Ragnarok - Softcover

Byatt, A.S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802120849 ISBN 13: 9780802120847

Publisher: Canongate U.S., 2013

Synopsis

Brilliantly effective. . . . Surely among the most beautiful and incisive [pages] Byatt has ever written.” Paul Binding, The Independent (UK)

A brilliant, highly intelligent, fiercely personal rendition of the Scandinavian mythology. . . . A gorgeous enrichment and interpretation.” Ursula K. Le Guin, Literary Review (UK)

The gods meet their cataclysmic end in this acclaimed work of fiction from the inimitable author of Possession and The Children’s Book, now in paperback.

As the bombs of the Blitz rain down on Britain, one young girl is evacuated to the countryside. She is struggling to make sense of her new life, whose dark, war-ravaged days feel very removed from the peace and love being preached in church and at school. Then she is given a copy of Asgard and the Gods a book of ancient Norse myths and her inner and outer worlds are transformed. She feels an instant kinship with these vivid, beautiful, terrifying tales of the end of the gods: they seem far more real, far more familiar during these precarious days.

How could this child know that fifty years on, many of the birds and flowers she took for granted on her walks to school would become extinct? War, natural disaster, reckless gods, and the recognition of the world's impermanence are just some of the threads that Byatt weaves into this most timely of books. Linguistically stunning and imaginatively abundant, Ragnarok is a landmark piece of storytelling from one of the most brilliant minds and speakers of our generation” (The Independent).

About this title

About the Author:

A.S. Byatt is an internationally acclaimed novelist, short-story writer and critic. Her books include the Booker Prize-winning Possession, as well as The Children's Book and the quartet of The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life, Babel Tower, and A Whistling Woman. She was appointed Dame of the British Empire in 1999 and has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen award, and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize. She lives in London, England.

Review:

A "Globe and Mail" Best Book

"What she has made in this case--thanks to a rare fusion of imagination and intellect, sensual poetry and cerebral prose, youthful joy and elderly wisdom--is an entire world, compressed but energetically alive in all its details. When we have artists like this, who needs gods?"
--"The Observer "

"Byatt's prose is majestic, the lush descriptive passages--jewelled one minute, gory the next--a pleasure to get lost in."
--"The Telegraph"

"The stern beauty of the writing makes the slender book frighteningly compelling."
--"National Post"

"The pleasures afforded by this treatment of the myth are numerous. Byatt paints beautiful and fantastic word-pictures, glittering verbal special effects."
--"The Scotsman"

"Brilliantly effective. . . . Surely among the most beautiful and incisive [pages] Byatt has ever written."
--"The Independent"
"From the Hardcover edition."

"A brilliant, highly intelligent, fiercely personal rendition of the Scandinavian mythology.... A gorgeous enrichment and interpretation [of the original myth]."
"--"Ursula K. Le Guin, "Literary Review
"
"Do read this book. Read every page of it. It is a great gift from the greatly gifted."
"--"Gale Zoe Garnett, " The Globe and Mail
"
"Byatt's prose is majestic, the lush descriptive passages--jewelled one minute, gory the next--a pleasure to get lost in."
""--"The Telegraph"

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate U.S.
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0802120849
• ISBN 13: 9780802120847
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192