Book description
In
The Angel Esmeralda
, DeLillo finds the freedom to represent the wide range of human
experience in contemporary America - and forces us to confront the
uncomfortable shadows lurking in the background.
His characters are exposed to their own deep, often unconscious,
longings: one man exploits the vulnerability of a woman he’s just met,
following her home to her apartment and pushing her too far; another
finds himself deceiving his wife and beginning an affair. They are
subjected to shocking violations, unexpected acts of terror: a woman
lives in constant fear of the earthquakes happening all around her;
people bear witness to the mysterious abduction of a child from a small
park by a stranger.
No matter whether he is focused upon the slums of New York or
astronauts in orbit around the earth, DeLillo chooses not to turn away
from the unsettling manner in which humans are often brought together,
or the disquieting truth behind their emotional interactions. DeLillo’s
world is a timeless present, eerily perceptive and prophetic, in which
he creates powerful stories of lust and obsession, of loss and remorse,
of grief and ecstasy.
For those unfamiliar with his work, this intense and articulate
collection offers a wonderful introduction to one of America’s greatest
living writers. For those already acquainted, it will be a thrilling and
significant addition. Don DeLillo, the author of fifteen novels,
including Point Omega
, Falling Man
, White Noise
and Libra
, has won many honours in America and abroad, including the National
Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize for
his complete body of work and the William Dean Howells Medal from the
American Academy of Arts and Letters for his novel Underworld
. In 2010, he received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award. He has also written
three plays.
