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Time Ages In a Hurry

by

Translated from by ,

Published: April 2015

Paperback ISBN: 9780914671053

Ebook ISBN: 9780914671060

SKU: N/A Category:
$18.00

43 in stock

$10.00

As the collection’s title suggests, time’s passage is the fil rouge of these stories. ย All of Tabucchi’s characters struggle to find routes of escape from a present that is hard to bear, and from places in which political events have had deeply personal ramifications for their own lives.

Each of the nine stories inย Time Ages in a Hurryย is an imaginative inquiry into something hidden or disguised, which can be uncovered not by reason but only by feeling and intuition, by what isn’t said. Disquieted and disoriented yet utterly human in their loves and fears, the characters in these vibrant and often playful stories suffer from what Tabucchi once referred to as a “corrupted relationship with history.” Each protagonist must confront phantoms from the past, misguided or false beliefs, and the deepest puzzles of identity–and each in his or her own way ends up experiencing “an infinite sense of liberation, as when finally we understand something we’d known all along and didn’t want to know.”


 

“This splendid collection of stories by Antonio Tabucchi, one of Italy’s most original and admired writers, is a delight to read. ย Tabucchi’s fertile and offbeat imagination ranges over a broad spectrum of themesโ€”family, aging, war, travelโ€”always approached obliquely, teasing, engaging, and above all rewarding the reader. ย The translation by Martha Cooley and Antonio Romani is acutely sensitive to the rhythms of Tabucchi’s fluid sentences and the uncanny nature of his sensibility.”ย โ€” Lynnย Sharon Schwartz

“Tabucchiโ€™s prose creates a deep, near-profound and sometimes heart-wrenching nostalgia and constantly evokes the pain of recognizing the speed of lifeโ€™s passing which everyone knows but few have the strength to accept โ€ฆ Wonderfully thought-provoking and beautiful.”ย โ€” Alan Cheuse, NPRโ€™s All Things Considered


 

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Praise

A pensive, beautifully written meditation on personhood and nationhood in the new age of European unity. [โ€ฆ] Many of the characters in this joined collectionโ€”something more than short stories but not quite a novelโ€”are stateless and uprooted; they come from somewhere else, and theyโ€™re never quite at home where they are. [โ€ฆ] A pleasure [...] for fans of modern European literature.

Kirkus Reviews

Exposing memory for the fiction it is, these wonderful stories produce a melancholic nostalgia even as they undermine it.

Publishers Weekly

This splendid collection of stories by Antonio Tabucchi, one of Italy's most original and admired writers, is a delight to read. Tabucchi's fertile and offbeat imagination ranges over a broad spectrum of themesโ€”family, aging, war, travelโ€”always approached obliquely, teasing, engaging, and above all rewarding the reader. The translation by Martha Cooley and Antonio Romani is acutely sensitive to the rhythms of Tabucchi's fluid sentences and the uncanny nature of his sensibility.

Lynne Sharon Schwartz

There is in Tabucchiโ€™s stories the touch of the true magician, who astonishes us by never trying too hard for his subtle, elusive, and remarkable effects.

The San Francisco Examiner

Tabucchiโ€™s work has an almost palpable sympathy for the oppressed.

The New York Times

Tabucchiโ€™s prose creates a deep, near-profound and sometimes heart-wrenching nostalgia and constantly evokes the pain of recognizing the speed of lifeโ€™s passing which everyone knows but few have the strength to accept โ€ฆ Wonderfully thought-provoking and beautiful.

Alan Cheuse, NPRโ€™s All Things Considered

Poetic and propheticโ€ฆ I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of stories, all having central characters reliving an important, and life changing memory. The reflection upon time and place captured in a melancholic style with depth of clarity around quite simple everyday occurrences.

Messengers Booker

Each of Tabucchiโ€™s pieces feels like a treasure, a small gift or sweet to be unwrapped gleefully... This was an author who understood that a great part of life is spent not doing but envisioning what one could do and remembering what one has done. Time Ages in a Hurry is a collection that showcases not only Tabucchiโ€™s intelligence but also his wisdom.

Mia J.P. Gussen, The Harvard Crimson

Tabucchiโ€™s stories in Time Ages in a Hurry are careful, nuanced, and smartly skeptical of memory and experience.

A. N. Devers, Longreads

As with all fine writers, it is remarkable how the same themes surface effortlessly in Tabucchiโ€™s work even when the material is quite new. In particular there is an engaging dialogue between two Italians under sunshades on a Croatian beach: a sick man in his forties and a precocious young girl... The entire conversation unfolds with great charm, playfulness, and decorum in a summery Mediterranean haze. It is a welcome return to Tabucchi at his best.

Tim Parks, The New York Review of Books

Tabucchi presumes, as only a masterly writer can, to peer in on a core... History, personal or collective, weighs on everyone in these stories, sculpting their inner lives. And yet, Tabucchi suggests, an unlikely transcendence is possible.

Philip Graham, Fiction Writers Review

Poignant, philosophical... Tabucchi has done the seemingly impossible with this collection: in an era of fast-paced plots, Tabucchiโ€™s characters, language, and very form force readers to pause and reflect on one small, powerful moment. Itโ€™s a pleasure each step of the way.

Laura Farmer, The Gazette

Fluid and airy... Contemplative and without affection, these stories would be well accompanied by a wistful gaze out a window โ€“ an enjoyable memento mori on a warm summer day which will soon fade into all the others.

Ruairรญ Casey, Totally Dublin

...rich, well balanced, understated, and beautiful.

John Toren, Rain Taxi Review of Books

I found myself cheered by [Tabucchi's] rich, occlusive writing, filled with flecks of gold, panning the river bottom of our lives, finding here and there scintillating bits, some deviously interesting characters, all deftly laid out on the page.

Lolita Lark, RALPH Magazine

Tabucchi, forever returning to the well of saudadeโ€”that resonant Portuguese term for nostalgiaโ€”might line up most closely with W.G. Sebald, trying to read significance in the rubble of Holocausts large and small. Wherever we place this author, though, Time Ages In a Hurry must rank as one of his signal accomplishments.

John Domini, Brooklyn Rail

Extras

Read the story “Between Generals” from the collection at Longreads.

Read an interview with co-translator Martha Cooley in Village of Crickets.

The Guardian’s review of Pereira Maintains teaches us about Antonio Tabucchi’s writing while itsย obituary for himย offers a glimpse at his life.

The New York Times shares their thoughts on Tabucchi, his life, and his writing.

The Paris Review loves Tabucchi’s The Woman of Porto Pim.

Archipelago Books has proudly published other works by Antonio Tabucchi; to see a list and read what people have said, please click here.

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