Beatrice and Virgil - Couverture rigide

PRAISE FOR BEATRICE AND VIRGIL

“Dark but divine...This novel might just be a masterpiece about the Holocaust...Martel brilliantly guides the reader from the too-sunny beginning into the terrifying darkness of the old man's shop and Europe's past. Everything comes into focus by the end, leaving the reader startled, astonished, and moved.” —USA Today
 
“... a slim but potent exploration of the nature of survival in the face of evil...Beatrice and Virgil is a chilling addition to the literature about the horrors most of us cannot imagine, and will stir its readers to think about the depths of depravity to which humanity can sink and the amplitude of our capacity to survive.”
—Nina Sankovitch, The Huffington Post
 
"Those spell-bound by Man Booker prize-winning Life of Pi will find much to love in Yann Martel’s new work of fiction... In Beatrice and Virgil, Martel again evokes the power of allegory, this time to address the legacy of the Holocaust—as well as the pleasure of fairy tales. At the heart of this novel are questions about truth and illusion, responsibility and innocence, and Martel is able to employ Beatrice and Virgil as sympathetic, nuanced vehicles for his vision. Beatrice and Virgil is a thought-provoking delight."—Marie Claire

"Martel's Life of Pi engaged readers with the predicament of a shipwrecked boy and tiger; his new fable is just as inventive, provocative, and artful--only this time the peril is genocide."—Good Housekeeping

"Dark but divine...This novel might just be a masterpiece about the Holocaust...Martel brilliantly guides the reader from the too-sunny beginning into the terrifying darkness of the old man's shop and Europe's past. Everything comes into focus by the end, leaving the reader startled, astonished, and moved."—USA Today

"Brilliant...with this short, crisply written, many-layered book, Martel has once again demonstrated that nothing tells the truth like fiction.... Another philosophical winner."—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Has many wonders...Martel’s latest book does something extraordinary. It causes the reader to contemplate serious ideas, and to think. Beatrice and Virgil will haunt you long after the final page."—BookPage

"If Beatrice and Virgil were a piece of music, it would be an extended fugue, beginning so quietly as to be almost inaudible, and culminating in a moment of overwhelming noise followed by silence...There is indeed no exit from Beatrice and Virgil, not even when the book culminates in its final moment of overwhelming crescendo, as Martel’s characters find themselves trapped in an eruption of hell-like flames. Like the echoing themes of a fugue, all the components of the Martel’s novel fit tightly together, leading up to one ultimate moment of terror."—The Harvard Crimson
PRAISE FOR LIFE OF PI

"Life of Pi could renew your faith in the ability of novelists to invest even the most outrageous scenario with plausible life."— The New York Times Book Review

"A story to make you believe in the soul-sustaining power of fiction."— Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A gripping adventure story . . . Laced with wit, spiced with terror, it's a book by an extraordinary talent."— St. Paul Pioneer-Press

"A terrific book . . . Fresh, original, smart, devious, and crammed with absorbing lore."— Margaret Atwood

"An impassioned defense of zoos, a death-defying trans-Pacific sea adventure a la Kon-Tiki, and a hilarious shaggy-dog story . . . : This audacious novel manages to be all of these." — The New Yorker

"Readers familiar with Margaret Atwood, Mavis Gallant, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje and Carol Shields should learn to make room on the map of contemporary Canadian fiction for the formidable Yann Martel." — Chicago Tribune

From the Hardcover edition.

(Virgil and Beatrice are sitting at the foot of the tree.
They are looking out blankly.
Silence.)
 
VIRGIL: What I’d give for a pear.
 
BEATRICE: A pear?
 
VIRGIL: Yes. A ripe and juicy one.
 
(Pause.)
 
BEATRICE: I’ve never had a pear.
 
VIRGIL: What?
 
BEATRICE: In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever set eyes on one.
 
VIRGIL: How is that possible? It’s a common fruit.
 
BEATRICE: My parents were always eating apples and carrots. I
guess they didn’t like pears.
 
VIRGIL: But pears are so good! I bet you there’s a pear tree
right around here. (He looks about.)
 
...
 
 
BEATRICE: What does a pear taste like?
 
VIRGIL: Wait. You must smell it first. A ripe pear breathes a
fragrance that is watery and subtle, its power lying
in the lightness of its impression upon the olfactory
sense. Can you imagine the smell of nutmeg or
cinnamon?
 
BEATRICE: I can.
 
VIRGIL: The smell of a ripe pear has the same effect on the
mind as these aromatic spices. The mind is arrested,
spellbound, and a thousand and one memories and
associations are thrown up as the mind burrows deep
to understand the allure of this beguiling smell—
which it never comes to understand, by the way.
 
BEATRICE: But how does it taste? I can’t wait any longer.
 
VIRGIL: A ripe pear overflows with sweet juiciness.
 
BEATRICE: Oh, that sounds good.
 
VIRGIL: Slice a pear and you will find that its flesh is
incandescent white. It glows with inner light. Those
who carry a knife and a pear are never afraid of the
dark.
 
BEATRICE: I must have one.
 
VIRGIL: The texture of a pear, its consistency, is yet another
difficult matter to put into words. Some pears are a
little crunchy.
 
BEATRICE: Like an apple?
 
VIRGIL: No, not at all like an apple! An apple resists being
eaten. An apple is not eaten, it is conquered. The
crunchiness of a pear is far more appealing. It is
giving and fragile. To eat a pear is akin to . . .
kissing.
 
BEATRICE: Oh, my. It sounds so good.
 
VIRGIL: The flesh of a pear can be slightly gritty. And yet it
melts in the mouth.
 
BEATRICE: Is such a thing possible?
 
VIRGIL: With every pear. And that is only the look, the feel,
the smell, the texture. I have not even told you of
the taste.
 
BEATRICE: My God!
 
VIRGIL: The taste of a good pear is such that when you eat
one, when your teeth sink into the bliss of one, it
becomes a wholly engrossing activity. You want to
do nothing else but eat your pear. You would rather
sit than stand. You would rather be alone than in
company. You would rather have silence than music.
All your senses but taste fall inactive. You see
nothing, you hear nothing, you feel nothing—or
only as it helps you to appreciate the divine taste of
your pear.
 
BEATRICE: But what does it actually taste like?
 
VIRGIL: A pear tastes like, it tastes like . . . (He struggles. He
gives up with a shrug.) I don’t know. I can’t put it into
words. A pear tastes like itself.
 
BEATRICE: (sadly) I wish you had a pear.
 
VIRGIL: And if I had one, I would give it to you.
 
(Silence.)
From the Hardcover edition.