What Belongs to You - Hardcover

Greenwell, Garth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1447280512 ISBN 13: 9781447280514

Verlag: Picador, 2016

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Probably my favourite book of the year, however, was a debut: Garth Greenwell's What Belongs To You . . . In dense, emotional prose, Greenwell creates a fascinating, isolated character tormented by his past, struggling with his present and uncertain of his future -- John Boyne * Independent * Mitko is the swaggering heart of this slim exceptional novel. Conjured in exquisitely sensual prose, his presence is so animating that when he disappears from the narrative for a time, the reader shares in the longing. But more than a confessional narrative of desire, this is an astute portrait of queer exile . . . Greenwell is acutely aware of what happens to queer lives when they are denied dignity, and the unforgettable Mitko is drawn with a tenderness that persists even in frank depictions of his syphilis (in post-communist Bulgaria, he has little access to basic medicines that treat common STDs). Imbuing an eternal theme - the lopsided nature of infatuation, the mythmaking around the beloved - with a grave specificity, Greenwell displays a mastery of both style and form. As the tightly controlled narration, which admits only reported speech, unfolds, one thing becomes increasingly, heartbreakingly apparent: the real Mitko will remain forever inaccessible * Overland * In What Belongs to You, an American teacher in Bulgaria encounters a captivating hustler named Mitko in a public bathroom, setting into motion an ambiguously transactional relationship marked by both tenderness and brutality, connection and isolation. What Belongs to You speaks of desire and the lives of those who desire with exquisite specificity and power, and will haunt you long after you turn the final page * Buzzfeed * Garth Greenwell's enigmatic debut, What Belongs to You, is an acquired taste but that hasn't stopped me trying to foist it on all my friends. It's the spellbinding account of an American academic's intense desire for a rent boy in post-Soviet Bulgaria. Written in limpid prose, it reflects on the anguish of growing up gay with a Republican father in Kentucky. With things as they now are in the US, it couldn't feel more essential -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * Evening Standard * My novel of the year was What Belongs to You, Garth Greenwell's slender, poised, clear-eyed and devastating account of the depths to which unrequited sexual obsession can lead you, particularly if you become entangled with a rent-boy in Sofia -- Peter Parker * Spectator * Searching for anonymous sex in Bulgaria, a young American strikes up a fraught friendship with a rakish drifter. In these poetic sentences, emotional fearlessness is mated with extraordinary sensitivity to the tremors of regret * Washington Post * I loved Garth Greenwell's What Belongs to You, a novel that finds the poetry and beauty in cruising lavatories for sex -- SJ Watson * Guardian * Garth Greenwell's What Belongs to You manages to condense the physical and metaphysical nature of longing and desire into prose that turned me on and broke my heart. A classic -- Damian Barr * Guardian * The most stirring, understated books I read this year. Greenwell's voice is measured, built on careful observations and quiet gestures -- Kevin Nguyen * GQ * What Belongs to You charts the relationship between a young English teacher and a Bulgarian hustler. It's the specificity of Garth Greenwell's observations that give this debut novel its emotional power -- Rupert Thomson * Guardian * Garth Greenwell'sWhat Belongs to You is a lyrical contemplation of desire, love and identity, a chronicle of the relationship between the protagonist, a gay American teacher, and a Bulgarian hustler. Written in meditative, generous prose, it is at once formally accomplished and intimate, high-minded but personal, witty but substantive. It's the best first novel I've read in a generation -- Andrew Solomon * Guardian * My favourite novel of the year has been What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell a melancholic but sexy tale of an American teacher's encounter with a young hustler in Sofia. The writing is poetic and compassionate and announces Greenwell as a literary talent * Herald * Garth Greenwell's What Belongs to You had me spell-bound with its meditation on suburban American childhood, sexual love and belonging -- Kapka Kassabova * Evening Standard * Nothing was as stunning this year as the shape and beauty of Greenwell's sentences. Whether writing about erotic obsession or the way dust passes through afternoon light on a city bus, Greenwell is an artist whose talent lies in portraying experience as a sort of radiance * Vulture * With nearly unbearable intensity, Greenwell relates the story of an American teacher in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a young male prostitute named Mitko. Their relationship starts as purely sexual, but as it becomes increasingly complicated, Greenwell proves himself a master of driving to the heart of obsession, fear, and love. * Publishers Weekly (Named one of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Books of the Year) * [It] follows the story of a young American man's desire for a Bulgarian hustler as they become increasingly entangled in a knot of lust, need, and mutual doubt. Greenwell uses a fluent realism to set the capital of Sofia as the backdrop for the failings of both narrator and his beloved. And the author's long, additive phrasings keep the novel humming throughout. * Slate * An American schoolteacher living abroad meets a 23-year-old male prostitute in a public restroom in Bulgaria. Money is exchanged. A long, complicated relationship ensues, one based in lust and shame and dread. What Belongs to You is a short novel, but Garth Greenwell's sentences are expansive and revelatory and poetic. Greenwell juxtaposes the narrator's experiences in an unprogressive, formerly Communist country still recovering its infrastructure, to the narrator's own childhood, growing up gay and closeted in the oppressive American South. What Belongs to You is a lovely meditation on fear and acceptance, desire and oppression, and the disparity between two cultures. * Esquire (USA) * Garth Greenwell's What Belongs to You beautifully plumbs the depths of physical desire to reveal the profound way sexuality defines our sense of ourselves in the world, the way the body's unquenchable longings shape our relationships and our friendships, our loneliness and our ability to love. -- Matthew Griffin * Guardian * An exquisitely written investigation of desire and shame -- Justine Jordan * Guardian * The main character, Mitko, is truly memorable and pulsates on the page, and the novel is imaginative in the way it examines relationships that cross class and nationality * Robbie Millen, The Sunday Times * An astonishing portrait of compromised lust, set in ex-Soviet Sofia, this debut novel holds its own against classics such as Lolita * Telegraph * What Belongs To You is an exquisite triptych * Vulture * The literary sensation . . . a brilliant tale of gay desire and class division that is exquisitely phrased * i * I devoured it, in a single sitting . . . I was completely spellbound by it . . . What Belongs To You is concentrated brilliance, a short novel that packs an emotive and thought provoking punch. I urge you all to read it * Savidge Reads * Beautifully written . . . a galvanising read as Greenwell constantly dissects his own feelings, thoughts and motives, sieving through desire and need with intelligence, insight and candour . . . Greenwell pulls off a mesmeric read . . . a finely wrought and compelling artifact of both beauty and truth. * New Zealand Listener * Absolutely astonishing . . . a tour de force . . . remarkable -- Christopher Frayling * Saturday Review, BBC Radio 4 * I was blown away by it . . . beautiful -- Helen Lewis * Saturday Review, BBC Radio 4 * Beautifully rendered, quietly obsessive. A Sebaldian account of a gay American in Sofia, Bulgaria, and the bruising experience of his sexuality being revealed to his father when he was younger -- Adam Haslett, author of Imagine Me Gone I am in awe of this book. So intimate, so honest, so exquisitely crafted, it broke my heart and left me in tears. It showed me a Bulgaria both familiar and entirely novel, rendered with candor and deep affection, and characters, whose plight and desires at first seemed foreign yet, before long, so dear. Garth Greenwell has written a marvelous book, an important book - one whose impact is as much artistic as it is cultural. What Belongs to You expands not simply the world of letters, but also our collective knowledge of what it means to be human -- Miroslav Penkov, author of East of the West Garth Greenwell is a unique, and uniquely welcome, voice in American letters. The consciousness on display in his debut novel is so rich and restless that it seems practically inexhaustible: a consciousness that rises to heights of both passion and intellect - of passion harnessed by intellect. What Belongs to You very much seems to me not only a great novel but the first installment in a great body of work -- Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Illumination In prose that is at once refined and lavish - the quiet dignity and control of Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day coupled with the agonized passion and sexual tension of Andre Aciman's Call Me by Your Name - Garth Greenwell takes us deep inside a specific Bulgarian subculture to examine the universal: the disparity between the uninhibited lives we desire and the bearable lives we choose. I began reading What Belongs to You in admiration; I ended in tears. An exquisite debut -- Jamie Quatro, author of I Want to Show You More What Belongs to You is a beautiful, moving, sensual novel. It announces Garth Greenwell as one of America's most exciting young writers -- Jonathan Lee, author of High Dive What Belongs to You is a rich and sensually detailed exploration of love and obsession. A haunting, beautiful novel -- Rabih Alameddine, author of An Unnecessary Woman First-rate debut . . . Greenwell's entranced sentences, Sebald-like in their gravity and evocativeness, take us back to the old days * Sydney Morning Herald * Masterly debut . . . a melancholy but unwavering account of desire and its aetiologies . . . Mitko is one of the the most unforgettable characters in contemporary gay literature . . . Greenwell's rare invocation of desire's inexorable spell propels you right to the end * Australian Book Review * Great portrayal of obsession . . . it is in his prose that Greenwell displays his mastery * New Statesman * Utterly absorbing . . . powerful . . . For its mastery of tone and its expert drawing together of a number of disparate elements, Greenwell's narrative feat is utterly remarkable and the final ten pages amount to one of the most moving passages this reviewer has ever read in contemporary fiction * RTE * What Belongs To You is a very accomplished novel from an exceptionally skilled writer. It brilliantly deconstructs the expat experience, modern sexual mores, and cross-continental cultural divides, echoing one of Greenwell's go-to novels growing up, James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room. Undoubtedly one of the novels of the year, Greenwell is a writer to watch -- Stephen Boylan * GCN * Slim, eloquent and emotionally wrenching, this debut novel is a superb evocation of that curious state known as love . . . Greenwell's shimmering novel recounts an age-old story with such toughness and tenderness as to make it seem new: and that is an art in itself * RTE Guide * There's a gorgeousness to Greenwell's prose . . . This is a heart-breaking, important piece of work, which emphasises to us all how much our lives are made (and unmade) by how our bodies collide (or don't) with the bodies of others -- Andrew Macmillan * Next Review * This is a project of rare discernment and beauty, and it is not to be missed. A luminous, searing exploration of desire, alienation, and the powerful tattoo of the past * Kirkus * [What Belongs to You is] the first great novel of 2016 . . . The book is brilliantly structured . . . [and] Greenwell's ability to parse the complex emotional push-and-pull between the two men is incredible, and rivals books like Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life or Ferrante's Neapolitan novels. His images are spot-on . . . And in Mitko, Greenwell has created one of the best characters in recent years. What Belongs to You is a great tragedy, and Greenwell is a great writer. I'll be reading whatever he writes next." -- Gabe Habash * Publishers Weekly (Staff Pick) * Reaches, with elegance, with poetry, into what it means to be a human. . .I rarely feel such a connection with a book: I am sure many others will too, after reading this * Bookseller * Thomas Mann, Henry James and Marcel Proust are Greenwell's strongest forebears, with James Baldwin and Alan Hollinghurst as equally discernible inspirations. . .Garth Greenwell's writing is alive to the foreign and the unknown; he opens our eyes to worlds we had not realized existed alongside our own. Even the landscape of Bulgaria, one of the poorest and least-known countries in Europe, is made vivid and vibrant. . .What Belongs to You make visible all the painful and beautiful facets of human life and human love * New Republic * Garth Greenwell's debut novel What Belongs to You aches with desire and tenderness: an American professor in Bulgaria encounters a male prostitute named Mitko in a public bathroom, beginning a complex sexual relationship between the two that will have enormous ramifications for them both. Lyrical and haunting, What Belongs to You is a rumination on lust, shame, violence, and the ways in which sexual and emotional pain stays with and shapes us * Buzzfeed * At just about two hundred pages, What Belongs to You feels at once expansive and instantaneous, and its lyrical use of time is one of its most striking and immersive elements. In any given section, every moment of the book is present. . . the novel recalls works like Rachel Cusk's Outline, Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels, and Teju Cole's Open City; and, of course, it descends stylistically from Sebald . . . What Belongs to You is a haunting, gorgeous, and fierce debut, capturing desire in every sentence - holding the space of what we long for and what can never truly be ours * The Rumpus * What Belongs To You comes to feel, in the end, like a great enactment of an infatuation, exciting and appalling by turns-a brilliantly observed account of an attempt to make another person entirely yours, to subsume them within your story * Guernica * Garth Greenwell starts 2016 on a high note with What Belongs to You, a novel that can be called truly great. The narrative follows an American teacher in Bulgaria and his relationship with a young hustler named Mitko, whom he pays for sex. But the interaction doesn't end there as you might expect, and neither does the exploration of desire, which Greenwell orchestrates brilliantly. Plumbing the depths of sexuality and psychology, What Belongs to You is lingering and haunting * ELLE.com * Garth Greenwell's What Belongs to You is the Great Gay Novel for our times . . . an astonishing debut * New Republic * Although this is a debut novel, expectations have been running high. What Belongs to You grew from a lauded novella called Mitko. And Greenwell's literary criticism in the New Yorker and the Atlantic demonstrates an unusually keen and insightful mind. That promise is fully realized here in the dark magic of these pages . . . This is a novel of aggressive introspection, but Greenwell writes with such candor and psychological precision that the effect is oddly propulsive . . . In the end, a novel like this can't offer any resolution except its perfect articulation of despair that anyone with a heart will hear -- Ron Charles * The Washington Post * The strength of this slim book is the vibrant, heartbreaking character Mr Greenwell creates in Mitko: object of the unnamed narrator's desire, fear, ob...

Reseña del editor:

On an unseasonably warm autumn day, an American teacher walks down a staircase beneath Sofia's National Palace of Culture, looking for sex. Among the stalls of a public bathroom he encounters Mitko, a charismatic young hustler. He returns to Mitko again and again over the next few months, and their trysts grow increasingly intimate and unnerving as the enigma of this young man becomes inseparable from that of his homeland, Bulgaria, a country with a difficult past and an uncertain future. Garth Greenwell's What Belongs to You is a stunning debut about an American expat struggling with his own complicated inheritance while navigating a foreign culture. Lyrical and intense, it tells the story of a man caught between longing and resentment, unable to separate desire from danger, and faced with the impossibility of understanding those he most longs to know.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Picador
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1447280512
• ISBN 13: 9781447280514
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Anzahl der Seiten: 204