{"product_id":"brief-lives-9781781724521","title":"Brief Lives","description":"\u003csection\u003e\u003ch3\u003eDisgrifiad Cymraeg \/ Welsh Description\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCasgliad o chwe darn ffuglen newydd gan y llenor arobryn Christopher Meredith sy'n cludo'r darllenydd i fannau amrywiol, e.e. Môr De Tsieina yn 1946 a mangre dienw mewn cyfnod ar derfyn amser pan fo'r meirw yn atgyfodi.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/section\u003e\u003csection\u003e\u003ch3\u003eDisgrifiad Saesneg \/ English Description\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Brief Lives , six fictions by prize-winning author Christopher Meredith take us from the South China Sea in 1946 through a series of vivid tales in the late 20th and early 21st centuries to a climactic story set at the end of time. These are moving stories executed in precise and luminous prose by a key Welsh writer at the height of his powers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/section\u003e\u003ch3\u003eManylion y cynnyrch \/ Product details\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN 13\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e9781781724521\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGwales Code\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003egwales.com.9781781724521\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGwerthwr \/ Vendor\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eCyngor Llyfrau Cymru\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLong Title\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eBrief Lives\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAwdur \/ Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eMeredith, Christopher\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCurrent Price ex VAT\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e£9.99\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCurrent Price inc VAT\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e£9.99\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAvailability Status (EN)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eNon-Stock Item - Ordered on request\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAvailability Status (CY)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eArchebir yn ôl y galw\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDyddiad cyhoeddi \/ Publication Date\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e2018-06-07\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCyhoeddwr \/ Publisher\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eSeren\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMedia Type (EN)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eHardback\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMedia Type (CY)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eClawr caled\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e144 pages\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e129 × 198 mm\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLanguage Code\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eEnglish\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCategori \/ Category\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eCY: Nofelau a Storïau ar Gyfer Oedolion (yn Saesneg) | EN: Adult Fiction and Stories (in English)\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIs-gategori \/ Subcategory\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eCY: Straeon Byrion (yn Saesneg) | EN: Short Stories (in English)\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003c\/dl\u003e\u003csection\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBywgraffiad yr Awdur \/ Author Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChristopher Meredith is the author of four novels: Shifts, Griffri, Sidereal Time and The Book of Idiots, four collections of poetry, and two books for children, one in Welsh.He has been a factory worker, a steelworker, a schoolteacher and a university lecturer. He was born and brought up in Tredegar and lives in Brecon. His acclaimed work is the subject of a major critical study by Diana Wallace in The Writers of Wales series (UWP, 2018).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/section\u003e\u003csection\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAdolygiad y Cyhoeddwr \/ Publisher Review\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePerhaps known best as poet and novelist, Christopher Meredith is one of our most highly respected contemporary writers. His books have won and been long- and short-listed for various prizes, including a shortlisting for Greatest Welsh Novel of All Time for his debut novel, Shift , and he is the subject of the latest study in the Writers of Wales series published by University of Wales Press, which puts him alongside some of the biggest names in Welsh writing in English. Although his short stories have appeared in journals and anthologies, Brief Lives is his first collection of short fiction. Comprising just six stories, it is intensely achieved and confirms his reputation as a writer of fierce intelligence and razor-sharp observation. The collection is book-ended with two extraordinary lines – ‘Edwards knew that he ought to be dead’, and, ‘…I knew that whatever lay at the end of my walk, it could not be paradise.’ – and the stories deserve to be read in the order in which they are presented, progressing from a realistically portrayed unnecessary death to a surreal picture of the dead coming back to life and rising from their graves, all apart from one heading in the same direction across a cindered plain, towards ‘an orange smirch in a milky grey sky.’ In this final story, ‘Opening Time’, Meredith’s description of the physical sensation of a body reassembling itself is extraordinary: ‘I was aware of my weight flattening my buttocks, my feet hanging to one side, twisting the relinked columns of bone, muscle, sinew and ligament in my legs. A mild popping passed through me with the reopening of arteries and veins. My jaw pulled up against its own weight, set the rows of teeth into their old bite.’ You can almost feel it happening as you read. A similar effect is achieved in ‘Haptivox’, in which a man and woman physically swap gender as they make love, experiencing each other’s physical sensations. Paradoxically, the intense reality of these physical descriptions serves as a reminder of our inability to know another’s experience or feel someone else’s feelings. We can only speculate and imagine; there is no way of knowing whether we are right, though often we find we are wrong. This is a theme that runs through the stories collected here, especially in ‘The Enthusiast’, the longest and perhaps most powerful and moving story in the collection. Two old schoolfriends get in touch via email when they are in their fifties. The narrator struggles to know what to write, what to reveal and leave out in the brief account of his life; he imagines how what he writes might be misconstrued, while utterly mis-imagining his old friend’s life and circumstances. It is about loss and grief and human (mis)understanding, about what we do and do not know about each other, the poverty of words and the tragic brevity of life, and ‘the packed unknowable freight of memory’. It is worth buying Brief Lives for this story alone. There is something in these stories that works on a non-verbal level, so that what is not said and not written has as much power and meaning as what is there on the page. There is a meticulousness in the fine detail of descriptions of people and place that has an almost hypnotic effect, conjuring a sharply chiselled world that is nothing more than a mirage, a creation in the mind. This is the skill of the storyteller and our own flawed defence mechanism – the art of deception, of weaving a coherent story out of the confused jigsaw pieces of our lives, which are indeed brief.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/section\u003e","brand":"Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58819473965430,"sku":"9781781724521","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0041\/5340\/9585\/files\/9781781724521.jpg?v=1790350362","url":"https:\/\/www.siopypentan.co.uk\/products\/brief-lives-9781781724521","provider":"Siop Y Pentan","version":"1.0","type":"link"}