Животът и смъртта на Катерина

by Andrew Nicoll

„Променящ живота разказвач със звездно остроумие и интригуваща дълбочина... истинско злато”

Лусиано Ернандо Валдес (Чано) е прочут писател. Изпод перото му излизат забележителни творби, прославили го не само в латиноамериканската му родина, но и по целия свят като най-стойностните, писани от неговото поколение. Той преподава в университета, живее в охолство, вкарва в леглото си всяка жена, която пожелае, и се наслаждава на славата си.

Внезапно спокойният му живот приключва. Обзема го творческо безсилие. Тогава среща Катерина. Млада, красива и талантлива - и най-важното, пише. Заплененият Чано вижда в нея своя шанс за връщане към успеха. Но неговата любов се оказва смъртната й присъда.

Genres: Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Born in Dundee, Andrew Nicoll has lived all his life within the same few streets by the sea. Once a forester, now a journalist, Nicoll has covered the Scottish Parliament for 'The Sun' for the past ten years. A poet and short story writer before he turned novelist, Nicoll has published numerous stories and poems over the years. His first novel, 'The Good Mayor,' was written during eighteen months of commuting to work by rail. Published by Black & White in the U.K., by Harper Collins in Australia, and by Bantam in the Unites States (September 09), 'The Good Mayor' has been sold to 17 nations and translated into 13 languages. Andrew Nicoll was awarded the Saltire Prize for the First Book of the Year in 2009, and is working to complete a new novel.

Reviews

[Anastasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ο συγγραφέας αναφέρει από την πρώτη κιόλας σελίδα πως ο ήρωάς του σκοτώνει την Κατερίνα. Ο λόγος που διαβάζεις το βιβλίο είναι για να γνωρίσεις ποιος στο κάτω-κάτω είναι αυτός ο Τσιάνο, γιατί είναι τόσο πετυχημένος, ποια είναι η Κατερίνα, γιατί την ερωτεύεται και κυρίως γιατί τη σκοτώνει!
Η κεντρική ιδέα του βιβλίου μού άρεσε. Τη βρήκα πρωτότυπη και δε θυμάμαι να είχα ξαναδιαβάσει κάτι παρόμοιο. Περισότερα εδώ.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicoll is a master storyteller and one is easily caught up in the world of this novel, an unnamed Latin American city and country, where Valdez, a renowned author, finds himself blocked, unable to get past the first sentence of a new work...that is, until he meets the beautiful young Caterina, who also writes. Nicoll is a master of the authorial voice and he carries us along, with much commentary on and understanding of the ways of love, politics, aging, art. Only occasionally does he misstep, the authorial voice overlaying too much--to my mind--the lives and actions of his characters. But the various threads of the novel come together in a way that is both believable and affecting, with all the feeling of inevitability one expects in such a tale.

His first novel was set in an unnamed Baltic country, here we are in Latin America...what's next, I wonder? Somehow, I don't think it will be Scotland.

Bravo, Sr. Nicoll.

[Szeee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Méltatlanul kevéssé ismert ez az író és regény, az én polcomon is 7-8 évig állt, mire véletlenül a kezembe került.
Számomra csodálatra méltó, hogy hogy tud egy angolszász, skót író ennyire hiteles latin hangulatot teremteni, mint Nicoll ebben a regényben. Nagyon sokszor éreztem, hogy olyan, mintha egy Márquez regényt olvasnék, mind a szöveg, mind az ábrázolásmód tekintetében. A szöveg nagyon igényes, színes és játékos, imádtam olvasni. A figurák kissé karikatúra szerűek, a történet pikáns, ugyanakkor megjelenik benne politika is. Nicoll egy meg nem nevezett dél-amerikai országba helyezi a sztorit, főszereplője a tökéletes megjelenésű negyvenes nőfaló agglegény, a neves író, Valdez, épp írói válságban. Ő lát meg egy napon egy fiatal, kívánatos egyetemista lányt egy kávézóban és életében először szerelmes lesz, ebből adódik a sztori bonyodalma. De van itt egy nagyon merev és szigorú anya, név szerint Sophia Antonia de la Santísima Trinidad y Torre Blanco Valdez, akit kivétel nélkül mindig ezen a néven említ az író (:D), van titkolt családi múlt, ellenállás a mindenkori diktatúrával szemben, véres robbantás az egyetemen, majd egy döbbenetes, ironikus vég... Hiába írja le a fülszöveg, hogy mi fog történni, erre nem számítunk, nem így. Egyébként a végét is egy világhírű regényre való utalásnak érzem, ugyanúgy mint a márquezi stílust és elemeket. Mégsem gondolnám, hogy utánoz az író, inkább játékosnak érzem és ebből a játékból szerintem zseniális alkotás született. Biztos, hogy fogok még olvasni Nicolltól, ő az én íróm.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little too rich for one-day binge-reading, Andrew Nicoll's LOVE AND DEATH OF CATERINA dissects society in a middle-sized city in an unnamed Latin American country ruled by the secret police and outmoded social conventions. Mr. L. H. Valdez, the anti-hero, stumbles on a gorgeous and brilliant math student named Caterina just when, at the top of his writing and polo games, he is beset by writer's block. This is not a typically structured mystery since we know at the beginning that Valdez has killed Caterina: the mystery, and the psycho-social analysis it entails, explain how a successful writer can be at once bewitched and then intimidated by raw talent and beauty. And perhaps worse, how a police state upholds the inauthentic and urbane Valdez at the expense of the perfectly proportioned country mouse Caterina.

Although there is something slightly off-putting about the novel's hyper-real, ironic and poetic style, which is reminiscent of the best Latin American fiction, the Scotsman Nicoll does succeed in making us fall in love with Caterina and her love for stories, as we learn to despise Valdez. That said, it seems as silly to criticize Nicoll for setting his novel in a generic Latin American dictatorship as to fault Faulkner for creating a fictional county in Mississippi. Nicoll's stories touch on humanistic and humane themes of art, love, power, and sexuality; here, politics endow the love story with a killer punch.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading this as I read 'The Good Mayor' by Andrew Nicoll recently, and loved it. I found this extremely difficult to engage with though and didn't really enjoy it, and had to perservere to finish it. Things did start to get interesting towards the end, but it was too little too late for me.

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ζωντανή πλοκή αλλά απογοητεύτηκα που δεν ήρθε η νέμεσις και η τίσις.

[Χρήστος Αναστασόπουλος · Rating 3 out of 5]

Συμπαθητικό, ενδιαφέρουσα ιστορία με καλή γραφή.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally loved it. One of those books I am sad to finish. I read "If You're Reading This, I'm Already Dead " which was funny and good. Looked up more books by Andrew Nicoll and got "The Love and Death of Caterina" from the library.

Compared to the first one I read, this one isn't as funny. It is more refined, the author creates an atmosphere you get sucked into. His detailed descriptions of locations, items and persons makes me feel, smell and understand them. He says on the first page that Valdez will murder Caterina. It doesn't matter, the tension and suspense is building throughout the entire book right to the end.

It took a while for the story to mutate from a love romance to something different. The subtle changes make you keep reading more and more. You want to know what goes on in the side stories. The past is creeping more and more into the presence. You understand more and more why things are happening. The twists and changes in direction surprise.

A book I couldn't put away.

[Rachael McDiarmid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy, quick read, not too taxing on the brain, would have been perfect to pick up at the airport and read between flights etc. If you need a quick escape, I'd recommend this one. Would also make an interesting movie so I hope he's thinking of selling the film rights!

[Vhrai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Összességében kellemes meglepetést okozott a kötet, pedig az értékeléseket tekintve nem voltam túl optimista. Inkább érdekesnek, elgondolkodtatónak találtam, sem mint izgalmasnak. Annak ellenére, hogy már az első mondattal le van lőve a regény nagy fordulata, végig fogvatartott, egyszerűen kíváncsi voltam a miértekre. Emellett nagyon tetszett, hogy a szerző fokról fokra tárta fel előttünk Valdez eleinte felszínesnek tűnő személyiségét. Ami azonban a legjobban megfogott, az a regény hangulata - nagyon áthatja a dél-amerikai miliő -, és a nyelvezete. Ez utóbbi miatt inkább a szépirodalmat kedvelők figyelmébe tudom ajánlani!

https://libellumkonyvek.blogspot.com/...

[Kim Johnstone · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish. Could not get past the appalling way women were written about. A couple of examples:
"... astounding, miraculous breasts, like peaked cannonballs hung in bags of ivory silk".
"He would be magnificent and she would be beautiful and young and amazed and impressed ...".

[Богиня Книдска · Rating 4 out of 5]

Подвеждаща корица, която за малко да ме накара да подмина тази бърза за четене, но сериозна от морален аспект книга.

[Gabby · Rating 1 out of 5]

The sort of book that just makes you cringe.
‘the girl had amazing, beautiful, impossible breasts, like peaked cannonballs hung in bags of ivory’
What the hell?

[Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

The love and death of Caterina has a lightness to the way it is written that makes reading easy. There are some sections which perhaps drag a little, full of extra possibly excess details that although round out your vision of the story and the placing are not necessarily required. The book enthrals and keeps you guessing to the very end however when it does end, it does so quite abruptly. Mr L.H Valdez one of the main characters is a person you love to hate at times but who draws you in. Worth a read.

[Dorothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm so glad the author tells us, right on page one, that Valdez has murdered Caterina. It saved me the bother of reading the book!

It took only a few chapters for me to realise that I liked Caterina and loathed Valdez, so I was not in the least tempted to read a whole book about how he (presumably) gets away with it thanks to the byzantine workings of his unnamed South American government. A pity, as I liked the writing style.

[julia.]

Beznadzieja! Największe rozczarowanie tego roku :(
Dałam radę dobrnąć do strony 146 i zdecydowanie mówię tej książce NIE. To, jak wulgarna i obrzydliwa była większość tego co udało mi się przeczytać zdemotywowało mnie do dalszego czytania. Przykro mi w sumie, bo liczyłam na coś lepszego i mogło by być lepsze jakby autor odrobinkę bardziej się postarał. Szkoda 😐.

[Rebecca Kent · Rating 2 out of 5]

Felt no connection to the character, no emotion. Book was fine but hardly a page turner.

[Linda Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would never have guessed this was written by a Scot - very latin!

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in Fiji.