Across the Void
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
When he awoke, the first thought that came to him was: There must be another way.
Clear-cut thoughts of this kind were by no means usual occurrences when he awoke, especially as now, from an afternoon sleep.
The normal procedure when he opened his eyes was quickly to close them again. In the morning, because he simply was not ready. In the afternoon, because he was often overcome with confusion.
Back home in Amsterdam, he had actually used the word 'home' about the flat in Amsterdam, he thought fleetingly, back there, he would mostly sleep fully clothed on the sofa in the afternoon. He did not need more than three quarters of an hour, sometimes only thirty minutes. His resistance to returning was greater if he were away too long. And the place he awoke in felt wrong, improper.
In what way, was difficult to define, but his eye sent an immediate message to his brain to be careful. More than that: No, it said. Go back.
Yet where had he been?
His closed eyelids were no magic curtains to an instant dream-world. Not when the valley of sleep had been crossed. And he didn't really want to return to the giddy point over the crevice, the apex of the depth of darkness. Nevertheless, putting the first foot down on the ground after walking through the imaginary air was a dubious victory. Too solid. Too secure.
Too much the same as it had been on the other side. Before. An hour earlier. When the drowsiness had begun to work on him like drink, so that he had willingly given himself over to oblivion. (p.49)
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Softcover
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Hardcover
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Book Details
Language :
English
Publication Date :
9/9/2008
Format :
Softcover
Dimensions :
6x9
Page Count :
168
ISBN :
9781434357830
Format :
Hardcover
Dimensions :
6x9
Page Count :
168
ISBN :
9781434357823
About the Book
The story is about Keats, a tight-rope walker, and the narrator, a woman.
Keats is a performer in crisis, restlessly awaiting inspiration.
The woman is confused by their meetings, striving to make sense of the fragments of information he has given her about himself.
Keats point-of-view is told in the third person, in the second part of the book, making it, as it were, a closed chapter to the narrator.
The basic theme of the book is a question: whether it is possible ever to know another person.
The story as such, with its meanders, impasses and blanks, may be read as an allegory of love.
About the Author
Born in Cheltenham, in 1942, Anna Sable grew up in different parts of England and Wales, living both in stately homes and in hotel-rooms.
She went to a number of boarding-schools before completing her education in London, where she lived for many years.
As an adult, she abandoned painting to earn a living teaching literature and drama. She has a degree in languages and one in psychology
She now lives in Norway.
"I started writing at an early age, at once enchanted by the very act of writing, the traces of ink on an empty page, and the transformation of emptiness into a pattern.
I think this is the base from which my interest for art and language has grown. And for how the image in one way or another reaches out to others, to the Other, with a desire for something of which we are not always fully aware. Perhaps never fully aware.
The Gilded Butterfly (Solum Forlag, 1993), my first book, was an experiment. It wove together a one-sided dialogue with reminiscences and after-thoughts. I called it a novel, but I am not sure today what it is. It did appeal to some readers.
Across the Void (Authorhouse, 2008), is about a tight-rope walker and the woman he meets. The woman is drawn to him, inspired by the spark of fascination. He, however, is entangled in his art, and is seeking a solution to his artistic crisis.
At the moment, I am working on a book about my mother, her life and times and our different loves for each other.