{"product_id":"533-days-paperback","title":"533 Days - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eCees Nooteboom\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eLaura Watkinson\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator), \u003cb\u003eSimone Sassen\u003c\/b\u003e (Photographer)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe noted Dutch poet and novelist Cees Nooteboom reflects on the life of the mind through a reexamination of books, music, art, travel, and gardening\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Nooteboom's real subject is the one that's defined his career--mainly, the persistent strangeness of existence and its refusal to be fully resolved by religion, philosophy, or science. . . . His journal . . . can seem like a medieval bestiary, a nature chronicle with the vividness of a dream.\"--Danny Heitman, \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Laura Watkinson's deft English translation never reads like one.\"--Michael Dirda, \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Though a tireless explorer of distant cultures, Cees Nooteboom has been returning for more than forty years to the Spanish island of Menorca. It is in his house on this \"island of the wind,\" with a study full of books and a garden taken over by cacti and many insects, that the 533 days of writing take place. The result is neither a diary nor a set of movements of the soul organized by dates but rather a \"book of days,\" with Nooteboom's observations about what is immediately around him, his love for Menorca, and his thoughts on the world, on life and death, on literature and oblivion. Every impression opens windows onto vast horizons: \u003ci\u003eThe Divine Comedy\u003c\/i\u003e and the books it generated, Borges's contempt for Gombrowicz, the death of David Bowie, the endless flight of the Voyagers, the repetition of history as tragedy but never as farce. Nooteboom resists the noise of current events yet he must return to them several times, skeptically contemplating the threat of a disintegrating Europe. Reading \u003ci\u003e533 Days\u003c\/i\u003e is like having a conversation with an extraordinary mind.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCees Nooteboom\u003c\/b\u003e is a poet, novelist, and travel writer who has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Pegasus Prize and the Aristeion Prize. \u003cb\u003eLaura Watkinson\u003c\/b\u003e is an award-winning translator of Dutch, Italian, and German who has translated several works by Nooteboom, including \u003ci\u003eVenice: The Lion, the City and the Water\u003c\/i\u003e. Both Nooteboom and Watkinson live in Amsterdam.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 224\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.7 x 8.1 x 5.1 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e April 18, 2023\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42171294122119,"sku":"9780300271089","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/ec23214bab4b01087fe171910b8933a1.webp?v=1733354576","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/533-days-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}