Kirjahaku

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK - A stunning debut from an award-winning writer, about loss, isolation, folklore, and the joy and dissonance of finding oneself by exploring life outside one's community "Both blunt and exquisite . . . O'Connor's excellent debut . . . is an example of precisely observed writing that makes a character's specific existence glimmer with verisimilitude."--Maggie Shipstead, New York Times Book Review "Whale Fall is a powerful novel, written with a calm, luminous precision, each feeling rendered with chiseled care, the drama of island life unfolding with piercing emotional accuracy." --Colm Toibin, New York Times bestselling author of Long Island In 1938, a dead whale washes up on the shores of remote Welsh island. For Manod, who has spent her whole life on the island, it feels like both a portent of doom and a symbol of what may lie beyond the island's shores. A young woman living with her father and her sister (to whom she has reluctantly but devotedly become a mother following the death of their own mother years prior), Manod can't shake her welling desire to explore life beyond the beautiful yet blisteringly harsh islands that her hardscrabble family has called home for generations. The arrival of two English ethnographers who hope to study the island culture, then, feels like a boon to her--both a glimpse of life outside her community and a means of escape. The longer the ethnographers stay, the more she feels herself pulled towards them, reckoning with a sensual awakening inside herself, despite her misgivings that her community is being misconstrued and exoticized. With shimmering prose tempered by sharp wit, Whale Fall tells the story of what happens when one person's ambitions threaten the fabric of a community, and what can happen when they are realized. O'Connor paints a portrait of a community and a woman on the precipice, forced to confront an outside world that seems to be closing in on them.

A BBC ‘BETWEEN THE COVERS’ BOOK CLUB PICK'I didn't want it to end' - Maggie O'Farrell'Powerful . . . written with a calm, luminous precision' - Colm TóibínAn Observer Best Debut of the Year 2024It is 1938 and for Manod, a young woman living on a remote island off the coast of Wales, the world looks ready to end just as she is trying to imagine a future for herself. The ominous appearance of a beached whale on the island's shore, and rumours of submarines circling beneath the waves, have villagers steeling themselves for what’s to come. Empty houses remind them of the men taken by the Great War, and of the difficulty of building a life in the island's harsh, salt-stung landscape.When two anthropologists from the mainland arrive, Manod sees in them a rare moment of opportunity to leave the island and discover the life she has been searching for. But, as she guides them across the island’s cliffs, she becomes entangled in their relationship, and her imagined future begins to seem desperately out of reach.Elizabeth O’Connor’s beautiful, devastating debut Whale Fall tells a story of longing and betrayal set against the backdrop of a world on the edge of great tumult.'The quiet cadences of Whale Fall contain a deep melody of loss held and let go. It is a gentle, tough story about profound change' - Anne Enright

A haunting, atmospheric novel about desire, duty and broken promises among an island community caught in the wave of history as Europe falls into war.

A BBC 'Between the Covers' Book Club PickShortlisted for the 2025 Betty Trask Award'I didn't want it to end' - Maggie O'Farrell'Powerful . . . written with a calm, luminous precision' - Colm TóibínAn Observer Best Debut of the YearIt is 1938 and on an island off the coast of Wales, Manod is trying to imagine her future. Her choices are stark: she must either stay and look after her father's house, in the wild landscape that drove her mother to madness, or marry and leave. And so, when two English anthropologists arrive on the island, Manod senses the possibility of a thrilling new life. But, as she becomes entangled in their work, and their strange relationship, the outside world she had yearned for appears a much darker place than she could ever have imagined.Elizabeth O’Connor’s beautiful, devastating debut Whale Fall tells a story of longing and betrayal set against the backdrop of a world on the edge of great tumult.'The quiet cadences of Whale Fall contain a deep melody of loss held and let go. It is a gentle, tough story about profound change' - Anne Enright

Written to inspire the loving connection to animals and nature. Liz shares her trials to triumph stories with you to guide you to a level of connection where you become the best version of yourself.

Idealnaja kniga dlja chtenija v dozhdlivyj osennij vecher. Prevoskhodno napisannyj debjut irlandskoj pisatelnitsy, otmechennyj New York Times. "Kit na otmeli" - moschnyj roman, napisannyj so spokojnoj, jasnoj tochnostju, kazhdoe chuvstvo peredano s osoboj tschatelnostju, drama ostrovnoj zhizni razvorachivaetsja s pronzitelnym emotsionalnym chutem". - Kolm Tojbin, avtor bestsellerov "Long-Ajlend" i "Bruklin". Zhurnal "Observer" vnes roman Elizabet O'Konnor "Kit na otmeli" v desjatku luchshikh debjutnykh romanov 2024 goda. E. O'Konnor takzhe izvestna kak avtor korotkikh rasskazov i byla udostoena premii literaturno-khudozhestvennogo zhurnala "Uajt revju" za luchshij korotkij rasskaz 2020 goda. Universitet Birmingema prisvoil O'Konnor doktorskuju stepen po anglijskoj literature. K Uelsu, raspolozhennomu na poluostrove na zapade Velikobritanii i omyvaemomu Irlandskim morem na severe, prolivom Svjatogo Georga na zapade i Bristolskim zalivom na juge, otnosjatsja bolee 50 pribrezhnykh ostrovov, krupnejshim iz kotorykh javljaetsja Anglsi na severo-zapade. Sudba mnogikh realno suschestvujuschikh ostrovov skhozha s toj, chto ugotovana vymyshlennomu ostrovu v romane O'Konnor. Opisannye v romane personazhi, etnografy iz Anglii, tozhe vymyshlennye, imejuschie realnye prototipy, o kotorykh pishet avtor v primechanijakh k tekstu. Roman "Kit na otmeli" - eto dnevnik devushki po imeni Manod Llan o zhizni na rodnom ostrove. On chereduetsja s dnevnikovymi zapisjami anglichan - Dzhoany i Edvarda, pribyvshikh iz inoj kulturnoj sredy. Takim obrazom, chitatel vidit zhizn ostrova glazami ljudej s raznym mirovosprijatiem. Dlja Manod zhizn na ostrove - ezhednevnoe vyzhivanie v protivoborstve s surovoj prirodoj. A Dzhoana pytaetsja idealizirovat ostrov, voskhischajas ego prirodoj. Na etoj pochve voznikaet neponimanie mezhdu Manod i Dzhoanoj iz-za togo, chto Manod ne priemlet tot obraz, kotoryj Dzhoan i Edvard pytajutsja navjazat ostrovu v svoem "nauchnom" trude. Manod vstupaet v konflikt s anglichanami iz-za togo, chto te podvergajut opasnosti rybaka Dzhona radi effektnoj fotosemki, ne imejuschej nichego obschego s metodami rybnoj lovli na ostrove. Perevodchik Aram Oganjan

The gay and lesbian community is experiencing a baby boom. Advances in gay rights coupled with increased availability of alternative reproduction techniques have led to an unprecedented number of openly gay and lesbian parents. Estimates are that between 6 and 14 million children in the United States are being raised by at least one parent who is gay. Yet, very little is known about how gay or lesbian headed families function, or whether they differ in any relevant ways from families headed by straight parents. Written by two developmental psychologists, The Gay Baby Boom reports the findings of The Gay and Lesbian Family Study, the largest national assessment of gay and lesbian headed families. By asking participants detailed questions about the way they parent, the authors are able to describe for the first time exactly what takes place within gay and lesbian headed families across the county. Traditional research has tended to assume that there is something uniquely different and potentially psychologically damaging about children being raised by gays. The authors draw on their data to show these fears unfounded.