Peter Ho Davies Livres

The fifteenth volume in the Art of series takes an expansive view of revision―on the page and in lifeIn The Art of The Last Wor d, Peter Ho Davies takes up an often discussed yet frequently misunderstood subject. He begins by addressing the invisibility of revision―even though it’s an essential part of the writing process, readers typically only see a final draft, leaving the practice shrouded in mystery. To combat this, Davies pulls examples from his novels The Welsh Girl and The Fortunes , as well as from the work of other writers, including Flannery O’Connor, Carmen Machado, and Raymond Carver, shedding light on this slippery subject.Davies also looks beyond literature to work that has been adapted or rewritten, such as books made into films, stories rewritten by another author, and the practice of retconning in comics and film. In an affecting frame story, Davies recounts the story of a violent encounter in his youth, which he then retells over the years, culminating in a final telling at the funeral of his father. In this way, the book arrives at an exhilarating mode of thinking about revision―that it is the writer who must change, as well as the writing. The result is a book that is as useful as it is moving, one that asks writers to reflect upon themselves and their writing.

'Witty, intelligent . . . definitely a name to watch.' Scotland on Sunday In his new collection, prize-winning author Peter Ho Davies takes as his starting point the essential imbalance of the relationship between parent and child. Drawing on the author's own cross-cultural inheritance, these stories range across a series of settings and backgrounds. From a Chinese son gambling with professional mourners to a mixed-race couple who experience a close encounter with an alien being, Ho Davies' characters share an instantly recognizable sense of displacement - these are children of one century, adults of the next - caught between debts to their parents and what they owe their offspring. Sharply observed and compassionate, Equal Love imparts the talent of a truly original writer, whose work has already earned comparison with that of Raymond Carver, James Joyce and V. S. Naipaul. 'Smartly written and sweetly subversive.' Independent 'A set of delicate variations on the theme that love brings pain.Davies'.writing is poignant and humane.' Sunday Times 'This is Ho Davies on top form; funny, touching, off-beat. Like his first collection, Equal Love deserves the laurels.' Literary Review

A heartbreaking, soul-baring novel about the repercussions of choice that "will strike a resonant chord with parents everywhere" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), from the award-winning author of The Welsh Girl and The Fortunes

The Fortunes reimagines the traditional multigenerational novel through the lens of immigrant experience. The family institution is revered in Chinese culture, but the historical reality of Chinese Americans has seen family bonds denied, fragmented, or imperiled. The Fortunes uses this history from the bachelor society of the gold rush era to laws against interracial marriage to the recent wave of adopted baby girls to create a portrait of a community whose line of descent is broken, yet which has tenaciously persisted, as much through love as by blood. Through four lives a railroad baron's valet who unwittingly ignites an explosion in Chinese labor, Hollywood's first Chinese movie star, a victim of a hate crime that mobilizes Asian Americans, and a biracial writer visiting China for an adoption--this novel captures and capsizes over a century of our history. These stories, three of which are inspired by real historical characters, examines the process of becoming not only Chinese American, but American

Set in the stunning landscape of North Wales just after D-Day, Daviess profoundly moving first novel traces a perilous wartime romance.