Bøger af Neil Jordan

A haunted record of a life devoted to the visual art of the cinema and the written word, by Ireland's greatest director and one of her finest novelists.In this vivid, moving and strange memoir, Neil Jordan - the author of classic fiction like The Past, Sunrise with Sea Monster and Night in Tunisia, and the creator of celebrated movies like Angel, Mona Lisa, The Crying Game and Interview with the Vampire - reaches deep into his own past and that of his family. His mother was a painter, his father an inspector of schools who was visited by ghosts, and Jordan grew up on the edge of an abandoned aristocratic estate in north Dublin whose mysterious ruins fed his imagination. Passionate about music, he played in bands and theatre groups and met, at University College Dublin, a young radical called Jim Sheridan. Together they staged unforgettable dramatic productions that hinted at their future careers. His first collection of stories and first novel, Night in Tunisia and The Past, were met with acclaim, but Jordan was also drawn to the freedom and visual richness of film, and worked with the great English director John Boorman on his Arthurian epic Excalibur. His own first movie with Stephen Rea, Angel, was a brilliant angular take on the horrific violence of the Troubles, and in the years since then his films have combined in a unique way, intense supernatural elements with reflections on violence and sexuality. Jordan describes his work with Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson, Bob Hoskins, Tom Cruise and many others, but this is not a conventional story of life in the movies. The book is an eerie meditation on loss, love and creativity, on inspiration and influence, by one of the most unusual artists Ireland has produced.

He had met her three times and three times forgotten all about her...William Barrow finds himself in lonely retirement in West Cork. Once an internationally renowned pianist, a terrible skin disease has attacked his hands and made it impossible for him to perform. All he can play, haltingly, is Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand.Tara is a piano teacher with barely enough pupils to pay the month's rent. In the local café, the elegant writing of a job advertisement catches her eye: 'Wanted. Housekeeper.'She begins to work in William's house, keeping to herself the knowledge that they have met three times before - encounters that have changed her life, to which he is oblivious. When William stumbles upon a well in the back garden, Tara finds herself longing for revenge. She spins tales of a mythical saint, of the healing powers of the water and of the moss that surrounds it. But as the moss begins to heal William's troubled hands, the lines between legend and reality begin to blur, and past and present collide in unexpected ways.Gripping and lyrical, The Well of Saint Nobody is a story of love, secrets and the elusive possibility of second chances.

"South Carolina, 1781: the American Revolution. An enslaved man escaping to his freedom saves the life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, a British army officer and the younger son of one of Ireland's grandest families. The tale that unfolds is narrated by Tony Small, the formerly enslaved man who becomes Fitzgerald's companion--and best friend. While details of Lord Edward's life are well documented, little is known of Tony Small, who is at the heart of this moving novel. In this gripping narrative, his character considers the ironies of empire, captivity, and freedom, mapping Lord Edward's journey from being a loyal subject of the British Empire to becoming a leader of the disastrous Irish rebellion of 1798"--

On June 1st, 1914, Una O'Shaughnessy sends a postcard home from a Cornish seaside town. "Back in two weeks," she promises. But seven months later, she still has not returned to Ireland, and she sends another postcard, this one signed "Una," "Michael," "Rene (!)." "The Past" is the story of Rene, this unexpected child, as told by her own child as he searches for the truth about his parents' mysterious and romantic history. Through the reminiscences of his mother's friend, the pieces of the past begin to fit together into a delicate mosaic of the truth. What really happened in that seaside town? Why does the past seem to hold so many secrets? Set over twenty-five years, travelling from Cornwall to Dublin and the Irish Provinces, "The Past" is a beautiful novel of love and longing, created by one of the preeminent artists of our time.