The Right Hand of Sleep - A Novel

Zusatztext “Extraordinary; haunting.” – The New York Times Book Review “Brilliant. . . . . A truly arresting work of fiction. . . . Is it really possible! the reader will wonder! for a young American to have written such a book?” – The New York Times Book Review “Elegantly written! hypnotic.”– The Washington Post Book Review “Studded with precise! exquisite descriptions. . . . Wray is capable of writing with almost painful tenderness.... The Right Hand of Sleep make[s] another time seem astonishingly alive.” – Chicago Tribune “[Wray] writes with an assurance that makes his [hero] both complex and compelling.” – Los Angeles Times Book Review “One of the most gratifying events of the literary year . . . [ The Right Hand of Sleep ] satisfies on the deepest level of which fiction is capable.” – Memphis Commercial Appeal “A taut! searing portrait.” – Literary Review [UK] “Stark and evocativeÉ A finely drawn portrait of a man who finds peace with himself at a time when the rest of the world is falling apart.” – Time Out Informationen zum Autor John Wray lives in Brooklyn, New York. Klappentext This extraordinary debut novel from Whiting Writers' Award winner John Wray is a poetic portrait of a life redeemed at one of the darkest moments in world history. Twenty years after deserting the army in the first world war, Oskar Voxlauer returns to the village of his youth. Haunted by his past, he finds an uneasy peace in the mountains-but it is 1938 and Oskar cannot escape from the rising tide of Nazi influence in town. He attempts to retreat to the woods, only to be drawn back by his own conscience and the chilling realization that the woman whose love might finally save him is bound to the local SS commander . Morally complex, brilliantly plotted, and heartbreakingly realized, The Right Hand of Sleep marks the beginning of an important literary career.Niessen October 12, 1917 A boy came out of the house first, the crumbling, sun-yellowed house with the dark tiles and ivied sides, the peaked roof and sandstone steps down which he went stiffly, nervously, adjusting the plaid schoolboy’s backpack on his shoulders. A tall stooping boy in his middle teens, smiling to himself as he waited by the gate, breathing quickly. It was a bright fall day and he closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the sunlight through his eyelids there at the garden’s edge. Soon the others came, a man and a woman, the parents of the boy. The man moved slowly, his cream-colored suit well ironed but billowy, as though cut for someone larger. His features like his clothes seemed oversized or borrowed, a loose cluster of tics behind which his eyes hung uncertainly, moving from the boy to the trellises to the old house behind them. The woman walked half a pace behind the man, guiding him by the elbow down the steps. She was still young. She carried herself proudly and severely. Hearing them the boy opened his eyes. He was still smiling slightly, and looking at them as he smiled, but the smile was not meant for them and when he realized this he drew his lips together. He stood at the gate for what seemed a very long time, watching them coming. Finally they reached him and the three of them went out onto the street. Linking arms they walked toward the mortared gray wall of the canal and the brightly colored rooftops behind it. A smell of woodsmoke was in the air. At the canal they left the road and turned onto a narrow lane. The woman was watching the boy silently, her left arm braced against her husband. He and the boy were talking to each other in low, even tones, but she was not listening to them. The man’s eyes as he spoke were not on the boy or on the ground ahead of them but instead on some far-off thing, as they always were. The boy talked on, not listenin...

Product details

• Authors: John Wray
• Publisher: Vintage USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 14.05.2002
• EAN: 9780375706400
• ISBN: 978-0-375-70640-0
• No. of pages: 336
• Dimensions: 133 mm x 203 mm x 19 mm
• Series: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature