny to preserve freedom of thoughtand#8212;the Polish librarian who smuggled books to safety as the Nazis began their destruction of Jewish libraries; the Afghani bookseller who kept his store open through decades of unrest. Oral and#8220;memory librariesand#8221; kept alive by prisoners, libraries of banned books, the imaginary library of Count Dracula, the library of books never writtenand#8212;Manguel illuminates the mysteries of libraries as no other writer could. With scores of wonderful images throughout, The Library at Night is a fascinating voyage through Mangueland#8217;s mind, memory, and vast knowledge of books and civilizations.
Review
"Books jump out of their jackets when Manguel opens them and dance in delight as they make contact with his ingenious, voluminous brain. He is not the keeper of a silent cemetery, but a master of bibliographical revels."and#8212;Peter Conrad, The Observer
Review
and#8220;In this excellent collection of essays. . . Manguel reminds us of the community we join every time we open a book, be it something new or a treasured volume from our youth.and#8221;--
Publishers WeeklyReview
"If there are such things as a musicianand#8217;s musician and a writerand#8217;s writer, one could argue that Manguel (
The Library at Night) is a readerand#8217;s reader.and#8221;--
Library Journalandnbsp;
andnbsp;
Review
and#8220;Essays of this quality are worth reading, or rereading, wherever they are encountered.and#8221;--John Gross, New York Review of Books
Review
and#8220;For those of us who are serious about books and literature, reading amounts to an almost sacred act. Many famous authors have extolled the pleasures of the printed page, of course, but to my mind none in recent years has done it so expertly or eloquently as Alberto Manguel. Happily, a collection of his best literary meditations is now on offer,
A Reader on Reading, and it is a must for book lovers."--John Sledge,
Mobile Press-Register
Review
and#8220;The range of
A Reader on Reading is in itself as intriguing as that of a good library. . . . A book full of good things.and#8221;--Michael Dirda, Barnes and Noble Review
andnbsp;
Review
andnbsp;and#8220;A meditation on and#8216;the art of readingand#8217; . . . [and]andnbsp;a celebration of and#8216;the readerand#8217;s whims--trust in pleasure and faith in haphazardness.and#8217;
and#8221;-
-The New Yorker
Review
"In my personal library of imaginary places, and more specifically on the bookcases near my desk, I maintain a shelf reserved for brilliant readers. There's rarely any turnover. Borges, Calvino, Benjamin and Zweig (plus a few other steadfast patrons).andnbsp;With Manguel's
The Library at Night, that will clearly have to change."and#8212;Allen Kurzweil, author of
The Grand Complication and
A Case of CuriositiesReview
and#8220;In a good book, certain passages stand out because they are well written. In a great book, nothing stands out because nothing can.
The Library at Night is one of those great books.and#8221;and#8212;
The Globe and MailReview
"Alberto Manguel . . . the Argentine-born author and bibliophile celebrates books as brothers, as crucial companions for a lifetime."and#8212;Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune
Review
"[A] deliciously rich and lavishly illustrated book of books. . . . [A] magical book."and#8212;Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News (Editor's Choice)
Review
"Manguel has assembled thumbnail biographies, entertaining anecdotes, close readings, and photographic documentation into a kind of commonplace book stitched together by his amiable prose. . . . The Library at Night . . . communicates the joy and the solace of being yourself a reader."and#8212;Brian Sholis, BookForum
Review
"In The Library at Night, Alberto Manguel . . . lovingly explores the nooks and crannies of this enchanted domain. To call Mr. Manguel a 'bookman' would be the grossest of understatements. He lives and breathes books."and#8212;Eric Ormsby, New York Sun
Review
"Alberto Manguel has brought out a richly enjoyable book, absolutely enthralling for anyone who loves to read and an inspiration for anybody who has ever dreamed of building a library of his or her own."and#8212;Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World
Review
"The success of The Library at Night is the product of a mind made by reading, and the realization of its own essential argument: The library is a mirror in which we find ourselves and our world reflecting and interpenetrating."and#8212;Matthew Battles, Wilson Quarterly
Review
"To read this book is to be invited into a world in which books are both, luxury and necessity, destiny and serendipity, to experience that sweet moment when the world falls away and we are leftandnbsp;along with the words on the page."and#8212;Susan Larson, New Orleans Times-Picayune
Review
"A vivaciously erudite justification for society's inexorable efforts to collect, order and store information. . . . Book lovers will luxuriate in these earnest and impressively researched pages."and#8212;Christine Thomas, Miami Herald
Review
". . . a pleasureand#8212;especially at this time of . . . internet related uncertainty for libraries. For those . . . who are distressed by the amnesia of the Web, this book is . . . an excellent example of how to rejuvenate the past and continue its conversations."and#8212;Ben Carlson, The Atlantic.com
Review
and#8220;A bold undertaking . . . meditative, questing, and essayistic. . . . Manguel takes the broad sweep that his subject demands. andnbsp;He is a humane and judicious commentator whose wide reading is matchedand#8212;something not always the caseand#8212;by broad sympathies. . . .
The Library at Night remains a remarkable bookand#8212;remarkable above all for its openness to the possibilities that books hold out, and for the passion with which it tries to instill the same attitude in its readers.and#8221;--John Gross,
New York Review of BooksReview
"Like Montaigne's essays and Borges's fables, Manguel's ruminations on libraries are inviting, discursive, learned, playul, and imaginative."--Michael J. Ryan, Papers of the Biliographical Society of America
Synopsis
The first short story collection in the Margellos series, from a master of the genre and an irrepressible critic during Argentina's brutal years of repression
Acclaimed for the gemlike perfection of her short stories, Liliana Heker has repeatedly received major literary awards in her native Argentina. Her work has some of the dark humor of Saki or Roald Dahl, and her versatility and range have earned her a wide, appreciative audience. This expertly translated volume brings to English-language readers the full compass of Heker's stories, from her earliest published volume (1966) through her most recent (2011).
Heker rejected exile during the dangerous Dirty War years and formed part of a cultural resistance that stood against repression. As a writer, she found in the microcosm of the family and everyday events subtle entry into political, historical, and social issues. Heker's stories examine the rituals people invent to relate to one another, especially girls and women, and they reveal how the consequences of tiny acts may be enormous. With charm, economy, and a close focus on the intimate, Heker has perfected the art of the glimpse.
Synopsis
In this major collection of his essays, Alberto Manguel, whom George Steiner has called and#8220;the Casanova of reading,and#8221; argues that the activity of reading, in its broadest sense, defines our species. and#8220;We come into the world intent on finding narrative in everything,and#8221; writes Manguel, and#8220;landscape, the skies, the faces of others, the images and words that our species create.and#8221; Reading our own lives and those of others, reading the societies we live in and those that lie beyond our borders, reading the worlds that lie between the covers of a book are the essence of
A Reader on Reading.The thirty-nine essays in this volume explore the crafts of reading and writing, the identity granted to us by literature, the far-reaching shadow of Jorge Luis Borges, to whom Manguel read as a young man, and the links between politics and books and between books and our bodies. The powers of censorship and intellectual curiosity, the art of translation, and those and#8220;numinous memory palaces we call librariesand#8221; also figure in this remarkable collection. For Manguel and his readers, words, in spite of everything, lend coherence to the world and offer us and#8220;a few safe places, as real as paper and as bracing as ink,and#8221; to grant us room and board in our passage.
Synopsis
The first short story collection in the Margellos series, from a master of the genre and an irrepressible critic during Argentina’s brutal years of repression
Synopsis
Acclaimed for the gemlike perfection of her short stories, Liliana Heker has repeatedly received major literary awards in her native Argentina. Her work has some of the dark humor of Saki or Roald Dahl, and her versatility and range have earned her a wide, appreciative audience. This expertly translated volume brings to English-language readers the full compass of Heker’s stories, from her earliest published volume (1966) through her most recent (2011).
Heker rejected exile during the dangerous Dirty War years and formed part of a cultural resistance that stood against repression. As a writer, she found in the microcosm of the family and everyday events subtle entry into political, historical, and social issues. Heker’s stories examine the rituals people invent to relate to one another, especially girls and women, and they reveal how the consequences of tiny acts may be enormous. With charm, economy, and a close focus on the intimate, Heker has perfected the art of the glimpse.
About the Author
Liliana Heker is the author of five volumes of short stories and two novels and the founding editor of two literary magazines widely read in Latin America. During Argentina’s years of violent repression (1976–83), she continued to write and edit left-wing literary journals while also helping to give voice to authors silenced by the regime. She lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Alberto Manguel, an internationally acclaimed author and reader, writes in both English and Spanish.
Miranda France is a translator and writer. Her books include Bad Times in Buenos Aires and Don Quixote’s Delusions.