Eine Akademikerin "mittleren Alters" betritt ein Friseurgeschäft, weil sie von außen durch die Fensterscheibe das Poster eines Matisse-Akts gesehen hat. Während sie sich frisieren läßt, erläutert ihr der "Haarstylist" seine Ansichten über Kunst und Kommerz, über Moden und Meditation, über Schönheit und Sex. Während er vor sich hin schwadroniert, erscheint ihr plötzlich, beim Blick in den Spiegel, das Bild ihrer Mutter, und sie muß sich eingestehen, daß Alter, Verfall und Tod nicht nur nicht aufhaltbar sind, sondern daß ihnen rational auch nicht beizukommen ist.

Informationen zum Autor A.S. Byatt (1936-2023) was a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. Her novels include Possession (winner of the Booker Prize 1990), the Frederica Quartet and The Children's Book , which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2016 for her 'inspiring contribution to life writing' and the Pak Kyongni Prize 2017. In 2018 she received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award. Klappentext Each story is in some way inspired by a painting of Henri Matisse, each is also about the intimate connection between seeing and feeling -- about the ways in which a glance we meant to be casual may suddenly call forth the deepest reserves of our being. Their subjects' lives unravel from simple beginnings -- a trip to the hair dresser, a cleaning woman's passion for knitting, lunch in a Chinese restaurant but gradually the veneer of ordinariness is peeled back to expose pain, reveal desire, or express the intensity of joy in color and creation. These stories are all about human beings: about how little we can know (or may care to know) about the people with whom we spend our lives, and how tragic the results of that ignorance or indifference can be. Zusammenfassung Each story is in some way inspired by a painting of Henri Matisse, each is also about the intimate connection between seeing and feeling - about the ways in which a glance we meant to be casual may suddenly call forth the deepest reserves of our being. This book includes stories which are all about human beings.

Vorwort
'A. S. Byatt's three-tale sequence hits the imagination's retina with all the vibrant splatter of an exploding paintbox ... Everywhere, scenes sizzle with chromatic intensity'
The Sunday Times

This elegant collection shares A.S Byatt's preoccupation with the role of art and with the heart's mysteries. Each story is in some way inspired by a painting of Henri Matisse.

Autorentext
A.S. Byatt (1936-2023) was a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. Her novels include Possession (winner of the Booker Prize 1990), the Frederica Quartet and The Children's Book, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2016 for her 'inspiring contribution to life writing' and the Pak Kyongni Prize 2017. In 2018 she received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.

Klappentext

Each story is in some way inspired by a painting of Henri Matisse, each is also about the intimate connection between seeing and feeling -- about the ways in which a glance we meant to be casual may suddenly call forth the deepest reserves of our being.

Their subjects' lives unravel from simple beginnings -- a trip to the hair dresser, a cleaning woman's passion for knitting, lunch in a Chinese restaurant but gradually the veneer of ordinariness is peeled back to expose pain, reveal desire, or express the intensity of joy in color and creation.

These stories are all about human beings: about how little we can know (or may care to know) about the people with whom we spend our lives, and how tragic the results of that ignorance or indifference can be.