Bright Air Black
by David Vann
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine/Near Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0434023345
- ISBN 13
- 9780434023349
- Seller
-
Traralgon, Victoria, Australia
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Heinemann, UK, 2017. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. Hardcover. 252 pages. *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Heinemann, UK, 2017. First Edition. This is the first UK edition. *** CONDITION: The book itself is in near fine condition and comes in near fine dust jacket. More specifically: Boards have no wear, rubbing or soiling. Edges of dust jacket have light bumping. Dust jacket is unclipped. Pages are lightly tanned. *** ABOUT THIS BOOK: It is thirteenth century BC, and the Argo is bound for its epic return journey across the Black Sea from Persias Colchis with the valiant Jason, the equally heroic Argonauts, and the treasured symbol of kingship, the Golden Fleece. Aboard as well is Medea, semi-divine priestess, and a believer in power, not gods. Having fled her father, and butchered her brother, she is embarking on a conquest of her own. Rejected for her gender, Medea is hungry for revenge, and to right the egregious fate of being born a woman in a world ruled by men. *** Quantity Available: 1. Category: Fiction; Historical; ISBN/EAN: 9780434023349. Inventory No: 24030115.. 9780434023349
Reviews
On Mar 12 2017, a reader said:
4.5 stars
"One of the men comes to the stern near Medea to fish in last light. A rough net weighted with stones…. He… flings the net overboard, beautiful pattern in flight, a practiced throw, the stones swirling out a perfect circle just as they hit the water… The surface becomes silver, opaque, molten, as if the sea could be reforged every day, great ingot of tin melted down each night, this fisherman casting his net to capture impurities"
Bright Air Black is the fifth novel by American author, David Vann, and is a retelling of the story of Medea. Vann begins his story with Medea, Jason and the Argonauts fleeing Colchis on the Argo, Golden Fleece in their possession, her father Aeetes in pursuit, Medea throwing pieces of her murdered brother Aspyrtus overboard to delay her father's progress.
Their flight from Colchis to Iolcus, taking the daring step of sailing at night, is fraught with danger, both from Aeetes and the elements: "Fear living in close. In the hull and mast that might break, in the rudders, in the air that somewhere holds land, but mostly in the water. Rock and every creature unknown. No limit to the size of what can grow below. All animals on land known but always something new coming from the depths"
The sailors are wary of Medea, priestess of Hekate, rightly so, but her power over them holds no sway once they reach Iolcus and meet Pelias, the king Jason intends to usurp. Her grandfather may be Helios the sun, but Vann presents the infamous Medea, magical and monstrous, as a wholly human woman, if a determined, intelligent, tenacious and vengeful one.
Vann's descriptive prose, as always, is stunning: "The sail no inanimate thing. Terrible in high wind, rigid and merciless and powerful beyond imagining, a thing of fear and will. But even now, in lighter winds, filled with desire, a restlessness, capable even of regret and sorrow, falling along an edge, hunching down, refilling but not entirely, some cost to the past. Only with no air, when it hangs fully slack, does it seem like linen. At all other times, this is impossible to believe", and his personal experience with sailing is apparent on every page.
Vann's evocative title comes from Euripides's Medea; the beautiful cover shows the type of ship that Argo would have been; his interpretation of this legend from over three thousand years ago is powerful, enthralling and atmospheric.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Manyhills Books (AU)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 24030115
- Title
- Bright Air Black
- Author
- David Vann
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Near Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- ISBN 10
- 0434023345
- ISBN 13
- 9780434023349
- Publisher
- Heinemann
- Place of Publication
- UK
- Date Published
- 2017
- Keywords
- BZDB5 Fiction; Bright Air Black
- Bookseller catalogs
- Historical; Fiction;
Terms of Sale
Manyhills Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Manyhills Books
Biblio member since 2009
Traralgon, Victoria
About Manyhills Books
Manyhills Book Store stocks New, Unread, Collectible and Used books.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...