John Banville, página 2 de 7

Alexander Clave es un viejo actor de teatro que recuerda su fugaz e intenso primer amor. Un rodaje cinematográfico le llevará a intimar con una joven y popular actriz cuya vida se ha asomado al abismo y al inesperado hallazgo de respuestas acerca del destino final de las mujeres que marcaron a fuego su vida. "Billy Gray era mi mejor amigo y me enamore de su madre. Puede que amor sea una palabra demasiado fuerte, pero no conozco ninguna mas suave que pueda aplicarse.

"Las ciudades ejercen una fascinación fuerte y extraña, pero ninguna más extraña ni más fuerte que el influjo de Praga en el corazón del viajero que siente añoranza, no de su lugar de origen sino de la ciudad a orillas del Moldava que ha dejado atrás. Al regresar siente que nunca se ha alejado, pero aun así se encuentra culpable de desmemoria, abandono, e infidelidad. Tal vez sea eso, entonces, lo que este libro es, una prenda de paz, un apaciguador obsequio que se ofrece indeciso, o nada más que una carta de disculpa de un amante desleal". Con estas palabras presenta John Banville sus Imágenes de Praga, un recorrido por el alma de la ciudad en los años en los que Checoslovaquia se desfiguraba bajo la dictadura comunista y aún, de muchos años antes, cuando magos, alquimistas, astrónomos, poetas y buscavidas de toda estirpe, buscaban refugio en su "modernidad".

One long, languid midsummer?s day, the Godleys gather at the family home of Arden to attend their father?s bedside. Adam, the elder child, and Petra, only nineteen, find that relations with their stepmother, Ursula, and their dying father, old Adam, are as strained as ever. Adam?s relationship with his wife, Helen, seems too on the brink of collapse and Petra, fragile and deeply troubled, finds deepest relief in her own pain.

On a languid midsummer's day in the countryside, old Adam Godley, a renowned theoretical mathematician, is dying. His family gathers at his bedside: his son, young Adam, struggling to maintain his marriage to a radiantly beautiful actress; his nineteen-year-old daughter, Petra, filled with voices and visions as she waits for the inevitable; their stepmother, Ursula, whose relations with the Godley children are strained at best; and Petra's "young man"--very likely more interested in the father than the daughter--who has arrived for a superbly ill-timed visit. But the Godley family is not alone in their vigil. Around them hovers a family of mischievous immortals--among them, Zeus, who has his eye on young Adam's wife; Pan, who has taken the doughy, perspiring form of an old unwelcome acquaintance; and Hermes, who is the genial and omniscient narrator: "We too are petty and vindictive," he tells us, "just like you, when we are put to it." As old Adam's days on earth run down, these unearthly beings start to stir up trouble, to sometimes wildly unintended effect. . . . Blissfully inventive and playful, rich in psychological insight and sensual detail, "The Infinities" is at once a gloriously earthy romp and a wise look at the terrible, wonderful plight of being human--a dazzling novel from one of the most widely admired and acclaimed writers at work today.

From John Banville, one of the world's greatest writers, comes The Blue Guitar, a story of theft and the betrayal of friendship. Adultery is always put in terms of thieving. But we were happy together, simply happy. Oliver Orme used to be a painter, well known and well rewarded, but the muse has deserted him. He is also, as he confesses, a petty thief; he does not steal for gain, but for the thrill of it. HIs worst theft is Polly, the wife of his friend Marcus, with whom he has had an affair. When the affair is discovered, Oliver hides himself away in his childhood home. From here he tells the story of a year, from one autumn to the next. Many surprises and shocks await him, and by the end of his story, he will be forced to face himself and seek a road towards redemption. Praise for Ancient Light: "Everything I want from a love story: sexy, convincing, baffling, funny, sad and unforgettable." (Evening Standard, Books of the Year). "Illuminating, funny, devastating. A meditation of breathtaking beauty and profundity on love and loss and death." (Financial Times).

Johannes Kepler es sin duda uno de los personajes más importantes e influyentes en la historia de la Humanidad, y su particular acercamiento a su trayectoria biográfica permite a Banville construir una novela que ofrece tanto sus pensamientos más íntios como la evolución de sus teorías y los avatares históricos de los que fue testigo, a veces recurriendo de un modo muy efectivo al género epistolar. Al igual que su otra obra sobre Copérnico, Kepler, es una de las mejores novelas históricas de tema científico jamás escritas. Sin embargo, el acercamiento a la intimidad del personaje, el tratamiento de sus conflictos familiares y económicos y la importancia concedida al transfondo histórico sobre el que se desarrolla su vida la hacen atractiva a los lectores no necesariamente interesados de un modo especial en la historia de la ciencia.

All his life, a rude, bad-tempered old man named Axel Vander has taken delight in telling lies--particularly about his true identity, which is a secret he refuses to divulge. Then a young woman named Cass, who may be mad, and who is undeniably brilliant, threatens to expose him for who he really is, and Vander is forced to travel back into the past he has so carefully hidden away. The character Cass Cleave appears in Banville's previous novel, ECLIPSE. The character of Axel Vander, Banville implies in his acknowledgements, is based loosely on that of Paul de Man. A New York Times Notable Book for 2003.

Max Morden has reached a crossroads in his life, and is trying hard to deal with several disturbing things. A recent loss is still taking its toll on him, and a trauma in his past is similarly proving hard to deal with. He decides that he will return to a town on the coast at which he spent a memorable holiday when a boy. His memory of that time devolves on the charismatic Grace family, particularly the seductive twins Myles and Chloe. In a very short time, Max found himself drawn into a strange relationship with them, and pursuant events left their mark on him for the rest of his life. But will he be able to exorcise those memories of the past?

El gran debate interno de Copérnico (1473-1543) se libra entre su conciencia de la importancia de sus descubrimientos y el temor a las represalias de la Iglesia. Poseedor de una amplia y heterogénea formación intelectual, su concepción del universo homogéneo e infinito, situado alrededor del Sol, en oposición al cosmos cerrado y jerarquizado, con el hombre como centro, suponía un desafío para la Iglesia, y de ahí que no llegara a publicar sus descubrimientos. Su evolución profesional dentro del seno de la Iglesia, de la catedral de Frauenburgo hasta su doctorado en derecho canónigo, va acompañada de una evolución personal muy interesante, que Banville logra exponer en toda la gama de matices.

Una pequeña obra maesta en la que cada una de sus imágenes provoca resonancias que siguen acompañando al lector mucho después de concluida su lectura. A través del anónimo historiador que protagoniza esta novela, nos acercamos a un fenomeno poco explorado hasta el momento: el colapso que impide al escritor o al cientifico concluir una obra.