New Releases by Joan Didion

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “One of contemporary literature’s most revered essayists revives her raw records from a 1970s road trip across the American southwest ... her acute observations of the country’s culture and history feel particularly resonant today.” —Harper’s Bazaar Joan Didion, the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean, has always kept notebooks—of overheard dialogue, interviews, drafts of essays, copies of articles. Here are two extended excerpts from notebooks she kept in the 1970s; read together, they form a piercing view of the American political and cultural landscape. “Notes on the South” traces a road trip that she and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, took through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Her acute observations about the small towns they pass through, her interviews with local figures, and their preoccupation with race, class, and heritage suggest a South largely unchanged today. “California Notes” began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial. Though Didion never wrote the piece, the time she spent watching the trial in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the West and her own upbringing in Sacramento. Here we not only see Didion’s signature irony and imagination in play, we’re also granted an illuminating glimpse into her mind and process.

A Vintage Shorts Selection • Almost three decades ago, iconic and incomparable American essayist Joan Didion’s now-classic report from the Dukakis campaign trail exposed, in no uncertain terms, the complete sham that is the modern American presidential run. Writing with bite and some humor too, Didion betrays “the process”—the way in which power is exchanged and the status quo is maintained. All insiders—politicians, journalists, spin doctors—participate in a political narrative that is “designed as it is to maintain the illusion of consensus by obscuring rather than addressing actual issues.” The optics of presidential campaigns have grown ever more farcical and remote from the needs and issues most relevant to Americans’ lives, and Didion’s elegant, shrewd, and prescient commentary has never been more urgent than it is right now. An ebook short.

La vita cambia in un istante. Passa dalla normalità alla catastrofe. John Gregory Dunne, sposato da quarant''anni con Joan Didion, muore all''improvviso la sera del 30 dicembre 2003. Ed è così che per Joan inizia l''anno del pensiero magico. Un anno in cui tutto viene rimesso in discussione, riconsiderato, riformulato. Le idee sulla morte, sulla malattia, sul calcolo delle probabilità, sulla fortuna e sulla sfortuna, sul matrimonio e sui figli e sulla memoria, sul dolore, sui modi in cui la gente affronta o non affronta il fatto che la vita finisce, sulla fragilità dell''equilibrio mentale, sulla vita stessa. Una scrittrice ironica e graffiante, un''icona dell''America contemporanea racconta se stessa con sincerità, con crudezza, e racconta una storia d''amore. Le sue parole colpiscono nel profondo chiunque sappia che cosa significa amare qualcuno e perderlo. Pagine che scandiscono un rito di passaggio, che si affollano di riflessioni, letture, stralci di conversazioni, di stratagemmi per sopravvivere. Come quel pensiero magico che induce a credere di poter modificare ciò che è già accaduto, di poter tornare indietro, perché lui possa tornare indietro. Fino a che, dopo un anno e un giorno, Joan si rende conto, quasi suo malgrado, che qualcosa sta cambiando. Che guardando al tempo trascorso incontra ricordi in cui John non è più presente. Che è necessario, e giusto, lasciare andare i morti. Per poter sopravvivere. Per poter continuare a vivere.

Unas memorias conmovedoras sobre la enfermedad y la muerte a través de la experiencia personal de la periodista y escritora Joan Didion. Este libro memorable ha cautivado a millones de lectores en todo el mundo. En él, la escritora Joan Didion, una de las autoras norteamericanas más reputadas de finales del siglo XX, narra con una fascinante distancia emocional la muerte repentina de su marido, el también escritor John Gregory Dunne. Este libro tan breve como intenso es, por consiguiente, una reflexión sobre el duelo y la crónica de una supervivencia. El año del pensamiento mágico obtuvo el National Book Award en 2005. Reseñas: «Llena de detalles y de una deslumbrante honestidad [...], un retrato indeleble de la pérdida y el luto.» Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times «Un acto consumado de valentía literaria, una escritora reconocida por su claridad que nos permite entrar en su mente mientras esta se nubla por el luto.» Lev Grossman, Time «Un libro que, repitiendo el tópico, se lee "como una novela" y cuya tensión sale de las entrañas de un ser herido pero dotado con una excepcional capacidad analítica y expresiva.» El Cultural «En una cultura donde la elaboración de los sentimientos [...] ha sido rescindida por una prohibición directa a través de la vergüenza o por el "deber ético del goce" [...], el libro de Didion duplica el valor del testimonio y de la invitación que lanza a un mundo de bobos emocionales técnicamente competentes.» El Mundo «El libro es un intento de trascender el estupor y sinsentido en que nos deja sumidos el dolor cuando experimentamos la muerte de alguien muy cercano.» Eduardo Lago, Babelia, El País

Joan Didion erzählt von den Leitfiguren des American Dream wie Howard Hughes, Joan Baez oder John Wayne, vom Glanz Hollywoods und der Einsamkeit von Alcatraz, von der Aufbruchsstimmung der sechziger Jahre und der Ernüchterung, die ihr folgte. Dabei gelingt es ihr, die amerikanische Wirklichkeit in unvergessliche Bilder zu fassen.

Alles beginnt mit einem Schuss. Als Everett McClelland den heimlichen Liebhaber seiner Frau Lily erschießt, ist das nicht nur der hilflose Versuch, seine Ehe vor dem endgültigen Zerfall zu retten. Es ist auch der Höhepunkt einer seit Jahrzehnten schwelenden Rivalität zwischen mächtigen Farmerdynastien im fruchtbaren Sacramento Valley. Joan Didion erzählt in ihrem ersten Roman eine Familiengeschichte, so archaisch und voll rauer Schönheit wie die Landschaft Kaliforniens, die Didions Heimat ist.

Boca Grande è la capitale di un piccolo stato del Sud America, uno di quei paesi da un colpo di stato all''anno dove non cambia mai niente. Un giorno a Boca Grande arriva Charlotte Douglas, una donna nordamericana smarrita e magnetica. Nessuno sa chi sia, cosa cerchi o cosa ci faccia a Boca Grande. A raccontarci la sua storia è Grace Strasser-Mendana, donna fra le più in vista della città, appartenente a una delle cinque o sei famiglie solvibili del paese: «Lasciò un uomo, ne lasciò un secondo, tornò a viaggiare col primo, lo lasciò morire solo come un cane, perse una figlia a beneficio della storia, e un''altra a seguito di certe complicazioni. Poi arrivò a Boca Grande». In Diglielo da parte mia Joan Didion racconta la vita di Charlotte: una donna bella e di classe, ricca e affascinante, che in cuore non ha altro che confusione e vuoto: la vita le ha fatto delle promesse (una famiglia, l''amore, la serenità) ma lei le ha fraintese, ha perso delle persone care, si è trovata sola, e ora è arrivata a Boca Grande per dimenticare, accompagnata solo dal suo fascino. Pagina dopo pagina tocchiamo con mano la tristezza e il vuoto che abitano la sua anima ed è impossibile non riconoscere che sono gli stessi che tanto spesso abitano anche la nostra. Un libro straordinario fatto di corde sottili, che toccano il cuore andando oltre la trama, come musica: come se i drammi esistenziali di Richard Yeats incontrassero il più alto minimalismo di Carver, l''asciuttezza delle parole sposa il fuoco del vuoto e del dolore dei personaggi.

Après avoir érigé un inoubliable tombeau littéraire à l''homme de sa vie (L''Année de la pensée magique), Joan Didion adresse, dans Le Bleu de la nuit, un vibrant hommage à leur fille, décédée quelques semaines à peine avant la parution de la Pensée magique aux Etats-Unis. Mais qu''on ne se méprenne pas : loin d''en être une "suite", ce récit serait plutôt son image en miroir, une variation inversée. On y retrouve, intactes, la puissance et la singularité de l''écriture de Didion : sèche, précise, lumineuse face à la nuit. Dans un puzzle de réminiscences et de réflexions (sur la mort, bien sûr, mais aussi sur les mystères de l''enfance, de la maternité, de la vieillesse et de la création), l''auteur mène un combat acharné contre les fantômes de la mélancolie, des doutes et des regrets. Poignante sans jamais verser dans le pathétique, d''une impitoyable honnêteté envers elle-même sans céder aux sirènes de la complaisance ou de l''impudeur, Joan Didion incarne la foi dans les forces de l''esprit et de la littérature.

''Blå timer'' er en fritstående fortsættelse af ''Et år med magisk tænkning'', og om muligt en endnu stærkere bog. Den handler især om datterens død. Om det frygteligt forkerte i at skulle begrave sin voksne datter kort tid efter hendes bryllup. Om at stå magtesløs tilbage. Og mærke alderdommen snige sig ind på en og forstærke denne magtesløshed, hvordan den rent fysisk nærmest tager over. Samtidig - fordi Joan Didion så modigt og fintfølende evner at registrere og reflektere over, det der sker i dette tilværelsesns og sjælelivets skumringsland - bliver denne tragiske beretning til en intens og livsklog og ja, livsbekræftende bog. Med udgangspunkt i de lykkelige minder netop fra datterens bryllyp - og fra de glimt af barndommen, der dukker op i forberedelserne af dette, opruller Joan Didion deres liv sammen. Mor og datter. Og med et helt særligt klarsyn, skærpet af sorgen og af den tydelige fornemmelse af selv at nærme sig sit livs aften, beskriver hun både de lykkeligste stunder og de smertelige øjeblikke og oplevelser af afstand, utilstrækkelighed og fravær. Joan Didion formår som få at stille skarpt på og beskrive tilværelsens mange facetter. Her skriver hun dybt bevægende og tankevækkende om at se hele sit liv - ikke mindst kærligheden til sit barn og sin egen rolle som forældre - i skumringens og sorgens tvelys.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter, from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean Richly textured with memories from her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion is an intensely personal and moving account of her thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness and growing old. As she reflects on her daughter’s life and on her role as a parent, Didion grapples with the candid questions that all parents face, and contemplates her age, something she finds hard to acknowledge, much less accept. Blue Nights—the long, light evening hours that signal the summer solstice, “the opposite of the dying of the brightness, but also its warning”—like The Year of Magical Thinking before it, is an iconic book of incisive and electric honesty, haunting and profound.

From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean—a gorgeously written, bitterly funny look at the relationship between politics and personal life. Moving deftly between romance, farce, and tragedy, from 1970s America to Vietnam to Jakarta, Democracy is a tour de force from a writer who can dissect an entire society with a single phrase. Inez Victor knows that the major casualty of the political life is memory. But the people around Inez have made careers out of losing track. Her senator husband wants to forget the failure of his last bid for the presidency. Her husband''s handler would like the press to forget that Inez''s father is a murderer. And, in 1975, America is doing its best to lose track of its one-time client, the lethally hemorrhaging republic of South Vietnam. As conceived by Joan Didion, these personages and events constitute the terminal fallout of democracy, a fallout that also includes fact-finding junkets, senatorial groupies, the international arms market, and the Orwellian newspeak of the political class.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "Didion at her finest" —USA Today • An intricate, fast-paced novel about trying to create a context for democracy and getting hands a little dirty in the process, complete with conspiracies, arms dealing, and assassinations. From the author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean The narrator introduces Elena McMahon, estranged from a life of celebrity fundraisers and from her powerful West Coast husband, Wynn Janklow, whom she has left, taking Catherine, her daughter, to become a reporter for The Washington Post. She finds herself boarding a plane for Florida to see her father. She becomes embroiled in her his business even though "she had trained herself since childhood not to have any interest in what he was doing." It is from this moment that she is caught up in something much larger than she could have imagined. Didion makes connections among Dallas, Iran-Contra, and Castro, and points out how "spectral companies with high-concept names tended to interlock." As this book builds to its terrifying finish, we see the underpinnings of a dark historical underbelly.

From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking: In this "arresting amalgam of memoir and historical timeline” (The Baltimore Sun), Didion—a native Californian—reassesses parts of her life, her work, her history, and ours. Didion applies her scalpel-like intelligence to California''s ethic of ruthless self-sufficiency in order to examine that ethic’s often tenuous relationship to reality. Combining history and reportage, memoir and literary criticism, Where I Was From explores California’s romances with land and water; its unacknowledged debts to railroads, aerospace, and big government; the disjunction between its code of individualism and its fetish for prisons. Whether she is writing about her pioneer ancestors or privileged sexual predators, robber barons or writers (not excluding herself), Didion is an unparalleled observer, and this book is at once intellectually provocative and deeply personal.

The perfect introduction to one of our greatest modern writers: Joan Didion "has the instincts of an exceptional reporter and the focus of a historian, [with] a novelist’s appreciation of the surreal" (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Whether she’s writing about civil war in Central America, political scurrility in Washington, or the tightly-braided myths and realities of her native California, Joan Didion expresses an unblinking vision of the truth. Vintage Didion includes three chapters from Miami; an excerpt from Salvador; and three separate essays from After Henry that cover topics from Ronald Reagan to the Central Park jogger case. Also included is “Clinton Agonistes” from Political Fictions, and “Fixed Opinions, or the Hinge of History,” a scathing analysis of the ongoing war on terror.

In this dramatic adaptation of her award-winning, bestselling memoir, Joan Didion transforms the story of the sudden and unexpected loss of her husband and their only daughter into a stunning and powerful one-woman play. “This happened on December 30, 2003. That may seem a while ago but it won’t when it happens to you....” Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times called the memoir that was the basis for the play, “an indelible portrait of loss and grief ... a haunting portrait of a four-decade-long marriage." The first theatrical production of The Year of Magical Thinking opened at the Booth Theatre on March 29, 2007, starring Vanessa Redgrave and directed by David Hare.

Una liturgia común (1977), la novela más lograda de Didion y uno de los iconos de la novelística del siglo XX, es la historia de una tragedia personal y política que sucede en Boca Grande, un imaginario estado centroamericano dominado por la corrupción política, el reparto del poder entre los miembros de una misma familia, el tráfico de armas y la conspiración. La historia reúne a dos mujeres norteamericanas aparentemente muy distintas que, por diversas circunstancias, han recalado allí. La narradora, Grace Strasser-Mendana, es la viuda del hombre más poderoso de Boca Grande, controla buena parte de la riqueza del país y conoce prácticamente todos sus secretos; una antropóloga que intenta encontrar respuestas científicas a los misterios del comportamiento humano. Grace trata de dar testimonio del paso por boca Grande de Charlotte Douglas, una californiana de clase alta, “virgen en historia, inexperta en política”, ignorante hasta la inocencia, que parece no darse cuenta del peligroso escenario en el que se mueve y se encamina a un fin anunciado desde el primer capítulo de la novela. Es un relato absorbente y desolador, lleno de ironía e inteligencia, con un estilo económico, preciso, sin concesiones a lo sentimental, frío como un escalpelo y eficaz en la narración, que sorprende, envuelve y exige al lector una lectura ininterrumpida hasta la última palabra. Con la agilidad telegráfica y la microscópica sensibilidad que le han convertido en una de las periodistas norteamericanas de más prestigio, Joan Didion crea una vibrante novela sobre la inocencia y el mal. Joan Didion Nació en California en 1934 y actualmente vive en Nueva York. Autora de cinco novelas: Run River, Play It as It Lays, A Book of Common Prayer, Democracy y The Last Thing He Wanted; de ensayos sobre la cultura y la política norteamericanas como Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, Salvador, Miami, After Henry y Political Fictions y de un libro de memorias, Where I Was From. El año del pensamiento mágico se publicó en Nueva York en octubre de 2005 y recibió The National Book Award en la categoría de no ficción. Aunque su hija Quintana pareció recuperarse durante la redacción de este libro, murió el 26 de agosto de 2005 a los 39 años.

Maria, trente et un ans, est une actrice de seconde zone à Hollywood. Son mariage s''est soldé par un divorce, et sa petite fille de quatre ans est internée. Pour oublier, pour s''évader, elle sillonne dans sa Corvette les routes arides et sèches de la Californie. Elle pleure souvent au volant, roule des heures entières, mais cette fuite ne mène nulle part. Le désert est partout. En quatre-vingt-quatre scènes brèves comme des séquences de cinéma, Joan Didion donne une version épurée et stylisée d''un certain cauchemar américain. Publié en 1970, Maria avec et saris rien est devenu aux Etats-Unis un livre culte qui a fait de son auteur la muse d''écrivains comme Bret Easton Ellis, Jay McInerney ou Donna Tartt.

Seven books in one hardcover volume from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking: including the full texts of Slouching Towards Bethlehem; The White Album; Salvador; Miami; After Henry; Political Fictions; and Where I Was From. As featured in the Netflix documentary Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold. Joan Didion’s incomparable and distinctive essays and journalism are admired for their acute, incisive observations and their spare, elegant style. Now the seven books of nonfiction that appeared between 1968 and 2003 have been brought together into one thrilling collection. Slouching Towards Bethlehem captures the counterculture of the sixties, its mood and lifestyle, as symbolized by California, Joan Baez, Haight-Ashbury. The White Album covers the revolutionary politics and the “contemporary wasteland” of the late sixties and early seventies, in pieces on the Manson family, the Black Panthers, and Hollywood. Salvador is a riveting look at the social and political landscape of civil war. Miami exposes the secret role this largely Latin city played in the Cold War, from the Bay of Pigs through Watergate. In After Henry Didion reports on the Reagans, Patty Hearst, and the Central Park jogger case. The eight essays in Political Fictions–on censorship in the media, Gingrich, Clinton, Starr, and “compassionate conservatism,” among others–show us how we got to the political scene of today. And in Where I Was From Didion shows that California was never the land of the golden dream." Everyman''s Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author''s life and times.

Joan Didion erzählt von der Ehe mit ihrem Mann, den sie 2003 verloren hat, von der Trauer und dem Schmerz und ihrer Tochter, die, als ihr Vater starb, auf der Intensivstation lag und vergebens um ihr eigenes Leben kämpfte.

A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, "Play It As It Lays" captures the mood of an entire generation. Joan Didion chose Hollywood to serve as her microcosm of contemporary society and exposed a culture characterized by emptiness and ennui.

Novelist and essayist Joan Didion writes about the refusal of Americans to openly discuss and debate the Bush administration''s new unilateralism toward both domestic and international policies since 9/11. This provocative and persuasive essay was originally published in The New York Review of Books, and garnered a tremendous response from the magazine''s readers. In a preface commissioned for this book edition, Frank Rich, the popular op-ed columnist for The New York Times, echoes her argument with his own passionate analysis. Fixed Ideas is an incisive, timely political commentary from an American virtuoso.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In these coolly observant essays, the iconic bestselling writer looks at the American political process and at "that handful of insiders who invent, year in and year out, the narrative of public life." Through the deconstruction of the sound bites and photo ops of three presidential campaigns, one presidential impeachment, and an unforgettable sex scandal, Didion reveals the mechanics of American politics. She tells us the uncomfortable truth about the way we vote, the candidates we vote for, and the people who tell us to vote for them. These pieces build, one on the other, into a disturbing portrait of the American political landscape, providing essential reading on our democracy.

A shimmering novel of innocence and evil: the gripping story of two American women in a failing Central American nation, from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean "[Didion''s] most ambitious project in fiction, and her most successful ... glows with a golden aura of well-wrought classical tragedy.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review Grace Strasser-Mendana controls much of Boca Grande''s wealth and knows virtually all of its secrets; Charlotte Douglas knows far too little. "Immaculate of history, innocent of politics," Charlotte has come to Boca Grande vaguely and vainly hoping to be reunited with her fugitive daughter. As imagined by Didion, her fate is at once utterly particular and fearfully emblematic of an age of conscienceless authority and unfathomable violence. A Book of Common Prayer is written with the telegraphic swiftness and microscopic sensitivity that have made Didion one of our most distinguished journalists.

The iconic writer''s electrifying first novel is a story of marriage, murder and betrayal that only she could tell with such nuance, sympathy, and suspense—from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean. Everett McClellan and his wife, Lily, are the great-grandchildren of pioneers, and what happens to them is a tragic epilogue to the pioneer experience—a haunting portrait of a marriage whose wrong turns and betrayals are at once absolutely idiosyncratic and a razor-sharp commentary on the history of California.

"Terror is the given of the place." The place is El Salvador in 1982, at the ghastly height of its civil war. Didion "brings the country to life" (The New York Times), delivering an anatomy of a particular brand of political terror—its mechanisms, rationales, and intimate relation to United States foreign policy. As ash travels from battlefields to body dumps, Didion interviews a puppet president, and considers the distinctly Salvadoran grammar of the verb "to disappear." Here, the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean gives us a book that is germane to any country in which bloodshed has become a standard tool of politics.