Night Train

Name: Night Train
Brand: Unknown
SKU: 9780811228565
Price: 28.99 NZD
Availability: InStock

By A. L. Snijders

Summary

Night Train by A. L. Snijders offers a collection of short, contemplative stories that capture the beauty and complexity of everyday life. Through concise vignettes, the author explores themes of love, loss, and the passage of time, blending subtle humour with profound insights. This work draws the reader into a reflective journey, shedding light on the quiet moments that shape human experience.
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Format: Paperback / softback

$28⁹⁹

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Night Train

$28⁹⁹

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book might appeal to you if you enjoy short, fragmented stories that beautifully capture the nuances of everyday life. It offers a thoughtful and introspective look into the complexities of human emotions, conveyed through concise yet poignant narratives. It's perfect for readers who appreciate literary fiction that effortlessly blends simplicity with depth.

Night Train

Brevity is the soul of beauty in these tiny masterworks of short short fiction

Description

Gorgeously translated by Lydia Davis, the miniature stories of A. L. Snijders might concern a lost shoe, a visit with a bat, fears of travel, or a dream of a man who has lost a glass eye. Uniting them is their concision and their vivacity. Lydia Davis, in her introduction, delves into her fascination with the pleasures and challenges of translating from a language relatively new to her. She also extols Snijders's "straightforward approach to storytelling, his modesty and his thoughtfulness."

Selected from many hundreds in the original Dutch, the stories gathered here—humorous, bizarre, or comfortingly homely—are something like daybook entries, novels-in-brief, philosophical meditations, or events recreated from life. Inhabiting the borderland between fiction and reality, they might best be described as autobiographical mini-fables.

This morning at 11:30, in the full sun, I go up into the hayloft where I haven't been for years. I climb over boxes and shelving, and open the door. A frightened owl flies straight at me, dead quiet, as quiet as a shadow can fly, I look into his eyes—he's a large owl, it's not strange that I'm frightened too, we frighten each other. I myself thought that owls never move in the daytime. What the owl thinks about me, I don't know.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Night Train by A. L. Snijders receives praise for its ability to convey depth and complexity in brief yet profound stories. Critics acknowledge the book's multifaceted narrative style that weaves together fable, lyrical essay, and autobiography, creating a sense of mystery and illumination. The stories often leave readers with a feeling of uncertainty and wonder, reflecting Snijders's humble and enigmatic storytelling. The attention to detail, particularly regarding aspects of rural Dutch life, adds a rich dimension to this collection.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780811228565

Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 November 2021

Country: United States

Imprint: New Directions Publishing Corporation

Contributors:

Translated by Lydia Davis

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 10.0mm

Width: 132.0mm

Height: 203.0mm

Weight: 152g

Pages: 128

Collections

A. L. Snijders Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction

About the Author

A. L. Snijders was born in 1937 in Amsterdam. In 1971, he moved to Achterhoek, a quiet, wooded region in the east of the Netherlands where many of his animal stories are set. In 2006, his first collection of zkv’s (“zeer korte verhalen” or “very short stories”—a term he invented) was published, bringing the writer quickly to public attention. Several collections followed, including the volume from which the present stories are taken, De Mol en andere dierenzkv’s (The Mole and Other Very Short Animal Stories, AFdH, 2009). In November 2010, Snijders was awarded the Constantijn Huygens Prize, one of the three most important literary prizes in Holland, in recognition of his work as a whole and especially his zkv’s. Snijders has by now written approximately 1,500 zkv’s. Lydia Davis is the author of one novel and seven story collections. Her collection Varieties of Disturbance: Stories was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award. She is the recipient of a MacArthur fellowship, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Award of Merit Medal, and was named a Chevalier of the Order of the Arts and Letters by the French government for her fiction and her translations of modern writers, including Maurice Blanchot, Michel Leiris, and Marcel Proust. Lydia Davis is the winner of the 2013 Man Booker International Prize.