{"product_id":"the-lamentations-of-zeno-isbn-9781784782191","title":"The Lamentations of Zeno","description":"\u003cb\u003eA literary fiction about climate disaster and a scientist imploding on a journey to the Antarctic\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eZeno Hintermeier is a scientist working as a travel guide on an Antarctic cruise ship, encouraging the wealthy to marvel at the least explored continent and to open their eyes to its rapid degradation. It is a troubling turn in the life of an idealistic glaciologist. Now in his early sixties, Zeno bewails the loss of his beloved glaciers, the disintegration of his marriage, and the foundering of his increasingly irrelevant career. Troubled in conscience and goaded by the smug complacency of the passengers in his charge, he starts to plan a desperate gesture that will send a wake-up call to an overheating world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Lamentations of Zeno\u003c\/i\u003e is an extraordinary evocation of the fragile and majestic wonders to be found at a far corner of the globe, written by a novelist who is a renowned travel writer. Poignant and playful, the novel recalls the experimentation of high-modernist fiction without compromising a limpid sense of place or the pace of its narrative. It is a portrait of a man in extremis, a haunting and at times irreverent tale that approaches the greatest challenge of our age—perhaps of our entire history as a species—from an impassioned human angle.“The best thing one could say of an author: he enriches us.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Günter Grass\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “My favorite book of the summer … short, sharp, bitter, and very funny.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Nicola Twilley, \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Thrilling, nuanced, and chillingly meditative … Ilija Trojanow has written a modern fable tinged with absurd humor, dramatizing the high stakes of our current climate gamble.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Colum McCann, author of \u003ci\u003eLet the Great World Spin\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “This is like the stream of consciousness of our planet’s unraveling lifeworld, as channeled through its melting ice and a cruise ship naturalist in love with his doomed subject. Quick, dense, jagged, beautiful.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the \u003ci\u003eMars Trilogy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eThe Lamentations of Zeno\u003c\/i\u003e is electric, irresistible, well written and movingly topical. Ilija Trojanow, with several masterpieces to his name, never puts a foot wrong. He is as important a writer in this day and age as Günter Grass was for his—a joy to read.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Nuruddin Farah, author of \u003ci\u003eHiding in Plain Sight\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Perfectly paced, keenly insightful and wickedly funny, \u003ci\u003eThe Lamentations of Zeno\u003c\/i\u003e is at once a much-needed indictment of the global climate crisis and a brilliant portrait of middle life. The Antarctic antics of \u003ci\u003eWhere’d You Go, Bernadette?\u003c\/i\u003e meet the wit and wisdom of \u003ci\u003eHerzog\u003c\/i\u003e, with the politics of \u003ci\u003eFlight Behavior\u003c\/i\u003e sprinkled on top: a treat!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Taiye Selasi, author of \u003ci\u003eGhana Must Go\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “There is little that a novelist can tell us on the subject that we do not already know, but Trojanow gives the statistics and prognoses a human dimension … one of Europe’s most original contemporary writers.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —\u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “With a sharp ear for pop song lyrics and a love of glaciers, our antihero seems to be fighting a losing battle against climate change and the clueless humans who foster it.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Jay Trachtenberg, \u003ci\u003eAustin Chronicle \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A topical polemic about global warming and climate change … \u003ci\u003eThe Lamentations of Zeno\u003c\/i\u003e is half the length and twice as good [as Ian McEwan]. Trojanow has set out on a particular expedition: to unsettle. This wise, cunning book, which does indeed possess the complex depths of an iceberg, achieves exactly that.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —\u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eThe Lamentations of Zeno\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel of existential dread … in contemplating the already accomplished destruction of habitats, the consumerism that marks nearly every human activity and the digital onslaught that has colonised our minds, the reader may discover that Zeno’s soul-sickness speaks to some disquiet in his or her own battered soul.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Trojanow harnesses his lyrical skill and wows the reader when he focuses on describing Zeno’s exploration of the seemingly monochromatic yet thrilling landscape. The book is a sophisticated drama about a scientist’s love for a continent that eludes his slippery hold.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eIlija Trojanow\u003c\/b\u003e is a German novelist and travel writer, the author of many books of fiction and non-fiction, including \u003ci\u003eThe Collector of Worlds\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAlong the Ganges\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eMumbai to Mecca\u003c\/i\u003e. His autobiographical debut novel was adapted into the award-winning film \u003ci\u003eThe World Is Big\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSalvation Lurks Just Around the Corner\u003c\/i\u003e. A vocal critic of domestic surveillance and the NSA, Trojanow was at the center of a cause célèbre in 2013 when the United States refused him entry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePhilip Boehm\u003c\/b\u003e has translated more than thirty novels and plays by German and Polish writers, including Herta Müller, Franz Kafka and Hanna Krall. Nonfiction translations include \u003ci\u003eA Woman in Berlin\u003c\/i\u003e by Anonymous and \u003ci\u003eWords to Outlive Us\u003c\/i\u003e, a collection of eyewitness accounts from the Warsaw Ghetto. For these translations he has received numerous awards including fellowships from the NEA and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He also works as a theater director and playwright: works for the stage include \u003ci\u003eAlma en venta, Mixtitlan, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eReturn of the Bedbug. \u003c\/i\u003eHe is the founding Artistic Director of Upstream Theater in St. Louis, which in 2010 was awarded a National Theatre Company grant by the American Theatre Wing (Founder of the Tonys).","brand":"Verso","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305242153189,"sku":"NP9781784782191","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781784782191.jpg?v=1767740099","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-lamentations-of-zeno-isbn-9781784782191","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}