Most Popular Books by Russell Banks

Over thirty years of interviews with the author of The Sweet Hereafter, Affliction, and the Pulitzer Prize finalist Cloudsplitter

When we first meet him, Chappie is a punked-out teenager living with his mother and abusive stepfather in an upstate New York trailer park. During this time, he slips into drugs and petty crime. Rejected by his parents, out of school and in trouble with the police, he claims and he gets a cross and bones tattoo on his arm, and adopts the moniker "Bone." He finds refuge with a group of biker-thieves, and then hides in a boarded-up summer house. Der 14-jährige Chappie schlägt sich allein durchs Leben, bis er dem schwarzen Rastafari I-man begegnet. Sein neuer Freund bringt ihm alles Wissenswerte über Hanfanbau, das Ich und den Kosmos im Allgemeinen bei. Die beiden brechen nach Jamaica auf - getragen von ihrer Abenteuerlust und dem festen Willen zu überleben ...

In this unique collaboration Arturo Patten, one of the most important portrait photographers of our time, and acclaimed writer Russell Banks visit the hardscrabble north country of Patten, Maine, to study its inhabitants. Patten''s haunting portraits of the town''s residents evoke characters who exist in Russell Banks''s fiction. Banks, the author of Cloudsplitter, The Sweet Hereafter, and Affliction, observes Patten''s "characters" from his remote cabin in the Adirondack hills of upstate New York, where he surrounds himself with the thirty-seven portraits and contemplates what they tell us about Patten, Maine, about portraiture, and ultimately about ourselves. The Invisible Stranger, therefore, becomes nothing less than a meditation on what it means to be human. By becoming the "invisible stranger" and obscuring himself behind the camera''s lens, Patten allows his subjects to emerge and then presents them to the viewer, who, seeing these individuals, also sees himself. Banks, too, acts as the "invisible stranger," studying the townspeople from hundreds of miles away and reflecting on the complex relationships between photographer and subject, subject and observer. Taken together, Patten''s portraits and Banks''s commentary offer a dramatic and provocative combination of word and image.

The underlying theme of this story is the attraction of violence. The attraction to violence by young men who feel disconnected or under threat in their society and the particular attraction such men can have for women. The attraction between the two protagonists develops into a tense thriller and a love story which becomes threaded with suspicion and mistrust. Although the story is located in Ireland the issues raised have a universal resonance. It also illuminates two voices in the Irish conflict often misunderstood or dismissed, namely the partitionist voice in the south of Ireland which does not want a United Ireland, and the loyalist voice in Northern Ireland.

Dans une petite ville du New Hampshire, Wade Whitehouse, la quarantaine passée, est un homme brisé. Abandonné par sa femme, en passe d''être quitté par sa maîtresse, alcoolique, violent à ses heures, dépressif, il rumine ses échecs et vivote en travaillant, tantôt policier municipal, tantôt puisatier. Mais un citoyen en vue est tué. Accident de chasse ou meurtre ? L''événement fait basculer le fragile équilibre mental que Wade avait réussi à préserver. Dès lors, dévoré par l''obsession de découvrir un hypothétique assassin, il s''enfonce, au propre comme au figuré, dans un désert de neige et de glace. Affliction est le récit de l''effondrement d''un homme ordinaire, pris au piège d''une vie ratée depuis l''enfance, confisquée par la tyrannie paternelle. Russell Banks dénonce là magistralement les valeurs viriles véhiculées par un certain mythe américain. Publié par Actes Sud en 1992, Affliction a fait l''objet d''une adaptation cinématographique par Paul Schrader en 1999, avec Nick Nolte dans le rôle principal.

The archive contains material related to the publication of four novels and one unpublished novel written by Auster during the period 1999-2005; material related to the publication of volumes of collected poetry, novels, and prose published in the period 1999-2006; and material related to the genesis of five film projects: the HBO project "I Thought My Father Was God," based on Auster''s collection of reminiscences published in 2001; "In the Country of Last Things," based on Auster''s novel published in 1987; and "Lulu on the Bridge." Also present are materials related to four nonfiction works, an illustrated fiction project ("Auggie Wren''s Christmas Story," first published in 1990); contributions, prefaces, interviews from the period 2000-2005, and material related to reissues of translations completed mostly during the 1970s but published 2002-2005. Additional material includes promotional artwork; programs featuring Paul Auster; and public remarks made by Auster and those introducing him at these events. Also present is material written by others, including creative adaptations of Auster''s work and scholarly analyses of his work. The archive is rich in both incoming and outgoing correspondence, and includes letters to and from writers and friends, agents and publishers, as well as translators, readers, students, and organizations. Writers and recipients of correspondence include Pedro Almodóvar, Russell Banks, William Corbett, Don DeLillo, Jonathan Safran Foer, Jonathan Lethem, Sam Messer, Michael Ondaatje, Ron Padgett, Claude Royet-Journoud, and others.