Railtracks

by Anne Michaels, John Berger

Railtracks is a unique collaboration between two writers of remarkable achievement. A profound meditation on railways, love and loss, at once intimate and committed, it moves from the industrial to the metaphysical, from the tectonic shifts of globalization to the interior pulses of memory, and from the present to a past that still exists in vivid, essential traces.

This sensual and exploratory dialogue is accompanied throughout by the evocative photography of Tereza Stehlíková, charting its own atmospheric passage by train through the forested, winter landscapes of Southern Bohemia.

Summoning potent, hidden histories and deeply personal journeys, Railtracks seeks, with a rigorous and reflective urgency, to bear witness to the pain of separations and the consolation of meetings.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Essays, Canada

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Anne Michaels (born 15 April 1958) is a Canadian poet and novelist whose work has been translated and published in over 45 countries. Her books have garnered dozens of international awards including the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Lannan Award for Fiction and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Americas. She is the recipient of honorary degrees, the Guggenheim Fellowship and many other honours. She has been shortlisted for the Governor General's Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize, twice shortlisted for the Giller Prize and twice long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award. Michaels won a 2019 Vine Award for Infinite Gradation, her first volume of non-fiction. Michaels was the poet laureate of Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 2016 to 2019, and she is perhaps best known for her novel Fugitive Pieces, which was adapted for the screen in 2007.

Reviews

[Deniz Ata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gençliğimin Halkalı- Sirkeci hattı geldi aklıma ve fotoğraf çektiğim günler ...sanki bu metnin paralel evreni gibi olurdu ama daha canlı,renkli ve dolu dolu .

Tüm bu muhabbet yürüyüş yaparken değilde tren içinde olsa ben de 4 . Koltuktaki noname dinleyici olsam ne pis muhabbetiniz varmış derim 🤣 parallel monolog gibi bir şey bu . Fotoğraflara gelince bu fotoğrafları ben çeksem netlik nerde , altın oran nerde , leke ,denge nerde ....

Yalnız herşeyi bir tarafa bırakıyorum çok sağlam cümleler var . Bence ikisinin de tarzı ile tanışmak için ideal bir ortam olabilir .

[küb · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Hafıza Meleği ayaklarının altından akıp gidenlere bakıyor. İşte bu yüzden hafıza zamandır, tarih mekândır.”

John Berger ve Anne Michaels’in hafızasının görkemli, koca salonlarına dalarak çıkarttıkları anıların, aşk ve kayıpların sorgulandığı metinlerinin akışına Tereza Stehlikova’nın Güney Bohemya’nın ormanlarından geçen trenden çektiği fotoğrafları eşlik ediyor. Benim için fotoğrafların eşlik ettiği diyaloglar olması bile çok etkileyici olduğu için bayılarak okuduğum bir kitap oldu.

[Arife Pehlivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Berger ve Anne Micheals’ın King Cross civarında yaptıkları yürüyüşlerde trenlere, kavuşmalara, kayıplara ve aşka dair diyaloglarını ve Tereza Stehlikova’nın fotoğraflarını içeren mini bir kitap. Çabuk okunan fakat zaman zaman düşündüren kısa pasajlarıyla Berger ve Micheals’a pencere açması açısından sevdim.

“Bedenlerimiz her zaman bize ait değildir.
erkek bulduğunda kadını,
şimdiye kadar sevdiği herkes için içinde bir yer olduğunu gördü.
Kadın erkeği bulduğunda ise
tenin her bir kelimesi
bir karardı.”

[Vehka Kurjenmiekka · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the second time I read "Railtracks", and for some reason I can't quite put into words, I feel it was a completely different book. Maybe last time I was a bit too impatient, maybe I didn't know what to look for.

This time, however, I sat at the park, the sun was casting shadows through the leaves of an old maple, and there were curious sparrows keeping me company, and my heart was full.

"Impossible now to think of train travel without a kind of tenderness – as if that is what love is: arrival after arrival. And the same dark truth – the solitary place we arrive from each time."

Original review from 2020:

I didn't know much about this book before I started reading it, and I think that was a good thing. I've always loved train stations and St. Pancras holds a special place in my heart.

The dialogue between Berger and Michaels was pleasant and beautiful, and the memories and tidbits were woven together in a way that felt entirely natural. The history seemed to unfold and become alive with the words (which seems to be a special gift Michaels has).

[Manuel Gil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Que cousa máis bonita, por dios

[Flaneurette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anne Michaels is my favourite author and she and John Berger are one unique couple with one unique and beautiful voice, unsurprisingly capturing the essence of humanity and loss in the most gripping way. I cannot give this five stars though. I cannot fault the writing/thinking/meditation. This was however the disappointment of the year and the problem is the product, worth £16. As explained at the back of the book, this John Berger/Anne Michaels mediation was a commissioned work of art - and I can see how it would be/was a great performance. That doesn't justify print in any format though, especially with photos that don't do much for the text, they neither illustrate anything, nor provoke any thoughts or engage in any way.

[Sarah Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impossible now to think of train travel without a kind of tenderness - as if that is what love is: arrival after arrival. And the same dark truth - the solitary place we arrive from each time.

[Mayk Can Şişman · Rating 3 out of 5]

bir kahve içiminde okunabilecek, kısa ve ‘okey’lik bir kitaptı.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in one sitting and wept for its beauty.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful writings and photos.

[Selma Pirim · Rating 4 out of 5]

havanın soğukluğuna isabet, bir sahlep içimlik bir okuma ❄️

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Impossible now to think of train travel without a kind of tenderness--as if that is what love is: arrival after arrival. And the same dark truth--the solitary place we arrive from each time."

[Leif · Rating 4 out of 5]

WYSIWYG. Short poetic text on longing and trains blur blurry shots of what appears to be landscape but which you're never really stimulated to pay attention to or think about. So I guess there's a bit of what used to be called the pathetic fallacy at work there then: the pictures of things speeding by sped by as I didn't pay attention to them.

As to Michaels and John Berger, well. They're great. Give us more. And charge us less for it. I have no shame.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just to clarify - this is NOT a book by Anne Michaels but rather a collaboration between John Berger and Michaels and is a transcript of a performance piece that came out of Artevents focus on Berger and his work in 2005 - it is a lovely thoughtful and lyrical piece indeed with stunning photos by Tereza Stehlikova

[Robert Le Quesne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the relationship between place, people, past and present that combines through a dialogue structure in this book. Sense of place, sense of self. Inner and worlds constantly merging and re-emerging through the type on the pages. Read it!

[William Zhao · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary book on love and distance. Contemplation not only of distance in the physical sense but also what separates us in intimacy.