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Lost Paradise: A Novel
Por Cees Nooteboom
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From “one of the greatest modern novelists” comes a haunting tale of angels, art, and modern love (A. S. Byatt).
In Lost Paradise, Cees Nooteboom sets out to connect two seemingly unrelated strangers whom he has glimpsed on his travels, and to explore the major impact that small interactions can have on the course of our journeys.
A beautiful woman aboard a Berlin-bound flight becomes Alma, a young lady who leaves her parents’ São Paulo home on a hot summer night in a fit of depression. Her car engine dies in one of the city’s most dangerous favelas, a mob surrounds her, and she is pulled from the automobile.
To escape her memory of the assault, she flees across the world, to Australia, where she becomes involved in the beautiful but bizarre Angel Project. Not long after, Dutch literary critic Erik Zontag is in Perth, Australia, for a conference. He has found a winged woman curled up in a closet in an empty house. He reaches out, and for a second allows his fingertips to brush her feathers—and then she speaks. The intersection of their paths illuminates the extraordinary coincidences that propel our lives.
“Dreamy and self-conscious . . . [Nooteboom] brazenly explores notions of reinvention, healing, loss, and the divine.” —Tom Barbash, The New York Times Book Review
In Lost Paradise, Cees Nooteboom sets out to connect two seemingly unrelated strangers whom he has glimpsed on his travels, and to explore the major impact that small interactions can have on the course of our journeys.
A beautiful woman aboard a Berlin-bound flight becomes Alma, a young lady who leaves her parents’ São Paulo home on a hot summer night in a fit of depression. Her car engine dies in one of the city’s most dangerous favelas, a mob surrounds her, and she is pulled from the automobile.
To escape her memory of the assault, she flees across the world, to Australia, where she becomes involved in the beautiful but bizarre Angel Project. Not long after, Dutch literary critic Erik Zontag is in Perth, Australia, for a conference. He has found a winged woman curled up in a closet in an empty house. He reaches out, and for a second allows his fingertips to brush her feathers—and then she speaks. The intersection of their paths illuminates the extraordinary coincidences that propel our lives.
“Dreamy and self-conscious . . . [Nooteboom] brazenly explores notions of reinvention, healing, loss, and the divine.” —Tom Barbash, The New York Times Book Review
Acciones del libro
Comenzar a leerInformación sobre el libro
Lost Paradise: A Novel
Por Cees Nooteboom
Descripción
From “one of the greatest modern novelists” comes a haunting tale of angels, art, and modern love (A. S. Byatt).
In Lost Paradise, Cees Nooteboom sets out to connect two seemingly unrelated strangers whom he has glimpsed on his travels, and to explore the major impact that small interactions can have on the course of our journeys.
A beautiful woman aboard a Berlin-bound flight becomes Alma, a young lady who leaves her parents’ São Paulo home on a hot summer night in a fit of depression. Her car engine dies in one of the city’s most dangerous favelas, a mob surrounds her, and she is pulled from the automobile.
To escape her memory of the assault, she flees across the world, to Australia, where she becomes involved in the beautiful but bizarre Angel Project. Not long after, Dutch literary critic Erik Zontag is in Perth, Australia, for a conference. He has found a winged woman curled up in a closet in an empty house. He reaches out, and for a second allows his fingertips to brush her feathers—and then she speaks. The intersection of their paths illuminates the extraordinary coincidences that propel our lives.
“Dreamy and self-conscious . . . [Nooteboom] brazenly explores notions of reinvention, healing, loss, and the divine.” —Tom Barbash, The New York Times Book Review
In Lost Paradise, Cees Nooteboom sets out to connect two seemingly unrelated strangers whom he has glimpsed on his travels, and to explore the major impact that small interactions can have on the course of our journeys.
A beautiful woman aboard a Berlin-bound flight becomes Alma, a young lady who leaves her parents’ São Paulo home on a hot summer night in a fit of depression. Her car engine dies in one of the city’s most dangerous favelas, a mob surrounds her, and she is pulled from the automobile.
To escape her memory of the assault, she flees across the world, to Australia, where she becomes involved in the beautiful but bizarre Angel Project. Not long after, Dutch literary critic Erik Zontag is in Perth, Australia, for a conference. He has found a winged woman curled up in a closet in an empty house. He reaches out, and for a second allows his fingertips to brush her feathers—and then she speaks. The intersection of their paths illuminates the extraordinary coincidences that propel our lives.
“Dreamy and self-conscious . . . [Nooteboom] brazenly explores notions of reinvention, healing, loss, and the divine.” —Tom Barbash, The New York Times Book Review
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This novel employs two strategies that I nearly always enjoy: an intriguing premise, and the fact that it is written from the points of view of two different characters. Unfortunately, it fell short for me. The first character is a world-weary fortyish critic, the second a young woman who travels the world to escape a horrifying event in her past (and probably, we learn, to keep from being in any place long enough to fall in love). Their lives intersect briefly twice: first, he comes across her as a angel in a cupboard, playing a part in a kind of angel scavenger hunt for rich tourists in Perth; then she turns out to be his masseuse in a rigorous Austrian spa. The problem I had with this novel is that I kept waiting for something to happen, or for some moment of insight into the human condition, but it just flows on and then ends. Perhaps that is Nooteboom's view of life? I also found the writing a bit too irritatingly self-conscious (especially the part where the man goes into a long discourse on Dutch authors, including Nooteboom). In the end, it was just OK--and I was glad that it was only 150 pages long.
An exquisite tale full of symbolism, sensuality and taste.I finished the book in just one sitting and after I turned the last page, I felt as if I had savoured an expensive rare bitter sweet chocolate.Two seemingly disconnected stories in two separate parts.In the first one, Alma and Almut from Brazil decide to make their dream come true and travel to Australia, a country which has always been fascinating to them. Once there, they change in different and unexpected ways, and while Alma is able to confront her inner demons, Almut feels disappointed and misses Sao Paulo.In the second, Erik, a German literary critic travels to a spa to improve his health and meets someone from his past, a person he was never able to forget.Angels in all forms are present along the story, connecting all the characters and leading them to a breathtaking conclusion.Nooteboom addresses to the reader before each part, a gesture I found intimate and delightful, I just loved the humility in which he exposed what his characters meant to him and how they kept living on their own, even after he had written the last page.Stunning novel, brief, dreamlike and smooth, as an angel kiss. Not to be missed.***MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS***"I left the heaviness of the tropics, where all is motion and noise, to arrive at this stillness.""You are a secret, even if you don't realise it.""Sometimes I would sooner ask a question than know the answer.""When I stand outside here, I do not just see the stars, I hear them.""I have arrived. And when I leave, I will not need to take anything with me. I have everything.""The triumph comes from realising - if only for a moment - that you are at once mortal and immortal.""Angels can't be with people."
A delightful and comfortable read however unremarkable it ultimately proved itself to be.
When you pick up a novel that is unique, you want it to be an interesting experience. Half the time you end up with a questionable one instead of an enjoyable one and wish you had picked up something else. That is not the case with this book, which was beautifully written, well thought out and perfect in its uniqueness. It was a quick read, but a wonderful one. The two stories told seem totally unrelated to each other until you realize the connection and once that hits you everything has come together in one perfect package. The perfect story for those who enjoy wandering and experiencing what the world gives them or for those who just want to sit in a comfortable chair and let a character do the wandering for them.
Nooteboom is a unique stylist, and this is another beautiful miniature - a cryptic, allusive and dreamlike meditation on the nature of paradise.
I wanted to pursue through this book while reading it, but it did have a kind of split personality from its Part 1 laid in Western Australia to its Part 2 laid in a spa in an Austrian forest. Things neve quite come together, but that may have beem the author's intent. Are appearances real or deceitful? Are reltionships resolved by greater awareness or do they remain quite hidden forever. Mybe there is a relationship between the sparse vegetation in Australia and the full forest in Austria. The countries have similar names, but the countries of origin for the main two proganists are the Netherlands and Argentina. And what are angels and how do they seem to be in human form? Are these two running to get back to a paradise that can't exist?
Tamelijk goed geschreven, maar zeer dun verhaaltje. Kapstok om te mijmeren over de aboriginals.