{"product_id":"the-long-take-isbn-9781524711429","title":"The Long Take","description":"\u003cb\u003e**Finalist for the 2018 Man Booker Prize**\u003cbr\u003e**Winner of the \u003cb\u003eWalter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize for Innovative Fiction, and the Roehampton Poetry Prize**\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the award-winning British author—a poet's noir narrative that tells the story of a D-Day veteran in postwar America: a good man, brutalized by war, haunted by violence and apparently doomed to return to it, yet resolved to find kindness again, in the world and in himself.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWalker is a D-Day veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder; he can't return home to rural Nova Scotia, and looks instead to the city for freedom, anonymity and repair. As he finds his way from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco, we witness a crucial period of fracture in American history, one that also allowed film noir to flourish. The Dream had gone sour but—as those dark, classic movies made clear—the country needed outsiders to study and to dramatize its new anxieties. Both an outsider and, gradually, an insider, Walker finds work as a journalist, and tries to piece his life together as America is beginning to come apart: riven by social and racial divisions, spiraling corruption, and the collapse of the inner cities. Robin Robertson's fluid verse pans with filmic immediacy across the postwar urban scene—and into the heart of an unforgettable character—in this highly original work of art.“A propulsive verbal tour de force . . . A hymn to destruction that exposes our country’s betrayal of the American Dream in the years following World War II. [Robertson] places Walker’s world on a continuum of postwar abusive power that still resonates today, while also reminding the reader of older instances of displacement such as the Trail of Tears and Scotland’s Sutherland clearances. The Long Take conveys dignity upon its less than noble characters because they’ve been dispossessed by outside forces. . . . When was the last time you said of a book of poetry, ‘I couldn’t put it down?’ Well, now’s your chance.” \u003cb\u003e—Sibbie O’Sullivan, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A remarkable work . . . I can’t think of anything quite like it  . . . Modern, complex, political . . . [Robertson’s] language is functional and often exquisite . . . Though rooted in a specific time and place, \u003ci\u003eThe Long Take\u003c\/i\u003e’s larger theme is the capacity of greed and politics to turn hope into despair . . . A poem that’s long been waiting to be written.” \u003cb\u003e—Woody Haut, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"As far as books go it’s A-1. I recommend it.\" —\u003cb\u003eNico Walker, author of\u003ci\u003e Cherry\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Robertson has cast a national, cultural, psychological and class outsider of vibrant and seedy post-war America into a palpable anti-hero eerily resonant with our contemporary world. With syncopated rhythms, staccato dialogue and jump-scenes, the book weaves dizzying, jazz-like meditations on PTSD, masculinity, betrayal and salvation by embodying, in sound, scent and sixth-sense, one of America’s most hopeful and devastating decades. The result is a ravishing achievement.” \u003cb\u003e—Ocean Vuong\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] lyrical masterpiece . . . Robertson has written a book that manages to be epic and elegiac, and suffused with savagery and beauty.” —\u003cb\u003eMalcolm Forbes, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A seamless and masterly sequence.” \u003cb\u003e—Dayton Hare, \u003ci\u003eMichigan Daily\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The wondrous story of a Canadian veteran of the second world war who washes up in New York and then Los Angeles—told mostly in verse. Walker, the protagonist, is haunted by his experiences in combat and by memories of his youth, and pained by the neglect of the homeless in California. Probably the best novel of the year.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/i\u003e (“Books of the Year”)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Bold, brilliant, filled with wonderful imagery and meticulously researched, this is as poignant and visual as classic film noir.” —\u003cb\u003eIan Rankin\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Superlative.” —\u003cb\u003eJustine Jordan, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian \u003c\/i\u003e“Books of the Year”\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This book will shift something in your soul. By the time you have finished reading it, you won’t quite be the same.\" —\u003cb\u003eElif Shafak, Goldsmiths Prize judge\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A beautiful, vigorous and achingly melancholy hymn to the common man that is as unexpected as it is daring. Here we have a poet, at the peak of his symphonic powers, taking a great risk, and succeeding gloriously . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Long Take\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterly work of art, exciting, colourful, fast-paced – the old-time movie reviewer’s vocabulary is apt to the case – and almost unbearably moving.” —\u003cb\u003eJohn Banville, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Hypnotic and wrenching . . . Robertson transforms the long take into an epic taking of life, liberty, reason, and hope in this saga of a good man broken by war and a city savaged by greed, an arresting and gorgeously lyrical and disquieting tale of brutal authenticity, hard-won compassion, and stygian splendor.” \u003cb\u003e—Donna Seaman, \u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Immaculately researched . . . Walker is a superbly rounded character, and his tale one worth telling . . . Moving and engrossing.” \u003cb\u003e—Rory Waterman, The Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Absolutely stunning . . . [Robertson’s] beautiful verse describes things better than any picture could . . . The language is astonishing.” \u003cb\u003e—Arifa Akbar, BBC, \u003ci\u003eFront Row\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Robertson’s deliberate, atmospheric verse narrative soars with an emphatic grandeur more usually found in symphonic music . . . As a work of art, this dreamlike exploration is a triumph; as a timely allegory, it is disturbingly profound . . . Robertson’s \u003ci\u003eThe Long Take\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the first major achievements of 21st-century English-language literature.” \u003cb\u003e—Eileen Battersby, \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A blisteringly beautiful vision of America rotting in the aftermath of the Second World War . . . Robertson's book is stylish, daring, high concept and amazing.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eEvening Standard\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Robertson’s \u003ci\u003eThe Long Take\u003c\/i\u003e shows it is perfectly possible to write poetry which is both accessible and subtle, which has a genuine moral and social conscience without sacrificing the polished nature of the language to soundbite and cliché.” \u003cb\u003e—Stuart Kelly, \u003ci\u003eScotland on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “[Robertson’s] writing is a charged marriage of precision and wildness, of meticulous architecture and unbridled energy . . . writing of extraordinary sensuality . . . In this cinepoetic narrative, lyric is the long take, while the lift and fall of the feet of the wounded tell stories of hope and loss.” —\u003cb\u003eFelicity Plunkett, \u003ci\u003eThe Australian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Robertson's \u003ci\u003eThe Long Take\u003c\/i\u003e shows it is perfectly possible to write poetry which is both accessible and subtle, which has a genuine moral and social conscience without sacrificing the polished nature of the language to soundbite and cliché . . . A major achievement.\"\u003cb\u003e —Stuart Kelly, \u003ci\u003eThe Scotsman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A sustained tribute to the cinematic art of light and dark.” \u003cb\u003e—Jeremy Noel-Tod, \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “[A] flashpoint in U.S. history, an almost perfect mirror image of the nation today . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Long Take\u003c\/i\u003e remarkably captures linguistic styles of 1940s American writing—Saroyan and Steinbeck. As it progresses into the mid-50s we’re hearing Ginsberg and Baldwin . . . You will be washed in all these when you read this poem.” \u003cb\u003e—Todd McEwen, \u003ci\u003eSunday Herald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eROBIN ROBERTSON was brought up on the northeast coast of Scotland and now lives in London. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he has published five collections of poetry and has received a number of honors, including the Petrarca-Preis, the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and all three Forward Prizes. His selected poems, \u003ci\u003eSailing the Forest\u003c\/i\u003e, was published in 2014. In the UK, \u003ci\u003eThe Long Take\u003c\/i\u003e has won the 2018 Roehampton Poetry Prize and the Goldsmiths Prize for Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. \u003cbr\u003ewww.robinrobertson.co.uk\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003efrom\u003c\/i\u003e Part II: 1948\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The heat was gone. They could feel it.\u003cbr\u003e There was a hectic joy downtown, a release. King Eddy’s\u003cbr\u003e six-deep at the bar and still coming.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘Okay, guys. Best killing in the movies.’\u003cbr\u003e ‘Tommy Udo! It’s gotta be Tommy Udo!’\u003cbr\u003e ‘That’s up there, sure, but how about \u003ci\u003eRaw Deal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e when the broad gets the flambé in the face?’\u003cbr\u003e ‘Didn’t kill her, though.’\u003cbr\u003e ‘What about \u003ci\u003eT-Men\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003cbr\u003e when The Schemer gets cooked in the steam-room?’\u003cbr\u003e ‘Nice . . .’\u003cbr\u003e ‘That other film of his, the Western, what’s it called?\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eBorder Incident\u003c\/i\u003e! That’s got a death by \u003ci\u003etractor\u003c\/i\u003e.’\u003cbr\u003e ‘Or \u003ci\u003eUnion Station\u003c\/i\u003e, half a mile away – death by cattle stampede!’\u003cbr\u003e ‘I like that shoot-out in the hall of mirrors . . . ’\u003cbr\u003e ‘Nah, too classy. I’d vote for \u003ci\u003eDecoy \u003c\/i\u003e– Jean Gillie\u003cbr\u003e crushing her boyfriend with her car.’\u003cbr\u003e ‘Yeah, or that chesty dame with the ice-pick, Janis Carter.’\u003cbr\u003e ‘He survived . . .’\u003cbr\u003e ‘I’d take Raymond Burr in \u003ci\u003eDesperate\u003c\/i\u003e. Great movie.\u003cbr\u003e The way he goes over the stair-rail at the end\u003cbr\u003e and drops four flights. That’s a lulu.’\u003cbr\u003e ‘Well, if you’re talking stairs it’s \u003ci\u003egotta \u003c\/i\u003ebe Tommy Udo, \u003ci\u003ec’mon . . .\u003c\/i\u003e’\u003cbr\u003e ‘Yeah: hard to beat that – tying an old lady to her wheelchair\u003cbr\u003e then pushing her down a flight of stairs.\u003cbr\u003e Widmark’s first film, and he was \u003ci\u003edynamite\u003c\/i\u003e.’\u003cbr\u003e ‘Okay. All agreed? Right. \u003ci\u003eKiss of Death\u003c\/i\u003e. Udo gets the cake.’\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eHe remembered the German on the barricade who took a magnesium flare in the\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003echest and went up like a bonfire: so white you couldn’t look, but you couldn’t quite\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003elook away.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He dreamt the mountains were on fire\u003cbr\u003e and the flames were gliding down the sides like lava,\u003cbr\u003e the mountains were slipping into the sea which was on fire,\u003cbr\u003e into the city, which was also burning,\u003cbr\u003e and the ground opened up then\u003cbr\u003e and he dreamt that he walked away,\u003cbr\u003e streets full of stones,\u003cbr\u003e and he saw a black man black with flame, black leaves\u003cbr\u003e falling all around him: a black autumn, coming down.\u003cbr\u003e And Pike, he dreamt of Pike,\u003cbr\u003e pinning him by the throat to the ground, with a knife.\u003cbr\u003e And then he woke.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e There was a new crack through the tiles in the bathroom,\u003cbr\u003e running in a straight line from the window to the door.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He was working nights at the \u003ci\u003ePress\u003c\/i\u003e, nights out on the street,\u003cbr\u003e sharpening now after the turn in the year, the air\u003cbr\u003e loosened after the rain, the pavement black and glinting.\u003cbr\u003e There were parts of the city that were pure blocks of darkness,\u003cbr\u003e where light would slip in like a blade to nick it, carve it open:\u003cbr\u003e a thin stiletto, then a spill of white; the diagonal gash\u003cbr\u003e of a shadow, shearing; the jagged angle sliding over itself\u003cbr\u003e to close; the flick-knife of a watchman’s torch, the long gasp\u003cbr\u003e of headlights from nowhere, their yawning light – then\u003cbr\u003e just as quickly\u003cbr\u003e their falling away:\u003cbr\u003e closed over, swallowed\u003cbr\u003e by the oiled, engraining, leaden dark.\u003cbr\u003e He hears someone running\u003cbr\u003e but there’s no one there.\u003cbr\u003e His shadow folds into the wall, then along it.\u003cbr\u003e Then gone.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘Hey, Walker. Wanted in Overholt’s office.’\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He went through, past the juniors: Pike, talking over\u003cbr\u003e the top of everyone, repeating his punch-line\u003cbr\u003e louder each time, harder.\u003cbr\u003e The old man was checking finals, but he pushed them aside.\u003cbr\u003e ‘Very well, Walker, you can go this summer. Up to San Francisco.\u003cbr\u003e I like what you’ve done here on this homeless issue,\u003cbr\u003e so we’ll use you as a stringer, see how it goes.\u003cbr\u003e I want a big piece on this, on the whole thing.’\u003cbr\u003e ‘You mean the destitute?’\u003cbr\u003e ‘Yes. Out on the streets\u003cbr\u003e while the mayor and the police commissioner\u003cbr\u003e are fine-dining in Chasen’s or Musso’s Back Room.\u003cbr\u003e I mean the fact that two thirds of this city\u003cbr\u003e is a fenced-off ghetto;\u003cbr\u003e that there’s graft and corruption running right the way through.\u003cbr\u003e I mean the fact that this is a country where there aren’t enough homes,\u003cbr\u003e enough jobs, where one in six Angelenos are ex-servicemen\u003cbr\u003e and they’re lying out on Skid Row –\u003cbr\u003e but all anyone ever talks about is watching for Russians,\u003cbr\u003e HUAC locking up half of Hollywood,\u003cbr\u003e the government building more bombs.\u003cbr\u003e We won the war, but we’re living like we lost it.’\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He stood, and went to the window.\u003cbr\u003e ‘Things are hotting up, Walker. It’s a good time to go.’","brand":"Knopf","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302041506021,"sku":"NP9781524711429","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781524711429.jpg?v=1767740309","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-long-take-isbn-9781524711429","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}