Imatge de l'autor

Michel Faber

Autor/a de The Crimson Petal and the White

42+ obres 14,581 Membres 586 Ressenyes 59 preferits

Sobre l'autor

Michel Faber was born in The Hague, Netherlands on April 13, 1960. He was educated at the University of Melbourne. His books include The Crimson Petal and the White, The Fahrenheit Twins, Under the Skin, The Apple, and The Book of Strange New Things. He is also the author of two novellas, The mostra'n més Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps and The Courage Consort. He won several short-story awards, including the Neil Gunn, Ian St James and Macallan. He made The New York Times Best Seller List with his title The Book of Strange New Things. This title also made the shortlist for the Arthur C Clarke Award for science-fiction in 2015. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra'n menys

Obres de Michel Faber

The Crimson Petal and the White (2002) 6,738 exemplars
Under the Skin (2004) 2,456 exemplars
The Book of Strange New Things (2014) 2,191 exemplars
D: A Tale of Two Worlds (2020) 405 exemplars
The Courage Consort {novella} (2002) 159 exemplars
Undying: A Love Story (1708) 75 exemplars
Listen: On Music, Sound and Us (2023) 31 exemplars
The Fahrenheit Twins {novella} (2005) 14 exemplars

Obres associades

Middlemarch (1871) — Introducció, algunes edicions17,621 exemplars
Four Letter Word: New Love Letters (2007) — Col·laborador — 136 exemplars
Granta 94: On The Road Again (2006) — Col·laborador — 135 exemplars
Ox-Tales: Water (2009) — Col·laborador — 69 exemplars
Not One More Death (1741) — Col·laborador — 49 exemplars
Perverted by Language: Fiction Inspired by The Fall (2007) — Col·laborador — 39 exemplars
The National Short Story Prize 2006 (2006) — Col·laborador — 19 exemplars
A Love Letter to Europe: An Outpouring of Sadness and Hope (2019) — Col·laborador — 5 exemplars

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The Crimson Petal and the White on TV a Book talk (maig 2011)

Ressenyes

‘’God?’ The voice was shaky, close to tears. ‘Are you there? Can I talk to you?’
There was a pause while God and the other child both held their breath, then nothing. God had lost him.
God jumped up and stood on his chair, putting his face close to the planet as it hung there. Even in the darkness he could see the white of the poles, some jet-streams, clouds. He could not, of course, see the boy who had whispered to him.
‘Hello,’ he whispered back, his lips touching the exosphere. ‘It’s me. I’m right here.’

Some Rain Must Fall: As a teacher whose students primarily belong to the ages of 6 and 12, this story struck a particular chord. Frances is called to substitute a teacher who left her position due to mysterious (for us readers) circumstances. Her calm manner and kindness for the children provide the shelter the little ones desperately need. And all the while, the rain falls and falls…A tender and shocking story.

Fish: A mother and a daughter try to survive in a post-apocalyptic world that puts their lives and their relationship at risk. Faber turns a world where fish float in the air into a masterpiece of psychological horror.

In Case of Vertigo: A nun living alone in absolute isolation shows us the beauty of Life and the merciless presence of Death.

Toy Story: In a moving, bittersweet story, God-child discovers the Earth in the discarded junk of an abandoned universe.

Miss Fatt and Miss Thinne: Miss Fatt is a voluptuous aspiring actress and Miss Thinne is a slender, polite nurse. Best friends for years, they excel in their respective fields. Until one day, Miss Fatt decides to eat more and more and Miss Thinne decides to stop eating altogether. And their world crumbles…

Half a Million Pounds and a Miracle: A quirky duo is in charge of the renovations in St Hilda’s church in Scotland. But what happens when the statue of the Virgin Mary is smashed beyond repair?

The Red Cement Truck: In a brilliant story that will make you extremely uncomfortable, a woman haunts her murderer in the most unusual of ways.

Somewhere Warm and Comfortable: An eleven-year-old, who is too eager to become a man, is initiated into the world of teens and their irresponsibility the hard way…

Nina’s Hand: In a touching story, Nina’s right hand chronicles her emotional demise.

The Crust of Hell: What happens to a raindrop after it hits the soil of the desert? This is the beginning of Ivan’s research in Africa as we witness the dynamics in his family, in a place forgotten and - potentially - hostile.

The Gossip Cell: This story was disappointing. I have no time to care about the hysterics and sexual frustration of a family of utter idiots.

Accountability: A thirteen-year-old girl tries to save herself and her grandmother from the abuse of her stepfather. Set in a city close to Melbourne, this story will make your blood run cold.

Pidgin American: In a poignant story full of wit and bittersweet nostalgia, we follow a young Polish woman’s observations of London, Poland, and questions of cultural identity. A marvellous example of remarking without ‘preaching’.

The Tunnel of Love: Two people with troubled troubled pasts and troubling presents try to make ends meet in the toxic field of the sex industry.

Sheep: Five artists are practically imprisoned in a remote estate in the Scottish Highlands by an ‘’Art Lover’’. It pains me to say that this story felt incomprehensible and devoid of any meaning whatsoever. Not the best way to end an, otherwise, memorable collection…

Recently, Ralph Fiennes, one of the greatest actors to ever grace this miserable planet, received the venom of woke fiends, pseudo-feministic Meanads and the rest of the illiterate TikTok mob who have the notion they belong in the human race. Why? Because he claimed that having trigger warnings in Theatre is completely pointless, that the audience of today has gone all soft, naive, and frankly, unable to think straight.

Same goes for the readers of today. Short stories are meant to make you uncomfortable, to question everything.

Don’t like it? Don’t read it! Don’t watch it! Leave the rest of us (who are the VAST majority) to enjoy it. And have a bath. Or two. You stink stupid.

In other news, Faber’s debut collection showcases his unique talent.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com
… (més)
 
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AmaliaGavea | Hi ha 4 ressenyes més | Mar 3, 2024 |
Theo, upon finding a fifth Gospel, becomes an overnight sensation. He is beloved, he is hated, but more than that he is an ordinary man propelled into extraordinary circumstances. Theo's pragmatic and plebeian concerns make the book funny, cringey and completely relatable. The ending, where Theo is confronted with the consequences of his actions, is marvellous: part redemption, part sorrow, part relief, it is the crystallization of what makes humanity beautiful after the worst has been described.
This is a little masterpiece that shows how our faith and beliefs shape our worlds.
… (més)
½
 
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Cecilturtle | Hi ha 26 ressenyes més | Mar 2, 2024 |
'Under The Skin' is a bleak, unremittingly grim book that's as hard to look away from as a car crash in progress. The writing grabbed hold of me and never let go. Geri Halligan's narration perfectly captured the mood of the piece and the pace of the plot. It was a memorable and disturbing read that I still find myself thinking about weeks later.

I'm not going to reveal the plot because I think that part of the power of the book comes from trying to work out who Isserley is and why she spends most of her time driving on the A9 in Scotland searching for well-built male hitchers to pick up.

'Under The Skin' has a lot of the attributes of Speculative Fiction Thriller. It's clear from the beginning that this is not a tale of everyday folk who cruise Scottish roads looking for men. There is something off about Isserley and that sense of not-what-she-seems-to-be grows as the reader spends more time with her. She is on some kind of mysterious covert mission that seems likely to involve violence and yet is something that Isserley regards as routine.

Yet, for me, 'Under The Skin' is not a genre read. It doesn't share the intent of a thriller to produce tension for tension's sake or of speculative fiction to present a What If? thought experiment. It sets out to do something darker, more serious and more disturbing. The genre trappings are there to disrupt the readers' everyday expectations and make them look at things with fresh eyes.

A lot of the book is about Isserley's rage. She has been betrayed, abused and forced into hard choices that have fundamentally and irrevocably changed her into someone she barely recognises. Isserley's rage isn't on the surface. She tries to suppress it, to make the most of her situation, to convince herself that she has found the best form of freedom available to her and to lose herself in small moments of peace. None of this abates her rage, and the stress on her increases when the routine that she uses to numb herself is disrupted by the arrival of a member of the elite who Isserley had once thought herself protected by. Isserley's pain, physical and emotional soak the pages of this book and stay in the reader's nostrils long after the last page.

What makes this darker is that Isserley is a predator as well as a victim. Being a predator is part of what lets her sleep at night. It's not that she takes pleasure in it but rather that it gives her a purpose and a sense of being in control. That Isserley's experiences of abuse and pain do not translate into any form of empathy for the people she preys on felt plausible to me. Isserley and those around her are able to do what they do because they compartmentalise their thinking. They make no links between their own experiences and needs and those of the people that the prey on. This felt very real to me.

With one exception, the story is told from Isserley's point of view using the close third-person. This was a very effective way of giving the reader intimate access to Isserley's thoughts and emotions while still keeping her at arm's length, inviting the reader to analyse and judge rather than immerse and empathise 

The exception to the close third-person applies to the hitchers that Isserley picks up. The reader gets an unfiltered interior monologue from each hitcher as they assess Isserley once they get in the car. I thought these monologues were wonderful. Apart from being large, fit and male, the hitchers had very little in common. Hearing their thoughts, each with its distinctive idiolect, made them real to me in a very short time. It created more intimacy with them, whether they were likeable or not, than I was given with Isserley and helped me to see how little Isserley understood about the men she picked up.

Meat is central to this story. I've been a vegetrarian for three decades now but if I had been a carnivore thee are scenes in this book that would have made me reconsider my food choices.

The book took me to places and thoughts that I hadn't expected. The ending was a surprise but a satisfying that did nothing to relieve the oppressive bleakness of the story.

If you're in the mood for something dark and different that does more than entertain, then I recommend this book to you.
… (més)
 
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MikeFinnFiction | Hi ha 120 ressenyes més | Feb 14, 2024 |
Väga hea raamat. Esimese paari peatüki jooksul ma küll mõtlesin, et no mis Faber see nüüd on ja kas mul ikka on vaja seda dickenslikkult masendusemaigulist asja lugeda, aga kirjutatud oli ikka nii hästi, et muudkui vedas edasi, ja siis, ehteestlaslikult muidugi, ei saanud enam pidama :)
Teistsugune, kohati lausa naturalistlikult lehkav, väga feministlik ja nagu ikka, otsad kõik lahti ...
Kuna lugesin just hiljuti Kate Listeri "Seksi kummalist ajalugu", siis oli see Faberi lugu nagu praktika, mis teooriale järgnedes on nagu rusikas silmaauku.
Soovitan!
… (més)
 
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sashery | Hi ha 194 ressenyes més | Jan 29, 2024 |

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Estadístiques

Obres
42
També de
8
Membres
14,581
Popularitat
#1,577
Valoració
3.9
Ressenyes
586
ISBN
293
Llengües
20
Preferit
59

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