Mark Z. Danielewski es un autor estadounidense cuyas obras son reconocidas por sus formas experimentales y narrativas de múltiples capas. Su escritura se caracteriza por variaciones tipográficas y técnicas narrativas poco convencionales. Sus novelas profundizan en temas complejos y a menudo cultivan seguidores de culto dedicados. El enfoque distintivo de Danielewski hacia la literatura lo distingue como un pionero de la ficción contemporánea.
We all have fears, but if we can’t face the small ones how will we face the big ones? Kai is afraid to fly a little blue kite. But Kai is also very, very brave, and overcoming this small fear will lead him on a great adventure. Remember: all great adventures start with one little moment. You know the one. It’s like a gentle breeze whispering in your ear what you already know by heart: not even the sky is the limit . . .
Praise for Mark Z. Danielewski's The Familiar highlights its complexity and innovative structure, drawing comparisons to literary giants like Ulysses and Infinite Jest. Critics laud it as a transformative reading experience that rewires the brain, blending graphic design with narrative to create a unique form of storytelling. The work is described as a 'remediation' of influential television series and films, showcasing a time-skipping narrative style reminiscent of David Mitchell. Danielewski's approach combines the best of digital and print mediums, resulting in a tour de force that pushes boundaries in literature. He is recognized as a leading avant-garde writer, merging narrative with visual and typographical experimentation. The text oscillates between loose, imagistic language and tightly layered prose, producing a nuanced reading experience. Critics emphasize its necessity in contemporary literature, calling it a marvel of postmodern storytelling. With its distinctive format and depth, this book is deemed unmissable, offering something entirely unique in the literary landscape.
[The Familiar] is not only [Mark Z. Danielewski's] best book since his acclaimed opera prima, House of Leaves; it's even better, and also more accessible. Conceived as the book version of a long-running TV show, its . . . volumes tell the tale of a smart, fragile and epileptic little girl who finds a cat that may or may not be magical. Their encounter sets off a chain reaction that starts with her immediate family and will probably reach almost every corner of the world. There is no writer in America that resembles Mark Z. Danielewski even remotely. His books are disturbing Freudian fairy-tales, monumental and intimate at the same time, discordantly polyphonic, populated by wise children and lost parents, soldiers and storytellers, magical weapons, sentient houses and familiar spirits. Their words interweave on the page with paintings and knitting and calligrams, creating painfully beautiful objects, almost like printed sculptures. They're also Literature in High Capitals, contemporary counterparts of Bouvard et Pécuchet, Mallarmé and Joyce, heirs to the almost mystical hubris of High Modernism, almost too ambitious for their own good and rabidly opposed to the weightlessness of our times. - Javier Calvo, O
The exciting and radical literary event continues with Honeysuckle & Pain, the third episode in the multi-volume novel from the universally acclaimed, genre-busting author of House of Leaves.In The Familiar, Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain, Xanther, the 12-year-old girl at the center of our story, discovers a new inner strength as the world around her begins to shift inexorably. The hackers Cas and Bobby feel trapped, but are planning a dramatic and dangerous action that may be the key to their freedom. And on the other side of the world, Tian Li’s missing cat is an itch too powerful to resist, and so she and Jingjing set out to recover what has been lost. With the spectacular visuals and vibrant wordplay that are his trademark, this is a beautiful and singular reading experience that could only come from Mark Z. Danielewski—“America’s foremost literary magus” [The New York Times Book Review].
The Familiar, Volume 1 Wherein the cat is found . . . The Familiar, Volume 2 Wherein the cat is hungry . . . From the universally acclaimed, genre-busting author of House of Leaves comes the second volume of The Familiar, a “novel [which] goes beyond the experimental into the visionary, creating a language and style that expands the horizon of meaning . . . hint[ing] at an evolved form of literature.”* In The Familiar, Volume 2: Into the Forest, the lives of the disparate and dynamic nine characters introduced in “One Rainy Day in May” begin to intersect in inexplicable ways, finding harmonies and echoes in each other. What once seemed remote and disconnected draws closer—slowly, steadily—toward something inevitable. . . . At the center of it all is Xanther, a twelve-year-old girl, for whom the world around her seems to be opening, exposing doors and windows, visions and sounds, questions and ideas previously unknown. With each passing day, she begins to glimpse something she does not understand but unequivocally craves—the only thing that will bring her relief and keep her new friend alive. (With full-color illustrations throughout.) *Library Journal, starred review THE FAMILIAR continues... The Familiar Volume 3 Wherein the cat is blind . . . The Familiar Volume 4 Wherein the cat is toothless . . . The Familiar Volume 5 Wherein the cat is named . . .
NATIONAL BEST SELLER From the author of the international best seller House of Leaves and National Book Award–nominated Only Revolutions comes a monumental new novel as dazzling as it is riveting. The Familiar (Volume 1) ranges from Mexico to Southeast Asia, from Venice, Italy, to Venice, California, with nine lives hanging in the balance, each called upon to make a terrifying choice. They include a therapist-in-training grappling with daughters as demanding as her patients; an ambitious East L.A. gang member contracted for violence; two scientists in Marfa, Texas, on the run from an organization powerful beyond imagining; plus a recovering addict in Singapore summoned at midnight by a desperate billionaire; and a programmer near Silicon Beach whose game engine might unleash consequences far exceeding the entertainment he intends. At the very heart, though, is a twelve-year-old girl named Xanther who one rainy day in May sets out with her father to get a dog, only to end up trying to save a creature as fragile as it is dangerous . . . which will change not only her life and the lives of those she has yet to encounter, but this world, too—or at least the world we think we know and the future we take for granted.(With full-color illustrations throughout.)
The classic book on how we experience intimate spaces. "A magical book. . . . A prism through which all worlds from literary creation to housework to aesthetics to carpentry take on enhanced-and enchanted-significances. Every reader of it will never see ordinary spaces in ordinary ways. Instead the reader will see with the soul of the eye, the glint of Gaston Bachelard." -from the foreword by John R. Stilgoe 6473-4 / $15.00tx / paperback
"In this story set in East Texas, a local seamstress named Chintana finds herself responsible for five orphans who are not only captivated by a storyteller's tale of vengeance but by the long black box he sets before them. As midnight approaches, the box is opened, a fateful dare is made, and the children as well as Chintana come face to face with the consequences of a malice retold and now foretold. Show More Show Less."--Publisher's description
Eine Halloween-Party in Texas. Hier trifft die Näherin Chintana, verlassen und voller Groll, auf ihre niederträchtige Rivalin Belinda. Hier purzeln fünf Waisenkinder durcheinander, während ihre Sozialbetreuerin sich im Sessel lümmelt. Und hier beginnt der Geschichtenerzähler, ganz in Schwarz, mit einer unheimlichen Kiste zu seinen Füßen: »Ich bin ein böser Mann, mit einem finsteren Herzen …« Spielerisch, lustvoll und unerbittlich treibt Danielewski diese schöne und grausame Horrorgeschichte, die aus fünf Stimmen und fünf Farben gewoben und mit bunt gestickten Bildern geschmückt ist, voran. Immer weiter, bis sie in einem mörderischen Ende die Grenzen jeglichen Genres sprengt.
In this story set in East Texas, a local seamstress named Chintana finds herself responsible for five orphans who are not only captivated by a storyteller’s tale of vengeance but by the long black box he sets before them. As midnight approaches, the box is opened, a fateful dare is made, and the children as well as Chintana come face to face with the consequences of a malice retold and now foretold.
