Aan het einde van het alfabet|C S Richardson 9789069748948

||boek: Aan het einde van het alfabet|vertaling: Elinor Fuchs|Arena

||door: C S Richardson

||taal: nl
||jaar: 2007
||druk: ?
||pag.: 157p
||opm.: hardcover|zo goed als nieuw|mét omslag elastiek

||isbn: 978-90-6974-894-8
||code: 1:000933

--- Over het boek (foto 1): Aan het einde van het alfabet ---

Maak kennis met Ambrose Zephyr en zijn vrouw Zipper, een alledaags Engels stel. Hun leven komt compleet op zijn kop te staan als Ambrose rond zijn vijftigste verjaardag te horen krijgt dat hij nog maar een maand te leven heeft. Ambrose heeft nog één wens: samen met zijn vrouw wil hij nog zoveel mogelijk van de wereld zien.

Het alfabet wordt hun leidraad, van A tot Z, van Amsterdam naar Zanzibar. Ambrose probeert te genieten van zijn laatste reis, maar zijn vrouw bereidt zich voor op het onvoorstelbare: een leven zonder haar man.

Voort gaat het, via Berlijn naar onder andere Florence en Giza, maar na Istanbul slaat het noodlot toe en neemt de koers van hun reis een onverwachte wending. Ambrose beseft dat hij terug wil naar zijn favoriete bestemming: thuis.

[bron: https--www.bol.com]

Ambrose Zephyr heeft zijn hele leven gespeeld met letters en bekijkt alles in het licht van het alfabet. Hij lijdt een gemoedelijk en gezellig leven met zijn vrouw Zappora Ashkenazi. Rond zijn vijftigste verjaardag hoort hij dat hij een vreemde, ongeneeslijke ziekte onder de leden heeft en dat hij hoogstens nog een maand te leven heeft. Met zijn vrouw wil hij gaan reizen naar plaatsen en landen die op zijn lijstje staan om nog eens te bezoeken. De reis begint in Amsterdam, maar Zanzibar halen ze niet. Het besef dat Ambrose gaat sterven, de aftakeling die steeds meer zichtbaar wordt, doet hen uiteindelijk besluiten naar huis te gaan. Ambrose sterft in de armen van Zappora. Een verzorgd vormgegeven debuutroman die is geschreven in een wonderschone, ingehouden stijl.

E. van Eck-Jansen [bron: nbd biblion]

Ambrose Zephyr is a contented man. He shares a book-laden Victorian house with his loving wife, Zipper. He owns two suits, one of which he was married in. He is a courageous eater, save brussels sprouts. His knowledge of wine is vague and best defined as Napa, good; Australian, better; French, better still. Kir royale is his drink of occasion. For an Englishman he makes a poor cup of tea. He believes women are quantifiably wiser than men, and would never give Zipper the slightest reason to mistrust him or question his love. Zipper simply describes Ambrose as the only man she has ever loved. Without adjustment.

Then, just as he is turning fifty, Ambrose is told by his doctor that he has one month to live. Reeling from the news, he and Zipper embark on a whirlwind expedition to the places he has most loved or has always longed to visit, from A to Z, Amsterdam to Zanzibar. As they travel to Italian piazzas, Turkish baths, and other romantic destinations, all beautifully evoked by the author, Zipper struggles to deal with the grand unfairness of their circumstances as she buoys Ambrose with her gentle affection and humor. Meanwhile, Ambrose reflects on his life, one well lived, and comes to understand that death, like life, will be made bearable by the strength and grace of their devotion.

Richardson's lovely prose comes alive with an honesty and intensity that will leave you breathless and inspired by the simple beauty and power of love. The End of the Alphabet is a timeless, resonant exploration of the nature of love, loss, and life.

[source: https--www.goodreads.com]

--- Over (foto 2): C S Richardson ---

Charles Scott Richardson (born 1955 in Regina, Saskatchewan) is a Canadian novelist, and book designer. His novel, The End of the Alphabet, won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best first Book, Canada & the Caribbean. He has won the Alcuin Society Award multiple times.

He is Vice President, and Creative Director at Random House of Canada. He lives in Toronto.

Works

• End of the Alphabet. Random House. 2007. ISBN 978-0-385-52255-7.
• The Emperor of Paris. Doubleday Canada. 2012. ISBN 978-0385670906. "Emperor of Paris."

Reviews

• Heather Thompson (15 March 2009). "End of the Alphabet". The Observer.

[source: wikipedia]

As an award-winning book designer and now author, CS Richardson has worked in publishing for over twenty years. He is a multiple recipient of the Alcuin Award (Canada's highest honour for excellence in book design) and his work has been exhibited at both the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs. The End of the Alphabet, his first novel, has been sold in ten countries. He is currently at work on his second.

[source: https--www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/73526/cs-richardson]

CS Richardson is an author (and book designer) based in Toronto. His first novel, The End of the Alphabet, was an international bestseller, published in fourteen countries and ten languages, and won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book (Canada and the Caribbean). He second novel, The Emperor of Paris, has just been released by Doubleday Canada.

[source: https--hazlitt.net/authors/cs-richardson]

CS Richardson's first novel, The End of the Alphabet, was an international bestseller published in thirteen countries and ten languages. Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book (Canada & the Caribbean), it was named to four Best of the Year lists and was adapted for radio drama by BBC's Radio 4. Richardson is also an accomplished and award-winning book designer. He lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

[source: https--granta.com/contributor/c-s-richardson]

A longtime, award-winning book designer, C.S. Richardson is also an author whose first novel tells the story of a man who has one month to live. The End of the Alphabet "distills the essence of life and love," noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Noting the clichéd plot device, January Magazine Web site contributor Cherie Thiessen wrote that Richardson nevertheless "manages to create a fresh story you'll want to read through to the finish in one sitting."

The novel's protagonists are the British couple Ambrose Zephyr and Zappora Ashkenazi. When Ambrose learns that he has only a month to live, he decides that he and his wife will travel to all the places he has always wanted to see. To save time on deciding where to go first, they will visit the places in alphabetical order. "Of course, the alphabet theme is recurrent throughout the novel as well," wrote a contributor to the Here She Be - The Battlements Web site. The reviewer went on to note in the same review: "It also provides order to what the couple does, where they go, what they see. At times it fails them - they miss E is for Elba entirely. And the idea that Ambrose and Zappora's wonderful life together cannot be contained inside so structured an environment sets in."

[source: https--www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/richardson-cs]

CS Richardson's first novel, The End of the Alphabet, was an international bestseller published in thirteen countries and ten languages. Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Canada & the Caribbean), it was named on four Best of the Year lists and was adapted for radio drama by BBC Radio 4.

Richardson is also an accomplished and award-winning book designer. He lives and works in Toronto and is currently the Vice President and Creative Director at Random House Canada.

[source: https--www.goodreads.com]