Rana Dasgupta

The highly anticipated new novel from the critically acclaimed author of Tokyo Cancelled.Solo recounts the life and daydreams of a reclusive one hundred year-old man from Bulgaria.Before the man lost his sight, he read this story in a magazine: a group of explorers came upon a community of parrots speaking the language of a society that had been wiped out in a recent catastrophe. Astonished by their discovery, they put the parrots in cages and sent them home so that linguists could record what remained of the lost language. But the parrots, already traumatised by the devastation they had recently witnessed, died on the way.Wondering if, unlike the hapless parrots, he has any wisdom to leave to the world, Ulrich embarks on an epic armchair journey through a century of violent politics, forbidden music, lost love and failed chemistry, finding his way eventually to an astonishing epiphany of tenderness and enlightenment.

Con una imaginación audaz, Rana Dasgupta retrata un siglo convulso mediante la historia de un anciano ciego que a los cien años comprende que sus recuerdos se han convertido en sus mejores compañeros. Ulrich es el hijo de un ingeniero de ferrocarriles, cuyas grandes pasiones son el violín y la química. Su padre no acepta que se dedique a la música, por lo que se marcha al Berlín de Einstein y de Fritz Haber para convertirse en químico. Sus estudios, sin embargo, se interrumpen cuando su padre pierde su fortuna y debe regresar a Sofía de donde ya no volverá a salir. Aunque sí le es posible trasladarse de nuevo mediante los sueños, las fantasías, en un viaje en el que la vida que se vive no se distingue cabalmente de la vida imaginada. Son años transcurridos bajo el yugo de gobiernos comunistas totalitarios, pero en cuyo final se vislumbra un horizonte de cambio y libertad.

"Nel primo movimento di Solo incontriamo Ulrich, figlio di un ingegnere ferroviario, che ha due grandi passioni: il violino e la chimica. Negatagli la prima dal padre, parte per la Berlino di Einstein e Fritz Haber per approfondire la seconda. I suoi studi sono interrotti quando la fortuna del padre si estingue, e deve tornare a Sofia per accudire i genitori. Non lascera piu la Bulgaria. Eccetto che nei suoi sogni a occhi aperti - e sono questi sogni che vanno a comporre la volatile seconda parte del libro. In un rapido balzo dal passato al presente, da vite vissute a vite immaginate, Dasgupta segue i figli immaginari di Ulrich, che, pur nati nel comunismo, si fanno strada in un mondo postcomunista fatto di celebrita e violenza. Grazie al sapiente intreccio di scienza ed emozioni, vecchio e nuovo mondo, reale e immaginato, Solo si rivela un''opera di grande virtuosismo. "

En una terminal de aeropuerto coinciden los viajeros más dispares. Su vuelo con destino a Tokio ha sido cancelado y, para matar el tiempo, evocan historias reales o ficticias que capturan su atención y les trasladan mucho mas lejos (o tal vez mas cerca) de lo que jamas hubieran imaginado. El deslumbrante debut de Rana Dasgupta es un fiel reflejo de la era de la globalizacion. A diferencia de otros escritores angloindios, Dasgupta huye del exotismo para mostrarnos un mundo en el que los personajes, y no los lugares, son lo verdaderamente importante. La realidad se convierte en un decorado, un entorno en el que nos sentimos como pasajeros en transito, uno de los iconos mas representativos de la condicion humana en el siglo que comienza. Desde las primeras paginas nos evoca al Decameron de Boccaccio o a Los cuentos de Canterbury de Chaucer. La diversidad de voces permite a Dasgupta exhibir su maestria a la hora de tratar temas y registros muy distantes. Su intencion es la de mostrar un mundo en el que las fronteras entre realidad y ficcion se desvanecen para convertirse en experiencia. El autor confesaba en una entrevista que le encantaria que las narraciones de Tokio Cancelado diesen pie a otras, y que los lectores descubriesen la necesidad que todos tenemos de contar historias y de que nos las cuenten. Ha cumplido con su cometido. Ahora nos toca a nosotros.

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize. The new novel from the critically acclaimed author of Tokyo Cancelled. Solo recounts the life and daydreams of a reclusive one hundred year-old man from Bulgaria. Before the man lost his sight, he read this story in a magazine: a group of explorers came upon a community of parrots speaking the language of a society that had been wiped out in a recent catastrophe. Astonished by their discovery, they put the parrots in cages and sent them home so that linguists could record what remained of the lost language. But the parrots, already traumatised by the devastation they had recently witnessed, died on the way. Wondering if, unlike the hapless parrots, he has any wisdom to leave to the world, Ulrich embarks on an epic armchair journey through a century of violent politics, forbidden music, lost love and failed chemistry, finding his way eventually to an astonishing epiphany of tenderness and enlightenment.

The twenty-first centurys counterpart to Hobbess Leviathan. EMMANUELE COCCIAWhat has happened to the nation-state? From a prizewinning writer, After Nations offers a sweeping history of this most unquestioned of modern structures and a bold speculation about its future. Until recently, the system of nation-states appeared settled and eternal. Not anymore. As American hegemony unwinds and Western countries slide into anxiety and debt, there is a resurgence of tyranny, imperialism and war. It is no longer clear that states can continue delivering normal services, let alone defeat inequality and climate change. Even in rich countries, many feel they are being progressively neglected; in some parts of the world, populations are entirely abandoned by nation-states and must build systems of their own. Rana Dasgupta traces the formation and rise of the nation-state system to explain its multiple failures today. He takes us from the fall of ancient empires and the expansion of European concepts of money and law right up to the emergence of twenty-first-century tech firms the first significant new geopolitical actors to emerge since the inception of nation-states and the epochal restoration of Chinese power. He posits that the time has come to develop a new conception of citizenship, law, and economyone that corresponds to our globalized and ecologically fragile condition. Richly detailed, urgent and told with remarkable clarity, After Nations is an essential text for anyone looking to understand why we seem to be losing our political hold on the world, and how we might try to restore it.

A major international debut novel from a storyteller who couples a timelessly beguiling style to an energetically modern worldscape. Thirteen passengers are stranded at an airport. Tokyo, their destination, is covered in snow and all flights are cancelled. To pass the night they form a huddle by the silent baggage carousels and tell each other stories. Robert De Niros child, conceived in a Laundromat, masters the transubstantiation of matter and turns it against his enemies; a Ukrainian merchant is led by a wingless bird back to a lost lover; a man who edits other peoples memories has to confront his own past; a Chinese youth with amazing luck cuts mens hair and cleans their ears; an entrepreneur risks losing everything in his obsession with a doll; a mute Turkish girl is left all alone in the house of German cartographer. Told by people on a journey, these are stories about lives in transit. Stories from the great cities New York, Istanbul, Delhi, Lagos, Paris, Buenos Aires that grow in to a novel about the hopes and dreams and disappointments that connect people everywhere. Dasguptas writing is utterly distinctive and fresh, so striking that it seems to come from the future and the past all at once, but in marrying a timeless mystery to an alert modernity, his cautionary tales manage to be reminiscent of both Ballard and Borges, depicting ordinary extraordinary individuals (some lost, some confused, some happy) in a world that remains ineffable, inexplicable, wonderful.