Most Popular Books by Vikram Seth

This novel in verse about a group of California yuppies was one of the most highly praised books of 1986 and a bestseller on both coasts. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Vikram Seth''S Captivating Book Is The Story Of A Century And Of A Love Affair Across A Racial Divide Shanti Behari Seth Was Born On The Eighth Day Of The Eighth Month In The Eighth Year Of The Twentieth Century; He Died Two Years Before Its Close. He Was Brought Up In India In The Late Years Of The Raj, And Was Sent By His Family In The 1930S To Berlin Though He Could Not Speak A Word Of German To Study Medicine And Dentistry. It Was Here, Before He Migrated To Britain, That Shanti''S Path First Crossed That Of His Future Wife. Henny Gerda Caro Was Also Born In 1908, In Berlin, To A Jewish Family, Cultured, Patriotic And Intensely German. When The Family Decided To Have Shanti As A Lodger, Henny S First Reaction Was, ''Don''T Take The Black Man!'' But A Friendship Flowered, And When Henny Fled Hitler''S Germany For England, Just One Month Before The War Broke Out, She Was Met At Victoria Station By The Only Person She Knew In The Country: Shanti. Vikram Seth, Their Great-Nephew From India, Arrived In This Childless Couple''S Life As A Teenage Student. Now He Has Woven Together The Astonishing Story Of Shanti And Henny, And The Result Is An Extraordinary Tapestry Of India, The Third Reich And The Second World War, Auschwitz And The Holocaust, Israel And Palestine, Postwar Germany And 1970S Britain. Two Lives Is Both A History Of A Violent Country Seen Through The Eyes Of Two Survivors As Well As An Intimate Portrait Of Their Friendship, Marriage And Abiding Yet Complex Love. Part Biography, Part Memoir, Part Meditation On Our Times, This Is The True Tale Of Two Remarkable Lives A Masterful Telling From One Of Our Greatest Living Writers. Click Here To See Vikram Seth''S Microsite

The Rivered Earth contains four libretti written by Vikram Seth to be set to music by Alec Roth - together with an account of the pleasures and pains of working with a composer. Entitled ''Songs in Time of War'', ''Shared Ground'', ''The Traveller'' and ''Seven Elements'', they take us all over the world - from Chinese and Indian poetry to the beauty and quietness of the Salisbury house where the poet George Herbert lived and died. Spanning centuries of creativity and humanity, these poems pulse with life, energy and inspired brilliance. They are accompanied by four pieces of calligraphy by the author.

After two years as a postgraduate student at Nanjing University in China, Vikram Seth hitch-hiked back to his home in New Delhi, via Tibet. From Heaven Lake is the story of his remarkable journey and his encounters with nomadic Muslims, Chinese officials, Buddhists and others.

''I have so carefully mapped the corners of my mind That I am forever waking in a lost country...'' SUMMER REQUIEM traces the immutable shifting of the seasons, the relentless rhythms of a great world that both ''gifts and harms''. Luminous, resonant and profound, these poems trace the dying days of summer, ''the hour of rust'', when memory is haunted by loss and decay. But in the silence that follows, as the soul is cast adrift, there is also reconciliation with the transience of all things; the knowledge that there is a place, ''changeable, that will not betray''.

The first collection of poems by the worldwide bestselling author of ''A Suitable Boy'' and ''The Golden Gate''.

In This New Edition Of Mappings , Vikram Seth''S First Book Of Poems And One That Has Long Been Out Of Print, The Reader Is Introduced To Work Written In The Author''S Twenties, When He Was A Student In England And Later, California. More Immediate If Less Polished Than His Later Work, These Poems Enchant And Impress With Their Classical Learning, Wit, Perceptiveness And Lyricism All Facets Of Vikram Seth''S Now Celebrated Poetic Achievement.

The three T''ang dynasty poets translated here are among the greatest literary figures of China, or indeed the world. Responding differently to their common times, Wang Wei, Li Bai, and Du Fu crystallize the immense variety of China and the Chinese poetic tradition and, across a distance of twelve hundred years, move the reader as it is rare for even poetry to do.

A picture book based on the legend of Arion, the young musician whose friendship with the dolphin that saves his life is ended when the dolphin is captured and dies. Jane Ray''s luscious, evocative paintings harmonize with the text, a wonderful mixture of verse and prose adapted from Vikram Seth''s libretto for an opera commissioned by the English National Opera.

Of The Ten Fables Told Here, Two Come From India, Two From China, Two From Greece, Two From The Ukraine, And Two, As The Author Puts It, Came Directly To Me From The Land Of Gup. This Is A Book That Displays The Astonishing Versatility Of The Poet Who Gave Us The Golden Gate And All You Who Sleep Tonight. The Flair And Delight Of Beastly Tales From Here And There Is Proof That Vikram Seth Can Try On The Most Unusual Clothes Without In The Least Losing His Unique Poetic Identity.

Widely loved author of the worldwide bestselling novels, A SUITABLE BOY and AN EQUAL MUSIC, Vikram Seth is also a highly acclaimed poet with a substantial body of work. Here for the first time, in one volume, readers can appreciate the breadth of his eloquence and invention in his collected poetic works. Including MAPPINGS, THE HUMBLE ADMINISTRATOR''S GARDEN, ALL YOU WHO SLEEP TONIGHT, THREE CHINESE POETS, BEASTLY TALES, ARION AND THE DOLPHIN and SUMMER REQUIEM, this is a collection to savour and treasure.

Arion and the Dolphin is an opera in nine scenes for professionals and community performers. The libretto is by Vikram Seth and the music is composed by Alec Roth. Recounted with Seth s inimitable charm, it is the story of Arion, a young musician at the court of Periander in Corinth. Thrown overboard on his return from a musical contest in Sicily, Arion is saved and befriended by a dolphin.

Michael Holme, violinista de gran talent a qui s''havia augurat una carrera brillant com a solista, ha acabat de segon violí en un quartet de corda, una posició tan còmoda i sense expectatives com la seva vida, que transcorre grisa i trista en un Londres igualment gris i trist. Michael no està fet per a aquest món i només viu per a dues coses: Schubert i el seu violí. Però la seva campana de vidre es trenca una tarda que, enmig del brogit de la ciutat, creu veure Júlia, una pianista que havia estimat i que no ha vist des de fa deu anys. Michael s''hi abocarà amb tota l''ànima fins a retrobar-la -com si aquest viatge al passat fos l''únic que pogués donar sentit a la seva existència- i reviurà el seu amor fins que un secret dolorós li farà entendre que la vida poques vegades dóna una segona oportunitat.

Michael is a violinist from Rochdale. He plays in a trio in Vienna with Julia, a pianist, and they are much taken with each other. But the trio splits up and they go their separate ways. One day in London, from the top of a double-decker bus, Michael catches a glimpse of Julia. They eventually meet up, and she tells him that she is contentedly married and has a child. Michael persuades her to visit Vienna and Venice with him. He discovers that Julia has become deaf, though her deafness comes and goes. When Michael reads a letter from Julia to her husband, he realises that Julia is never going to give herself to him . . .

Vikram Seth''s novel is, at its core, a love story: the tale of Lela''s -- and her mother''s -- attempts to find a suitable boy through love or through exacting maternal appraisal. At the same time, it is the story of India, newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis as a sixth of the world''s population faces its first great General Election and the chance to map its own destiny. Already a number one bestseller, this celebrated novel is now brought to life by the author himself in nearly six hours of listening pleasure.

The Collected Poems comprises all the volumes of poetry that Vikram Seth has published this far. The books included are Mappings (1981), The Humble Administrator''s Garden (1985), All You Who Sleep Tonight (1990), Three Chinese Poets (1992), Beastly Tales from Here and There (1992) and Arion and the Dolphin (1994).

Tells the story of four large extended families in 1950s India against the political and religious upheavals of the time.

Vikram Seth (Calcuta, 1952) és poeta, novel·lista, traductor i, sobretot, un dels artífexs del boom de la literatura angloíndia. Seth és un dels pocs escriptors contemporanis capaços d’integrar el món d’Orient en el d’Occident. Va estudiar política, economia i filosofia a Oxford i va treballar en una tesi sobre la demografia de la Xina rural per la Stanford University. Ha viatjat per la Xina, el Tibet i el Nepal. Ha publicat amb gran èxit Música constant (Empúries, 2000) i Un bon partit, que va convertir-lo en un dels autors més importants de l’últim terç del segle XX.Després de l’homenatge a la música clàssica en la magistral novel·la Una música constant, Dues vides reprèn un dels temes centrals de Vikram Seth: la família. Però, a diferència d’Un bon partit, una de les novel·les més aclamades de les últimes dècades, Dues vides gira a l’entorn de dues persones reals que van impressionar molt l’autor: Shanti i Henny. Shanti, el seu besoncle, va néixer a l’Índia i durant els anys trenta va estudiar odontologia a Berlín; allà va conèixer Henny, una jueva alemanya obligada a abandonar el país i deixar enrere la seva mare i la seva germana, víctimes a Auschwitz. En aquella època convulsa tots dos van iniciar una tempestuosa relació amorosa que desembocà en un casament a Londres, conclosa ja la guerra.Allà, el 1969, és on l’autor conviu amb aquestes persones excepcionals i va descobrint de mica en mica les circumstàncies de les vides passades que, vistes amb la seva lupa, exhibeixen totes les grandeses i les misèries de qui ha fet front a l’horror i ha aconseguit sobreviure’l.Escrit amb l’estil ters i evocador que li és propi, i amb ritme àgil i cinematogràfic, Dues vides és alhora una autobiografia, un retrat de dos éssers extraordinaris, una radiografia del segle XX i una lúcida anàlisi dels camins tortuosos de la història contemporània, en una obra esplèndida en la qual l’exactitud del retrat no resta dramatisme ni la veritat retalla sentit de l’humor.