The View from Castle Rock\Wozu wollen Sie das wissen, englische Ausgabe
On a clear day, you could see 'America' from
Edinburgh's Castle Rock - or so said Alice Munro's
great-great-great-grandfather, James Laidlaw, when he had drink
taken. Then, in 1818, Laidlaw left the parish of 'no
advantages', of banked Presbyterian emotions and uncanny tales
- where, like his more famous cousin James Hogg, he was born and
bred - and sailed to the new world with his family. This is the
story of those shepherds from the Ettrick Valley and their
descendants, among them the author herself. They were a Spartan
lot, who kept to themselves; showing off was frowned on, and fear
was commonplace, at least for females ...But opportunities present
themselves for two strong-minded women in a ship's close
quarters; a father dies, and a baby vanishes en route from Illinois
to Canada; another story hints at incest; childhood is short and
hazardous. This is family history where imperfect recollections
blur into fiction, where the past shows through the present like
the tracks of a glacier on a geological map. First love flowers
under an apple tree while lust rears its head in a barn; a restless
mother with ideas beyond her station declines painfully; a father
farms fox fur and turkeys; a clever girl escapes to college and
then into a hasty marriage. Beneath the ordinary landscape
there's a different story - evocative, frightening, sexy,
unexpected, gripping. Alice Munro tells it like no other.
"This is a rare and fascinating work" -- Karl Miller Guardian "A stunning achievement" -- Sarah Emily Miano The Times "Beautifully written, this delicate interweaving of fact and fiction is Munro on top form" Daily Mail "The power of Munro's storytelling never falters. It is almost otiose to add to the clamour of praise for her writing, but necessary, nevertheless. This is a remarkable book" -- Jane Shilling Sunday Telegraph "If there is one writer who proves that the short story should never be deemed the uninspiring younger sibling of the novel, it is Munro" -- Melissa McClements Financial Times
Alice Munro, geboren 1931 in Ontario, gehört zu den bedeutendsten Autorinnen der Gegenwart und gilt seit Jahren als Kandidatin für den Literaturnobelpreis. Mit ihrem umfangreichen erzählerischen Werk - sie hat elf Erzählungsbände und einen Roman veröffentlicht - ist sie Bestsellerautorin in ihrem Heimatland Kanada und der gesamten angelsächsischen Welt. 2009 wurde sie mit dem "Man Booker International Prize" ausgezeichnet.
