Books with category ✍️ Literary Fiction
Displaying 5 books

Conversations with Friends

2018

by Sally Rooney

Conversations with Friends is a sharply intelligent novel about the complexities of friendship, love, and the unexpected connections that we forge in life.

Frances, the novel's twenty-one-year-old protagonist, is cool-headed and observant. A college student and aspiring writer in Dublin, she spends her nights performing spoken-word poetry with Bobbi, her charismatic best friend and former lover. When they catch the attention of Melissa, a well-known journalist, Frances finds herself drawn into a world of elegant homes, lively dinner parties, and holidays in Provence—alongside Melissa's handsome husband, Nick.

As Frances becomes unexpectedly closer to Nick, their flirtation evolves into a strange intimacy. Meanwhile, Frances grapples with her own vulnerabilities, her father's difficult nature, and her evolving relationship with Bobbi. She is forced to confront the desires of her body and the disorienting realities of her life, challenging her intellectual convictions and her way of living from moment to moment.

Written with a gem-like precision and deep insight, Conversations with Friends captures the exhilarating and sometimes painful experiences of youth, as well as the complex dynamics of female friendship. It is a testament to the power of Sally Rooney's storytelling—a narrative that is alive with humor, emotion, and the poignant realities of navigating adulthood.

The Idiot

2017

by Elif Batuman

The Idiot, a novel by Elif Batuman, is a portrait of the artist as a young woman, exploring the themes of self-discovery and inventing oneself. Set in the year 1995, when email was a new phenomenon, we follow Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, as she begins her freshman year at Harvard. Without any preconceived plans, she enrolls in classes on unfamiliar subjects, forges a friendship with the charismatic and worldly Serbian classmate Svetlana, and, almost by chance, starts corresponding with Ivan, a Hungarian mathematics student.

Despite their limited face-to-face interactions, Selin and Ivan develop a complex relationship through their email exchanges, with each message adding new and mysterious layers to the act of writing. As the school year concludes, Ivan departs for Budapest, and Selin embarks on a teaching assignment in the Hungarian countryside, a position arranged by one of Ivan's friends. Her journey also includes a two-week sojourn in Paris with Svetlana.

Unlike the typical narratives of American college students abroad, Selin's experiences in Europe lead her on an introspective journey. She confronts the bewildering and exhilarating turmoil of first love and comes to an important realization: she is destined to become a writer. The Idiot is a candid reflection on the complexities of becoming an adult, filled with exquisite emotional and intellectual sensitivity, mordant wit, and a writing style that captures the unpredictable nature of memory itself.

Un revólver para salir de noche

Un revólver para salir de noche, escrita por Monika Zgustova, es una obra que sigue su exploración de la figura femenina en el siglo XX. En esta ocasión, la autora se enfoca en Véra Nabokov, la esposa de Vladimir Nabokov, quien desempeñó un papel clave en la vida y el éxito del renombrado escritor.

Véra Nabokov es retratada como una mujer de gran claridad, que eligió dedicar su vida al triunfo de su esposo. Ella fue la primera en leer los manuscritos de Vladimir, encargándose de transcribirlos y prepararlos para su publicación. Además, Véra organizó la vida de la familia Nabokov durante su exilio, viviendo primero en Berlín, luego en París y, finalmente, en Estados Unidos. Allí convenció a Vladimir de cambiar al inglés y centrarse en la novela, hasta que volvieron a Europa y se establecieron en Suiza.

La novela también explora las dinámicas de poder en la relación de los Nabokov, cuestionando si Véra era realmente independiente o si su existencia giraba completamente en torno a su marido. La narrativa se sumerge en las complejas interacciones de Nabokov con otras mujeres y el impacto que tuvieron en su vida y obra, a pesar de los esfuerzos de Véra por mantener el control.

No One Belongs Here More Than You

2007

by Miranda July

No One Belongs Here More Than You is the bestselling debut story collection by the extraordinarily talented Miranda July, an award-winning filmmaker, artist, and author. In this collection, July gives the most seemingly insignificant moments a sly potency. A benign encounter, a misunderstanding, or a shy revelation can reconfigure the world.

Her characters engage awkwardly—they are sometimes too remote, sometimes too intimate. With great compassion and generosity, July reveals her characters’ idiosyncrasies and the odd logic and longing that govern their lives. No One Belongs Here More Than You is a stunning debut, the work of a writer with a spectacularly original and compelling voice.

Pride and Prejudice

1813

by Jane Austen

'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.' Thus memorably begins Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, one of the world's most popular novels.

Pride and Prejudice is an 1813 novel of manners written by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.

Mr. Bennet, owner of the Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire, has five daughters, but his property is entailed and can only be passed to a male heir. His wife also lacks an inheritance, so his family faces becoming very poor upon his death. Thus, it is imperative that at least one of the girls marry well to support the others, which is a motivation that drives the plot.

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