Kirjahaku

'Few novelists match the intensity of her vision' J. G. BallardNo one knows why the ice has come, and no one can stop it. Every day it creeps further across the earth, covering the land in snow and freezing everything in its path. Through this bleached, devastated world, one man pursues the sylph-like, silver-haired girl he loves, as she keeps running - away from her husband; away from the sinister 'warden' who seeks to control her; away from him. 'A raw, brutal tale set in a frozen post-nuclear dystopia ... addictive and extremely entertaining' Guardian'There is nothing else quite like Ice' Doris Lessing'She is De Quincey's heir and Kafka's sister' Brian Aldiss

'There is nothing else quite like Ice' Doris LessingSet in a frozen world that is gradually being devastated by ever-encroaching ice, Anna Kavan's masterwork follows one man's pursuit of a mysterious silver-haired girl to the ends of the earth; to the end of everything.'A brutal novel of a frozen post-nuclear dystopia. Just the most magnificent book ... hugely enigmatic, a genuine novel of the unconscious and a masterpiece' Frank Tallis, Guardian'Few novelists match the intensity of her vision' J. G. Ballard'She is De Quincey's heir and Kafka's sister' Brian Aldiss

Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith.Set in a frozen world that is gradually being devastated by ever-encroaching ice, Anna Kavan's masterwork follows one man's pursuit of a mysterious silver-haired girl to the ends of the earth; to the end of everything.'Few contemporary novelists could match the intensity of her vision' J.G. Ballard

This collection of stories, mostly interlinked and largely autobiographical, chart the descent of the narrator from the onset of neurosis to final incarceration in a Swiss clinic. The sense of paranoia, of persecution by a foe or force that is never given a name, evokes The Trial by Kafka, a writer with whom Kavan is often compared, although her deeply personal, restrained, and almost foreign -accented style has no true model. The same characters who recur throughout-the protagonist's unhelpful "adviser," the friend and lover who abandons her at the clinic, and an assortment of deluded companions-are sketched without a trace of the rage, self-pity, or sentiment that have marked more recent accounts of mental instability.

A largely autobiographical account of an unhappy childhood, Sleep Has his House startled with its strangeness in 1948. Today it is one of Anna Kavan's most acclaimed books. A daring synthesis of memoir and surrealist experimentation, Sleep Has His House charts chronologically the stages of the subject's gradual withdrawal from all interest in and contact with the daylight world of received reality. Brief flashes of daily experience from childhood, adolescence and youth are described in what Kavan terms 'night-time language' - a heightened, decorative prose that frees these events from their gloomy associations. The novel suggests we have all spoken this dialect in childhood and in our dreams, but these thoughts can only be sharpened, or decoded by contemplation in the dark. Anna Kavan maintained that the plot of a book is only the point of departure, beyond which she tries to reveal that side of life which is never seen by the waking eye, but which dreams and drugs can suddenly illuminate.She spent the last ten years of her life literally and metaphorically shutting out the light; the startling discovery of Sleep Has His House is how much these night-time illuminations reveal her joy for the living world.

The Parson was not published in Anna Kavan s lifetime, but found after her death in manuscript form. Thought to have been written between the mid 50s and early 60s, it presages, through its undertones and imagery, some of Kavan s last and most enduring fiction (such as Ice). It was published finally, to wide acclaim, by Peter Owen in 1995. The Parson of the title is not a cleric, but an upright young army officer so nick-named for his apparent prudishness. On leave in his native homeland, he meets a rich and beguiling beauty, the woman of his dreams. The days that the Parson spends with Rejane, riding in and exploring the wild moorland have their own enchantment. But Rejane grows restless in this desolate land; doubtless in love with the Parson, she discourages any intimacy. Until that is, she persuades him to take her to a sinister castle situated on a treacherous headland. Thisis less a tale of unrequited love than exploration of divided selves, momentarily locked in an unequal embrace. Passion is revealed as a play of the senses as well as a destructive force. There have been valid comparisons to Poe, Kafka, and Thomas Hardy, but the presence of her trademark themes, cleverly juxtaposed and set in her risk-taking prose, mark The Parson as 100% Kavan."

Who Are You? is a sparse depiction of the hopeless, emotional polarity of a young couple and their doomed marriage spent in a remote, tropical hell. She - described only as 'the girl' - is young, sophisticated and sensitive; he, 'Mr Dog-Head', is an unreconstructed thug and heavy drinker who rapes his wife, otherwise passing his time bludgeoning rats with a tennis racket. Together with a visiting stranger, 'Suede Boots', who urges the woman to escape until he is banished by her husband, these characters live through the same situations twice. Their identities are equally real - or unreal - in each case. With slight variation in the background and the novel's atmosphere, neither the outcome nor the characters themselves are quite the same the second time. The constant question of the jungle "brain-lever' bird remains unanswered - "who are you?" The novel's typical autobiographical bias can be traced to Kavan's life in Burma during her first marriage. An experimental piece that clearly anticipates the nouvelle vague cinema of Jean-Luc Godard, Who Are You? was reissued to widespread acclaim in 1973.

Set in an unspecified but eerily familiar landscape, "Guilty" is, unusually for Kavan, told from a male perspective. The narrator is Mark, who begins the novel as a young boy whose father has just returned from war. In spite of being garlanded as a hero, Mark's father declares himself a pacifist and is immediately reviled in a country still suffering from the divisions of war. When his father is forced into exile, Mark meets Mr. Spector, a shady government agent, who, from then on, is a dominant force in Mark's life, seeing him through his schooling, employment and even his accommodation. When Mark tries to break off with Mr. Spector in order to pursue an engagement with the beautiful but docile Carla, his life begins to unravel. Thwarted at every turn by a Kafakaesque bureaucracy, he begins to fall prey to the machinations and insecurities of his guilt-ridden mind. Drawing on many of Kavan's familiar themes, "Guilty" will a be joy for those who already know Kavan's work and a revelation to those who don't.

'Julia and the Bazooka' contains some of Kavan's most compelling writing, which owes much to her personal experiences - especially her nearly lifelong addiction to heroin. An important literary work, these stories highlight the shadowed world of the incurable drug addict and probe the psychological aspects of addiction.

The tortured life of Anna Kavan brought her some reward in terms of great pieces of art. Her drug addiction bore fruit in the Julia & The Bazooka collection of stories - this companion volume recalls her experiences of life in the asylum or the sanitorium. Her legendary story, I Am Lazarus is one of fourteen included here and not seen in print since the forties. These are powerful, haunting works: what can be harrowing at times is offset by the richness of human sympathy in Kavan's approach and her unique skill as a writer.

In a land devastated by war, a nameless narrator pursues an elusive white-haired woman in the clutches of a government official known only as 'The Warden'. Neither will giver her up, but a freak ecological apocalypse is indifferent to their rival claims. As a terrifying wall of ice continues its incursion, freezing everything in its path, it seems that only the white-haired woman is truly resigned to the fate of the world. Anna Kavan's Ice is today hailed as classic of science-fiction and a definitive work of the 'slipstream' genre. As part of the new editions of the Peter Owen Cased Classics series, this special hardback edition carries a dust jacket with false die-cutting of a triangle, while printed on the cover board is the striking artwork of British contemporary artist Naomi Frears.

This collection of Anna Kavan's short fiction and journalism marks fifty years since her death in 1968. From moving portraits of clinical depression to phantasmagoric visions of sci-fi wonder - including the previously unpublished story `Starting a Career' - the writings collected in Machines in the Head offer an accessible introduction to readers new to her work and a timely survey of Kavan's diverse writing talents for her fans. Her journalism, giving insight into her radical politics and her thoughts on writing and writers, is reproduced in full.Dr Victoria Walker has selected stories from across Anna Kavan's collections which represent the very best of her writing and show the incredible range of her style. In Machines in the Head readers will encounter: oblique and elegiac tales of breakdown and asylum incarceration from Asylum Piece (1940); moving evocations of wartime from I Am Lazarus (1945); fantastic and surrealist pieces from A Bright Green Field (1958); and stories of heroin addiction from Julia and the Bazooka. Her late sci-fi stories will appeal to fans of her last novel Ice, and published here for the first time, her story `Starting a Career' is a futuristic spy-thriller, whose protagonist sets out to become the world's greatest enigma.Anna Kavan's journalism, published in Horizon during the years 1943-6, is reproduced in full, introducing readers of her fiction to a further dimension of her writing. Her non-fiction is no less distinctive than her stories and novels, and her provocative, polemical style in both `New Zealand: Answer to an Inquiry' and `The Case of Bill Williams' was radical on first publication. These pieces were a platform for Kavan's pacifism, her anarchistic ideas and her call not simply to end the stigma surrounding mental ill-health and madness, but to overturn the social order which diagnoses it as a disease. Her book reviews reveal something of her own literary tastes and influences in the mid-1940s, but more often they are merely vehicles for her views on the psychological impact of modernity and wartime, and the necessary role of art and literature in turbulent times.Although Kavan is better known as a writer than an artist, she painted throughout her life; several of her distinctive paintings will be included in this collection to illustrate her stories.Readers will find the extraordinary range of Kavan's work represented in this anthology. She was determined to experiment throughout her writing career and this collection is, by turns, moving, funny, bizarre, poignant, often unsettling, but always distinctive and often unique.

Enter the strange and haunting world of Anna Kavan, author of mind-bending stories that blend science fiction and the author's own harrowing experiences with drug addiction, in this new collection of her best short stories. Anna Kavan is one of the great originals of twentieth-century fiction, comparable to Leonora Carrington and Jean Rhys, a writer whose stories explored the inner world of her imagination and plumbed the depths of her long addiction to heroin. This new selection of Kavan's stories gathers the best work from across the many decades of her career, including oblique and elegiac tales of breakdown and institutionalization from Asylum Piece (1940), moving evocations of wartime from I Am Lazarus (1945), fantastic and surrealist pieces from A Bright Green Field (1958), and stories of addiction from Julia and the Bazooka (1970). Kavan's turn to science fiction in her final novel, Ice, is reflected in her late stories, while "Starting a Career," about a mercenary dealer of state secrets, is published here for the first time. Kavan experimented throughout her writing career with results that are moving, funny, bizarre, poignant, often unsettling, always unique. Machines in the Head offers American readers the first full overview of the work of a fearless and dazzling literary explorer.

'A strange and compelling classic of dystopian and climate fiction, one that with foreboding and deep compassion maps the psyche and the terrain of dislocation' - Jeff VanderMeer 'One might become convinced that Kavan had seen the future' - New Yorker Ice will soon cover the entire globe. As the glacial tide creeps forward, society breaks down. Hurtling through the frozen chaos is a nameless narrator, seeking the white-haired girl he once loved, desperate to rescue her - or perhaps to annihilate her. Through nightmarish, ever-shifting scenes, she flees him and his powerful enemy, the Warden. But none of them can outrun the ice. Anna Kavan's masterwork is an apocalyptic vision of environmental devastation and possessive violence, rendered in unforgettable, propulsive, hallucinatory prose. Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe. With an introduction by Christopher Priest, author of The Prestige and The Inverted World. Anna Kavan (1901-1968) was born Helen Woods, the only child of wealthy British expatriates, and grew up travelling through Europe and America. She began publishing under her married name, Helen Ferguson, having left her husband in Burma and returned with her son to live in England. After a mental breakdown in the 1930s she began writing under a new name, taken from one of her characters, and with a new style. She continued writing for another three decades, while frequently using heroin and undergoing several rounds of psychiatric hospitalisation. She died shortly after the publication of Ice, her most celebrated work.

”… et drømmespil … Hvordan vi end klassificerer bogen, er der intet andet som den.” – Doris Lessing”… en bog, der skjuler sig, der glitrer, som ’pigen’, der er i cen­trum for dens nøgterne, fabel­lignende tableau over katastrofer, forfølgelse og gentagelsestvang. … Skønt Is altid er lysende og let­forståelig, er intet i den simpelt, og i den koncentreres såvel labyrin­tens som spejlets egenskaber.” – Jonathan Lethem”Anna Kavans roman fra 1960erne om misogyni og klimaforandringer besidder en nærmest profetisk dimension.” – Ida Théren, Svenska DagbladetDag for dag, time for time, sekund for sekund rykker ismure frem fra Nord- og Sydpolen, byer lægges øde, flygtningestrømme jages hid og did, civile massakreres, atommissiler deployeres. Der er krig overalt, og ingen ved, hvem der er ven eller fjende.Den unavngivne fortæller er ”usikker på virkelighedens natur”, og alt virker ”diset og utydeligt” og ”gjort af tåge og nylon”. Gennem denne udslidte, krigshærgede og stadig mere uvirkelige verden forfølger fortælleren en bleg, skrøbelig, sølvhåret ung kvinde, mens naturen og civilisationen kollapser omkring dem. Og midt i dette kollaps udspiller sig et fortættet trekantsdrama mellem fortælleren, den unge kvinde og den tyranniske kommandant, der sadistisk piner kvinden, som mere eller mindre villigt underkaster sig i det ene hallucinatoriske tableau efter det andet. Is regnes for en moderne britisk klassiker og et hovedværk i et forfatterskab, der længe var for de indviede, men som i disse år er genstand for en omfattende genlæsning og -opdagelse. Herhjemme er forfattere som Olga Ravn, Harald Voetmann og Fine Gråbøl fans; i udlandet har Patti Smith, Anaïs Nin, Deborah Levy og J.G. Ballard gennem tiden udtrykt deres beundring.Med sin interesse for opioidafhængighed, psykopatologi, kvindeundertrykkelse og voldelig seksualitet var Kavan muligvis forud for sin tid og virker, måske af samme grund, sært moderne i dag. Romanen er blevet læst som feministisk, økokritisk og postapokalyptisk science fiction, katastroferoman, roman nouveau, koldkrigsthriller og som en allegori over forfatterens eget heroinmisbrug. Men den er først og fremmest højst ustabil, lægger lag på lag af uvirkelighed oven i hinanden og fremskriver et drømmelignende og dystopisk univers.Anna Kavan (1901-1968), døbt Helen Emily Woods, voksede op som enebarn i en velhavende britisk familie, der rejste hyppigt mellem Europa, England og USA. Hun debuterede som forfatter i 1929 og skrev en række romaner under sit giftenavn Helen Ferguson, men efter et sanatorieophold i Schweiz kort før 2. verdenskrig genskabte hun sig som den platinblonde Anna Kavan, opkaldt efter en karakter i en af hendes tidlige romaner. Is udkom i 1967. Kavan døde af hjertestop året efter.

»Romanen [har] en närmast profetisk dimension. Kanske är den ännu mer aktuell idag än när den först kom ut.« | IDA THERÉN, SVD»Is är ett magnifikt mästarprov i hallucinatorisk bildmagi parad med suggestiv språkbriljans.« | AASE BERG, DN Is utspelar sig i den nukleära vintern efter ett kärnvapenkrig, då en ny istid råder på jorden. Vi följer bokens berättare på jakt efter ett skört väsen, en flicka med albinohår. Sökandet blir alltmer hallucinatoriskt, vi vet inte var vi är eller ens vad vi känner. Färden går genom ett land ockuperat av en främmande militär makt. Men det största hotet är naturen själv, vars väggar av is breder ut sig över världen.Språket i Anna Kavans Is är som en dröm, återgiven under pressen av en verklig katastrof. En modern brittisk klassiker av en författare vars rykte i världslitteraturen bara vuxit med åren.I översättning av Disa Törngren och med ett nyskrivet förord av Helena Fagertun.ANNA KAVAN [1901-1968] var en brittisk författare och konstnär. Född Helen Emily Woods och först publicerad under sitt namn som gift, Helen Ferguson, antog hon från och med 1939 namnet Anna Kavan. Många av hennes verk gavs ut postumt och hon har hyllats av författare som Doris Lessing, Anaïs Nin, Jean Rhys och J. G. Ballard.»En märklig och gåtfull roman, med en sugande kraft. Anna Kavan har en förmåga att frammana glaciala visioner som får huden att knottra sig.« | ANN LINGEBRANDT, SYDSVENSKAN»Dystopisk, hallucinatorisk, välskriven och genreöverskridande klassiker.« | LISA M JAGEMARK»Liknar ingenting annat. Den här isen är ingen psykologisk eller metafysisk is; ensamheten i den här boken har förtrollats till en fysisk verklighet lika hallucinatorisk som i Coleridges Ancient Mariner .« | DORIS LESSING»En av de mest skrämmande bilderna av världens slut Man kan bara beundra styrkan och modet i den här visionen.« | THE TIMES »En vision av obönhörlig intensitet som kombinerar anmärkningsvärt fantasifullt skrivande med vad som blir till en kärlekssång till världens undergång. Inte ett ord förspills, inte en bild är malplacerad.« | TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

An unhappy family returns to Britain from a hot country, filling their suburban house with the glittering hoard they brought back from their exotic sojourn. But the sadness of A, the wife, dulls the shine of their treasure. The house grows quieter, darker. Daughter B learns to hide inside it, in a night-time world whose colours are undimmed by the tense misery of the daytime household. There she sails aquamarine seas on a thistledown boat, ponders the proliferation of dream-tigers, and watches dances and celebrations from the windows of a house whose rooms multiply and change position all the time. As daylight circumstances deteriorate, with her mother's death and B's departure to boarding school, she becomes determined to take up permanent residence in the house of sleep. But there are night-time institutions determined to control her, and night-time battles to be fought, before she can come home to the dark forever. A kaleidoscopic autobiographical narrative, which speaks the language of childhood dreams which was once known to us all, this is a work of astonishing visual power and devastating loneliness.