Over sixty years after Virginia Woolf drowned in the River Ouse, Olivia Laing set out one midsummer morning to walk its banks, from source to sea. Along the way, they explore the roles that rivers play in human lives, tracing their intricate flow through literature, mythology and folklore.
Lyrical and stirring, To the River is a passionate investigation into how history resides in a landscape - and how ghosts never quite leave the places they love.
Autorentext
Olivia Laing is the author of four acclaimed works of non-fiction, To the River (2011), The Trip to Echo Spring (2013), The Lonely City (2016) and Everybody (2021). Their first novel, Crudo, was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller and won the 2019 James Tait Memorial Prize. They are a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2018 were awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction. Their work has been translated into 19 languages.
Laing writes on art and culture for many publications, including the Guardian, Financial Times and New York Times. Their collected writing on art, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency, was published in 2020. They live in Suffolk.
Instagram: @olivialanguage | olivialaing.com
Zusammenfassung
An author's walk "e;from source to sea along the Ouse in Sussex is a meandering, meditative delight"e; drawing on history, literature, and the river itself (The Guardian, UK). In To The River, author Olivia Laing embarks on a weeklong, midsummer odyssey along the banks of the River Ouse in Sussex, England, from its source near Haywards Heath to the sea, where it empties into the Channel at Newhaven. More than sixty years after Virginia Woolf drowned herself in the River Ouse, Laing still finds inspiration and guidance in the author's abiding presence. Through cow pastures, woods, and neighborhood streets, Laing's meandering walk occasions a profound and haunting reflection on histories both personal and cultural, and on landscapes both physical and emotional. Along the way, she explores the roles that rivers play in human lives, tracing their intricate flow through literature, mythology and folklore. Lyrical and stirring, To the River is a passionate investigation into how history resides in a landscape - and how ghosts never quite leave the places they love. "e;Magical By turns lyrical, melancholic and exultant, To the River just makes you want to follow Olivia Laing all the way to the sea."e; Daily Telegraph, UK