Stranger

Bergen David Bergen

Description

The profound intelligence and political resonance readers have come to expect from Giller Prize-winner David Bergen are on rich display in his electrifying new novel, Stranger, "an engrossing human exploration of displacement and inequality in a world governed by greed" (Toronto Star).Iso Perdido, a young Guatemalan woman, works at a fertility clinic at Ixchel, named for the Mayan goddess of creation and destruction. Iso tends to the rich women who visit the clinic for the supposed conception-enhancing properties of the local lake. She is also the lover of Dr. Mann, the American doctor in residence. When an accident forces the doctor to leave Guatemala abruptly, Iso is abandoned, pregnant. After the birth, tended to by the manager of the clinic, the baby disappears.Determined to reclaim her daughter, Iso follows a trail north, eventually crossing illegally into a United States where the rich live in safe zones, walled away from the indigent masses. Traveling without documentation, and with little money, Iso must penetrate this world, and in this place of menace and shifting boundaries, she must determine who she can trust and how much, aware that she might lose her daughter forever.In David Bergen's Stranger, with its uncanny lake, human monsters, and a stolen child, an ageless story is freshly recast in a modern setting, where themes of dislocation and disruption, exploitation and vulnerability, rich and poor collide. Intense and beautifully rendered, Stranger is a powerful and affecting novel for our times.

Informations

• Publié par: ABRAMS BOOKS
• Date de parution: 20 juin 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781468315110
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

T he profound intelligence and political resonance readers have come to expect from Giller Prize-winner David Bergen are on rich display in his electrifying new novel, Stranger , an engrossing human exploration of displacement and inequality in a world governed by greed (Toronto Star ).
so Perdido, a young Guatemalan woman, works at a fertility clinic at Ixchel, named for the Mayan goddess of creation and destruction. so tends to the rich women who visit the clinic for the supposed conception-enhancing properties of the local lake. She is also the lover of Dr. Mann, the American doctor in residence. When an accident forces the doctor to leave Guatemala abruptly, so is abandoned, pregnant. After the birth, tended to by the manager of the clinic, the baby disappears.
Determined to reclaim her daughter, so follows a trail north, eventually crossing illegally into a United States where the rich live in safe zones, walled away from the indigent masses. Traveling without documentation, and with little money, so must penetrate this world, and in this place of menace and shifting boundaries, she must determine who she can trust and how much, aware that she might lose her daughter forever.
In David Bergen s Stranger , with its uncanny lake, human monsters, and a stolen child, an ageless story is freshly recast in a modern setting, where themes of dislocation and disruption, exploitation and vulnerability, rich and poor collide. Intense and beautifully rendered, Stranger is a powerful and affecting novel for our times.
PRAISE FOR DAVID BERGEN
W INNER OF THE S COTIABANK G ILLER P RIZE
W INNER OF THE W RITERS T RUST T IMOTHY F INDLEY / M ARIAN E NGEL A WARD
F INALIST FOR C ANADA R EADS
F INALIST FOR THE G OVERNOR G ENERAL S A WARD FOR F ICTION
W INNER OF THE M ARGARET L AURENCE A WARD FOR F ICTION
S HORTLISTED FOR THE I NTERNATIONAL IMPAC D UBLIN L ITERARY A WARD
Bergen s best writing evokes the absence of what has been lost and, even more terribly, what is not there to be found. - The Globe and Mail
David Bergen is, simply put, one of our best modern writers. -Jury citation, 2009 Writers Trust Timothy Findley/Marian Engel Award
With his thoughtful dialogue, Bergen makes the characters heartache seep off the page. - TIME
Bergen s characters move and breathe, demonstrating the delicate balance between hope and despair, salvation and damnation. - Toronto Star
In Leaving Tomorrow , Bergen gives us another richly observed life. - Winnipeg Free Press
Leaving Tomorrow is pure pleasure. It deserves to take its place alongside such mid-western Canadian classics as Who Has Seen the Wind and A Complicated Kindness . - The Globe and Mail
Leaving Tomorrow is a contemplative novel full of the hope that comes with youth, but in the end it becomes clear that like life, the journey is the real destination. - Toronto Star
This is a moving and engaging novel of grief and loss, impeccably written and fully imagined. - Toronto Star on The Matter with Morris
A beautifully composed, unflinching and harrowing story. Perhaps the best fiction yet to confront and comprehend the legacy of Vietnam. - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on The Time in Between
David Bergen is a master of taut, spare prose that s both erotic and hypnotic. Set mostly in modern-day Vietnam, The Time in Between is a deeply moving meditation on love and loss, truth and its elusiveness, and a compelling portrait of a haunted man, Charles Boatman, and his daughter who seeks to solve the mystery of his disappearance. -M IRIAM T OEWS
The Time in Between is about how children inherit their parents ghosts and the elusive nature of grace. It also makes a stunning connection between the wars that are fought out in the world, and the ones that cleave families in private. Ravishingly told and deeply felt, it s a huge accomplishment. -M ICHAEL R EDHILL , author of Martin Sloane
The Time in Between is a spare, suspenseful meditation on the long reach of war-to the places where it is fought, the people who fight it, and the people who love those people. In portraying the lingering devastation left in one soldier s life by a war he fought a generation ago, Bergen s novel could not be timelier or more chilling. -J ENNIFER E GAN , author of A Visit from the Goon Squad
Part war story part expatriate novel, too, as if A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises had been rolled into one. - Chicago Tribune on The Time in Between
The Time in Between explores our need to understand the relationship between love and duty. A subtle and elegantly written novel by an author in complete command of his talent. -Jury citation, 2005 Scotiabank Giller Prize
You like suspense? Sure you do. And in the first thirty pages of his new novel, David Bergen puts on a clinic the novel speeds along in his characteristically exquisite prose. There isn t an adverb out of place; in fact, there s hardly an adverb to be found at all. The remarkable feat here is that language this spare can say so much. - The Walrus on The Retreat
It is impossible not to compare David Bergen s new novel to the work of Richard Ford. A magical piece of writing. It is taut, affecting and lovely, one of those wonderful works that bears reading and rereading and that in its hard crystalline prose does everything right. - Calgary Herald on The Case of Lena S.
A finely observed first novel. David Bergen explores what happens when the simplest of contemporary souls asks the biggest questions. - The New York Times on A Year of Lesser
Impressive. A revelation with stark, thorny prose and primal attractions reminiscent of early John Updike or Richard Ford. [Bergen s] writing is implacable, pushing, relentless. - The Globe and Mail
A LSO BY D AVID B ERGEN
Leaving Tomorrow (2014)
The Age of Hope (2012)
The Matter with Morris (2010)
The Retreat (2008)
The Time in Between (2005)
The Case of Lena S. (2002)
See the Child (1999)
A Year of Lesser (1996)
Sitting Opposite My Brother (1993)

Copyright
First published in hardcover in the United States in 2017 by The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc.
141 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10012
www.overlookpress.com
For bulk and special sales please contact [e-mail] , or write us at the above address.
Copyright 2016 by David Bergen.
Interior photos on pages vi-vii and 254-255 appear courtesy of the photographer, Tom Waters.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-4683-1511-0
Contents
Praise for David Bergen
Also by David Bergen
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Acknowledgements
About the Author
To Vicki and Tom
1.
R UMOUR HAD IT THAT THE DOCTOR S WIFE WAS COMING TO take the waters at Ixchel. The clinic was located in the highlands of Guatemala, at the edge of a lake that was eighty-four thousand years old. You came for the lake, and for the beauty of the three volcanoes, and for the quaintness of the twelve villages that surrounded the basin of the lake, and for the afternoon winds that were thought to carry away sin. But if you were a woman who was infertile, you came to take the waters.
so Perdido, who lived in the village and worked as a keeper at the clinic, had heard of the wife s imminent arrival. The doctor himself had told her. His wife was to arrive on Sunday. Even so, when so arrived at work on Monday morning and was given her assignment, she looked at the name on the card and wanted to say that she couldn t. But she had no good reason to give, or no reason that was safe. And so she prepared herself. She changed into wide black pants and a black top. She wore sandals. No jewellery and no makeup. She pulled her hair back in a ponytail with a hand-carved barrette. She went to the doctor s wife s room and knocked on the door. A voice called out and she entered.
She was at the table, finishing her breakfast. Her back, as she sat, was very erect and rigid. Her hair was blonde, like her husband s, but it was straighter, and it was shiny, as if it had been brushed and then brushed again. Her face was sharp and long, her eyes blue. She half rose from her seat and then sat down again.
so introduced herself. She said, I ll be your keeper for the next two weeks. If you need anything, simply ask. If you re unhappy, tell me. I m here for you. Everyone at the clinic is here for you. We only want the best. She paused briefly and then asked, Should we begin, Mrs. Mann?
Please. Call me Susan, the doctor s wife said. And then she said that there were many expectations and she didn t know if she could live up to them.
This was a typical confession, immediate and without boundaries.
No expectations, so said. Only hope and goodwill.
The wife s face went soft.
so offered her a hand. She said that she would help her change.
Oh, I can manage.
so said that it was best to accept help. At first you might be shy. But you ll get used to me and soon it will feel normal.
so led her into the bedroom and took a robe from the closet. Rubber sandals. A towel. She laid all of this on the bed. The doctor s wife was wearing a white blouse with a Peter Pan collar, and it was fastened down the back. so began to unbutton the blouse. She slid it off, folded it, and laid it on a chair. She said that she would now remove Susan s bra. She did so and laid it on top of the blouse. She moved around to face the doctor s wife, whose hands fluttered up towards her chest and then back to her hips. Many of the women who came to the clinic were afraid of their bodies. A woman might walk around naked, but then avert her eyes when she passed by a mirror. Or she might carry herself as if curling into a cocoon. Or she