Paradise Sky (Italian Edition)

by Joe R. Lansdale, Luca Briasco (Translator)

Overview

Deadwood, territorio del South Dakota. Il posto perfetto per reiventarsi una vita. Soprattutto se, come Nat Love, hai alle calcagna un marito in cerca di vendetta e una mira eccezionale. Ma nell'America di fine Ottocento, se sei nero come Nat, gli errori del passato non smettono mai di darti la caccia come segugi assetati di sangue. Tra duelli e sparatorie, cowboy e indiani, Mark Twain e Cormac McCarthy, Paradise Sky è un divertente omaggio al genere e il racconto, in chiaroscuro, di un personaggio eccezionale, capace di incarnare il vero spirito dell'America.

Willie è solo un ragazzo, ma è già costretto a lasciarsi tutto alle spalle per sfuggire al proprietario terriero che ha assassinato suo padre. Incontrare Loving gli salva, letteralmente, la vita. L'uomo lo inizia alle sottili arti dello sparare, del cavalcare, del leggere e del giardinaggio. Quando muore, Willie eredita da lui il suo nuovo nome: Nat Love. Soldato e pistolero, Nat sembra destinato alla gloria. Ha tutto quello che un uomo del West può desiderare, compresa la donna dei suoi sogni e il rispetto di leggende come Wild Bill Hickok. Ma il passato torna a tormentarlo. E, soprattutto, Nat è nero, in un periodo in cui agli afroamericani non viene perdonato nulla. Privato della casa, dell'amore e di tutto ciò che aveva conquistato, a Nat Love non resta che mettersi sulle tracce dei suoi persecutori, pronto all'ultimo, mortale duello.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788858424155
Publisher:	EINAUDI
Publication date:	10/11/2016
Sold by:	GIULIO EINAUDI EDITORE - EBKS
Format:	eBook
File size:	880 KB
Language:	Italian

About the Author

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of more than three dozen novels, including The Thicket, Edge of Dark Water, The Bottoms, and A Fine Dark Line. He has received the British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award, the Edgar Award, the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature, and nine Bram Stoker Awards. He lives with his family in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/06/2015
Edgar-winner Lansdale’s folksy, cinematic fictional memoir tells the story of a man who was born a slave before the Civil War but grew up to become the legendary Deadwood Dick. Willie Jackson is just running an errand in a nameless East Texas town when he happens to glimpse the back end of Sam Ruggert’s wife while she’s bending over a clothes basket in her yard. Sam sees Willie looking at her, and in short order, Willie gets “invited to a lynching” and chooses, as an alternative, to flee. He’s taken in by Tate Loving, who teaches him much about life, including the proficient use of firearms. When forced to flee again, Willie changes his name to Nat Love and heads west to join the Army at Fort McKavett. He and another former slave, Cullen, are the only survivors of an Apache ambush on their unit, after which the two decide to leave soldiering behind. Eventually, he and Collen make their way north to Deadwood, S.D. In Deadwood, Nat meets a beautiful young woman, saves the life of Wild Bill Hickok, and reencounters Sam Ruggert, who still has it in for him. Lansdale (The Thicket) fills his pages with true-hearted heroes, dastardly scoundrels, and rollicking adventures. Author tour. Agent: Danny Baror, Baror International. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Fantastic . . . Lansdale has pulled out all the stops to deliver a rip-roaring tale."—Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times

"[A] breakout novel . . . Addictive fun . . . A rollicking ride that's suspenseful, hilarious and satisfyingly redemptive. . . . Lansdale at his funniest and most energetic, with some of the most engaging writing you'll read this year. . . . Lansdale has unleashed something remarkable."—Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle

"Joe R. Lansdale takes on Nat Love and the legend of Deadwood Dick in his new novel, Paradise Sky, and hosannas should be sung to him for doing so. Paradise Sky is a remarkable achievement, an instant classic of Western lit. . . . It sometimes seems as if [Lansdale] has published around a thousand novels, and he, no doubt, will publish many more. Paradise Sky may well prove to be Lansdale's best."—W.K. Stratton, Dallas Morning News

"A deftly told yarn. Everything about Paradise Sky is classic Western drama . . . You can almost smell the beans heating up on the campfire and see the rugged beauty of the frontier."—Evan Rodriguez, Austin American-Statesman

"Lansdale is a master storyteller and this novel is a prime example of his talent. Paradise Sky is at times exciting, inspiring, surreal, and heartbreaking. In other words, the novel is true to life."—Josef Hernandez, Examiner.com

"Beautiful literary prose . . . He fills each page with heartbreak, suspense, hope, and laughter."—Eric J. Guignard, New York Journal of Books

"Folksy, cinematic . . . Lansdale fills his pages with true-hearted heroes, dastardly scoundrels, and rollicking adventures."—Publishers Weekly (starred)

"Paradise Sky is a rowdy, funny, suspenseful, and often quite moving yarn."—Booklist (starred)

"This fast-paced Western with its multicultural cast of characters is a winner."—Library Journal (starred)

"It is a full-blooded western, served up unapologetically and masterfully Lansdale-style and set in the 1870s....Paradise Sky is an unblinking and unvarnished look at a rough-edged time and place in United States history, one that never becomes overburdened with the sorrow of tragic events while respecting the good times and recognizing their temporary nature. Lansdale is one of those very rare authors who can have his readers howling with laughter during one sentence while bringing tear to their eyes with the next."—BookReporter

PRAISE FOR JOE LANSDALE:"

Reading Joe Lansdale is like listening to a favorite uncle who just happens to be a fabulous storyteller."—Dean Koontz

"Too often overlooked in American literature is that lineage descending from our early humorists such as Bierce, and from Twain: regional, darkly comic, bizarre. That's where Joe Lansdale lives. He's very Texan, very American, very funny—and a stone brilliant writer."—James Sallis, author of Drive

From the Publisher

★ 03/01/2015
The latest novel from Lansdale (The Thicket) revolves around an unfortunate misunderstanding that leads Ruggert, a local landowner, to seek vengeance against a young African American man, Willie. Ruggert and his men kill Willie's father, and Willie flees his Texas home. Loving, a Civil War veteran, takes Willie under his wing and teaches him how to shoot and ride a horse. When Loving dies, Willie renames himself Nat Love in honor of his mentor and heads to the town of Deadwood in South Dakota Territory, where he befriends Wild Bill Hickock, among other colorful characters. When Ruggert hears that Nat is living in Deadwood, he sets out after the young man again. VERDICT Loosely based on the true story of African American cowboy Nat Love (1854–1921), this fast-paced Western with its multicultural cast of characters is a winner. Readers of Patrick deWitt's The Sisters Brothers will welcome Love's sense of humor and resilience in the midst of the rough-and-tumble American West. [See Prepub Alert, 12/15/14.]—Emily Hamstra, Univ. of Michigan Libs., Ann Arbor

Library Journal

2015-04-01
How did Deadwood Dick get his name? Readers can learn this, and a whole lot more, in this picaresque Western from a master of the form (The Thicket, 2013, etc.). Willie Jackson's origins didn't prophesy a future any brighter than that of most black Americans born in East Texas so soon after the War Between the States that he can still remember his years as an infant slave. What seals his fate, however, is looking the wrong way at the rear end of Sam Ruggert's hatchet-faced third wife. Ruggert, not one to take this slur on his manhood lying down, organizes a lynching party. Although Willie escapes, his father doesn't, nor does the family farm. Taking to his heels, Willie lucks into kind neighbor Tate Loving, who shelters him for several years. But when he's recognized one day by a chance visitor, his real adventures begin. In short order he lights out again, changes his name to Nat Love, enlists in the U.S. Cavalry, deserts his post, crosses paths with four Chinese women, loses his heart to a ratter named Win Finn, lands in Deadwood, where he's befriended by James Butler Hickok—Wild Bill to you—and wins the shooting competition that earns him his enduring sobriquet. Soon thereafter, Ruggert and two hirelings catch up with Ruggert's long-sought quarry and exact a terrible vengeance. The tables now turned, Willie, or Nat, or Dick, plots his own revenge on the man who stole his happiness. Noting that he's starred in many a dime novel penned by his old friend Bronco Bob Brennen, the narrator maintains in closing: "Here is the straight record." That assurance is a lot harder to swallow than the rest of this tall tale, which goes down smooth and easy as a vintage sarsaparilla.

Kirkus Reviews