Items related to An Explanation of the Birds
Synopsis
Rui S., a political historian, is unable to accept the circumstances of his life: his mother's death from cancer, his estrangement from his family, his rejection by his first wife and children, his political vacillations and his ambigious feelings for his second wife.
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Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Portugese
From Kirkus Reviews
A novel of dark, often bitter, humor and remembrance from Portuguese writer Antunes (Fado Alexandrino, 1990), whose hapless hero here represents all that's wrong with post-revolutionary Lisbon. Between a Thursday and a Sunday, Rui S.--a 33-year-old political historian and the son of a leading industrialist who has rebelled against his bourgeois family--recalls his unhappy past and anticipates a different future. Nothing has ever gone right for poor Rui. A failure in high school, expelled by the Communist Party for being too bourgeois, deserted by his first wife, and ignored by his second (a hard-line Communist and genuine member of the proletariat), Rui has only one happy memory to sustain him--talking about birds as a child with his father. And now that his mother is dying--while his philandering father is traveling as usual--Rui decides that he must somehow change his life, beginning with the upcoming weekend when he and his wife are away at a conference. At an appropriate moment he will tell her that he is going to leave her. Instead, the two end up at a run-down inn on the coast where the beach is home to hundreds of gulls--which, in turn, remind Rui of his one happy moment. Then, when his wife announces first that she's leaving him, Rui has no alternative but to do what he's already imagined. Surrounded by circling sea gulls, Rui ends his life--his one successful accomplishment. Antunes evokes a corrupt and dying world, infused with yearning for lost innocence, where even the food and weather are foul and where only suicide, however melodramatic, makes sense. A remarkable combination of angry satire and elegiac tenderness. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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- PublisherMartin Secker & Warburg Ltd
- Publication date1992
- ISBN 10 0436200635
- ISBN 13 9780436200632
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages256
- Rating
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An Explanation of the Birds
Published by
Secker & Waburg Ltd, London, England, 1992
ISBN 10: 0436200635
ISBN 13: 9780436200632
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Soft cover
Seller: Renaissance Books, Riverside, CA, U.S.A.
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Soft cover. Condition: New. Poignant novel of a political historian living a life filled with disapointments and small hurts. ".a richly imagined work.the timeless story of a man whose life has come unravelled." Published in Portuguese in 1981, this is the UK reprint of the English translation published in 1991. Translated by Richard Zenith 251 pages. Published @ 7.99 Pounds. Seller Inventory # 14807
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An Explanation of the Birds
Published by
Secker & Warburg, London, 1992
ISBN 10: 0436200635
ISBN 13: 9780436200632
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Soft cover
Seller: Take Five Books, Ashland, OR, U.S.A.
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Soft cover. Condition: Very Good+. Reprint. Translated from the Portuguese by Richard Zenith. Seller Inventory # 022443
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An Explanation of the Birds (a first printing)
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Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd,uk, 1992
ISBN 10: 0436200635
ISBN 13: 9780436200632
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Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. uk1st.edition.1st.printing/vg clean tight card cover original (first uk edition) with flaps. Seller Inventory # 83eebj;'##
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An Explanation of the Birds
Published by
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ISBN 10: 0436200635
ISBN 13: 9780436200632
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Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. An excellent, clean and tightly bound book.The previous owner's name is inked neatly at the top of the flyleaf. Seller Inventory # 006834
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An Explanation of the Birds
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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. An Explanation of the Birds This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 7719-9780436200632
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An Explanation of the Birds
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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 6545-9780436200632
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