{"title":"Claire Messud","description":"\u003cp\u003eClaire Messud's work engages deeply with themes of personal identity, relationships, and the subtle tensions of everyday life. Her narratives often explore the complexities of human behaviour with sharp psychological insight, weaving intricate character studies that linger long after the final page.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSituated at the intersection of \u003cem\u003eGeneral Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eArts \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/em\u003e, her books offer a thoughtful examination of contemporary social dynamics and the often unspoken struggles beneath elegant prose. Readers will find themselves immersed in stories both intimate and universally resonant.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"this-strange-eventful-history-by-claire-messud-9780349127071","title":"This Strange Eventful History","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003e'An epic family odyssey' \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, Book of the Day\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOver seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the Cassar family is buffeted by conflict, struggling to find its feet - separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis Strange Eventful History\u003c\/i\u003e is above all a family story: of patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne, whose myth of perfect love sustains them and stifles their children; of François and Denise, devoted siblings connected by their family's strangeness; of François's union with Barbara, a woman so culturally different they can barely comprehend one another; of Chloé, the result of that union, who believes that telling these buried stories will bring them all peace.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eInspired in part by her own family's history, Claire Messud animates her characters' rich interior lives amid the social and political upheaval of the recent past. \u003ci\u003eThis Strange Eventful History\u003c\/i\u003e is an immersive, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003e'[A] wise and insightful novel about identity and family' \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e, Book of the Day\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003e'A rich, sprawling saga... \u003ci\u003eThis Strange Eventful History\u003c\/i\u003e may be Messud's finest book' \u003ci\u003eSunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46669458931948,"sku":"9780349127071","price":25.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780349127071.jpg?v=1752756541"},{"product_id":"marlene-dumas-myths-mortals-by-claire-messud-9781941701997","title":"Marlene Dumas: Myths \u0026 Mortals","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe latest from the renowned painter Marlene Dumas, \u003cem\u003eMarlene Dumas: Myths \u0026amp; Mortals\u003c\/em\u003e, showcases new works that respond more than ever to the uncertainty and sensuality of the painting process itself. Allowing the structure of the canvases and the materiality of the paint greater freedom to inform the development of her compositions, the artist has likened the creation of these works to the act of falling in love: an unpredictable and open-ended process filled with awkwardness and anxiety, as well as bliss and discovery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyths \u0026amp; Mortals\u003c\/em\u003e documents a selection of new paintings, debuted in the spring of 2018 at David Zwirner, New York. The collection ranges from monumental nude figures to intimately scaled canvases presenting details of bodily parts and facial features. Several nearly ten-foot-tall paintings focus on individual figures, including a number of male and female nudes and a seemingly solemn bride, whose expression is obscured behind a floor-length veil. Like the Greek gods and goddesses, the figures in these paintings are at once larger than life and overwhelmingly human. The smaller-scale paintings, referred to by the artist as \"erotic landscapes,\" present a variety of fragmentary images: eyes, lips, nipples, or lovers locked in a kiss. Evident across all of these works is the artist's uniquely sensitive treatment of the human form and her constantly evolving experimentation with colour and texture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAlongside these new paintings, Dumas presents an expansive series of thirty-two works on paper originally created for a Dutch translation of William Shakespeare's narrative poem \u003cem\u003eVenus \u0026amp; Adonis\u003c\/em\u003e (1593) by Hafid Bouazza (2016). \u003cem\u003eMyths \u0026amp; Mortals\u003c\/em\u003e is accompanied by new scholarship on the artist by Claire Messud and a text by Dumas herself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47596886491372,"sku":"9781941701997","price":130.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781941701997-marlene-dumas-myths-mortals.jpg?v=1777944028"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/claire-messud.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}