Bøger af Paul Murray

WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2023WINNER OF AN POST IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS' PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024SHORTLISTED FOR THE KERRY GROUP NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2024ONE OF SARAH JESSICA PARKER'S BEST BOOKS OF 2023Book of the Year 2023 according to New York Times, New Yorker, The Sunday Times, The Economist, Observer, Guardian, Washington Post, Lit Hub, TIME magazine, Irish Times, The Oldie, Daily Mail, i Paper, Independent, The Standard, The Times, Kirkus, Daily Express, City A.M. From one of our greatest comic novelists and the author of Skippy Dies comes a funny, thought-provoking story of one family desperately clinging on as their world falls apart . . .'A tragicomic triumph. You won't read a sadder, truer, funnier novel this year' GuardianThe Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie's once-lucrative car business is going under - but rather than face the music, he's spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman.His wife Imelda is selling off her jewellery on eBay while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way to her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favour to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil?Can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life? And if the story has already been written - is there still time to find a happy ending?'The finest novel that Murray has yet written . . . will surely be one of the books of 2023' Sunday Independent'Murray is a natural storyteller . . . Ambitious, expansive, hugely entertaining tragicomic fiction' Irish Times'It's a thing of beauty, a novel that will fill your heart' Observer'Generous, immersive, sharp-witted and devastating . . . a triumph' Financial Times'It's been compared to Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections; I'd argue it's better' Daily Mail

Longlisted for the 2023 Booker PrizeFrom the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie's once-lucrative car business is going under-but Dickie is spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife, Imelda, is selling off her jewelry on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he's on the brink of running away.If you wanted to change this story, how far back would you have to go? To the infamous bee sting that ruined Imelda's wedding day? To the car crash one year before Cass was born? All the way back to Dickie at ten years old, standing in the summer garden with his father, learning how to be a real man?The Bee Sting, Paul Murray's exuberantly entertaining new novel, is a tour de force: a portrait of postcrash Ireland, a tragicomic family saga, and a dazzling story about the struggle to be good at the end of the world.

The book of the prophet Jonah is only two pages long--and Jonah's prophesying is limited to one short sentence. And yet, around this small book, as if it were around Jonah's own troubled ship, high waves of controversy and mystery have swirled for centuries. In A Journey with Jonah: The Spirituality of Bewilderment, the Irish Dominican scholar Fr. Paul Murray strives to uncover the great lesson of this story of bewilderment. Featuring a 2003 lectio divina on Jonah by then-Cardinal Ratzinger--published here in English for the first time--A Journey with Jonah, like the book of Jonah itself, is a brief but compelling journey into the heart of the spiritual life.

St. Catherine of Siena is well-known for her mysticism, preaching, and piercing intellect"€"she's the only layperson to ever be named a Doctor of the Church"€"but her work is written with a fiery passion that is not common to theological works. But for all the attention to St. Catherine, surprisingly little has been said about her understanding of freedom. While she knew well the "unspeakably crazy" love of God, she also recognized the slavery of sin and the necessity of facing our own inner darkness. Her passion, the passion that inflamed almost all of her works, was to lead those enslaved by sin to freedom and self-knowledge in God. In this profound new book from the Word on Fire Institute, the Irish Dominican poet and writer Fr. Paul Murray, OP, draws us into the fire of St. Catherine's love for God and humanity. This unique book looks at her life through not only the lens of Dominican spirituality but also the work of Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and the modern psychologist Carl Jung. Murray ultimately draws a compelling portrait of a saint and thinker whose writing still speaks to us forcefully.

The bestselling and critically acclaimed novel from Paul Murray, Skippy Dies, shortlisted for the 2010 Costa Book Awards, longlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Why does Skippy, a fourteen-year-old boy at Dublin's venerable Seabrook College, end up dead on the floor of the local doughnut shop? Could it have something to do with his friend Ruprecht Van Doren, an overweight genius who is determined to open a portal into a parallel universe using ten-dimensional string theory? Could it involve Carl, the teenage drug dealer and borderline psychotic who is Skippy's rival in love? Or could "the Automator"-the ruthless, smooth-talking headmaster intent on modernizing the school-have something to hide? Why Skippy dies and what happens next is the subject of this dazzling and uproarious novel, unraveling a mystery that links the boys of Seabrook College to their parents and teachers in ways nobody could have imagined. With a cast of characters that ranges from hip-hop-loving fourteen-year-old Eoin "MC Sexecutioner" Flynn to basketball playing midget Philip Kilfether, packed with questions and answers on everything from Ritalin, to M-theory, to bungee jumping, to the hidden meaning of the poetry of Robert Frost, Skippy Dies is a heartfelt, hilarious portrait of the pain, joy, and occasional beauty of adolescence, and a tragic depiction of a world always happy to sacrifice its weakest members. As the twenty-first century enters its teenage years, this is a breathtaking novel from a young writer who will come to define his generation.

Vastly entertaining and outright hilarious, Paul Murray's debut heralds the arrival of a major new Irish talent. His protagonist is endearing and wildly witty-part P. G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster, with a cantankerous dash of A Confederacy of Dunces' Ignatius J. Reilly thrown in. With its rollicking plot and colorful characters, An Evening of Long Goodbyes is a delightful and erudite comedy of epic proportions.Charles Hythloday observes the world from the comfortable confines of Amaurot, his family estate, and doesn't much care for what he sees. He prefers the black-and-white sanctum of classic cinema-especially anything starring the beautiful Gene Tierney-to the roiling and rumbling of twenty-first-century Dublin. At twenty-four, Charles aims to resurrect the lost lifestyle of the aristocratic country gentleman-contemplative walks, an ever-replenished drink, and afternoons filled with canapés as prepared by the Bosnian housekeeper, Mrs. P.But Charles's cozy existence is about to face a serious shake-up. His sister, Bel, an aspiring actress and hopeless romantic, has brought to Amaurot her most recent-and to Charles's mind, most ill-advised-boyfriend. Frank is hulking and round, and resembles nothing so much as a large dresser, probably a Swedish one. He bets on greyhounds and talks endlessly of brawls and pubs in an accent that brings tears to Charles's eyes. And, most suspiciously, his entrance into the Hythlodays' lives just happens to coincide with the disappearance of an ever-increasing number of household antiques and baubles.Soon, Charles and Bel discover that missing heirlooms are the least of their worries; they are simply not as rich as they have always believed. With the family fortune teetering in the balance, Charles must do something he swore he would never do: get a job. Booted into the mean streets of Dublin, he is as unprepared for real life as Frank would be for a cotillion. And it turns out that real life is a tad unprepared for Charles, as well.

For generation after generation, the descendants of Abraham had waited to receive what Yahweh had promised to their patriarch ages ago. The stories of a great nation, a Promised Land, and being a blessing to all the world had been told over and over again. This new generation had heard these stories often. Now after forty long years wandering in circles in the wilderness, they stood on Canaan''s soil.One of the promises made by God and given to Abraham had already been fulfilled. They had become a great nation. The second promise, that of a land they could call their own, lie immediately before them. But the excitement and the expectation before them was mixed with terror.A miracle like none they had yet witnessed had just happened. Like the stories their grandfathers had told them about the crossing of the Red Sea, so too the waters of the raging Jordan River parted as they crossed on dry land onto Canaan soil. They now stood in enemy territory. Giants lived in this land; fearsome men experienced in warfare with the latest of modern weaponry.Pagan, Prostitutes, and Other Problems Part 2: More Than Conquerors (Joshua 6-11) is the account of the conquest of the Promised Land by a nation far inferior to the forces of the indigenous people. Impossible fortresses and unimaginable armies are to be confronted and defeated if they are to claim this land.The difficult lesson of following God fully must be learned. Mistakes will be made and lives lost, but on every page, the hand of God can be seen working through His people. You will see unfold before your eyes the eternal truth of the apostle Paul, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Dive in and join the winning team! You will learn not to believe your eyes!

The book of Joshua is the biblical record of the conquest of Canaan, an event that fulfilled a promise God made to Abram and his descendant''s generations earlier. It was the gift of God to His people, the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey.After Israel''s delivery from four hundred years of bondage in Egypt and the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, Israel was brought into a new relationship with God. God gave them His Law and established them as a nation on Mount Sinai.They were instructed to enter the Promised Land at Kadesh-barnea, but after spying out the land, they were terrified. The land was a land of milk and honey, as God said, but God forgot to mention that there were giants in the land. These were men of immense size and strength who made the Israelites feel like grasshoppers in their sight.The Jews didn''t believe God could give them the land with those odds and refused to obey His will to enter the land. In response, they rebelled against Moses and Joshua.God judged that generation for their lack of faith and obedience by causing them to wander forty years in the wilderness, going nowhere, until that entire sinful generation perished.Finally, a nation of young men who had grown up in the wilderness stand at the banks of the Jordan River. They can see the Promised Land across the raging waters. The ancient fulfillment of the promise and the gift of God are so close. But before the conquest can begin, the river must be crossed and preparations must be made. These preparations will serve as the basis of the conquest that will unfold over the next seven plus years.Come along for the ride. You''re about to see God do wonders you''ve never imagined. Walk with these men and feel the drama unfold. It will change your view of who God is.

We begin the second part of this four-part series on the Gospel of John called Meet Messiah. In Part 1, "Behold the Man," we saw the introduction of the Messiah to both the human family and the nation of Israel. In Part 2, "Faith or Frustration," we will join His disciples as they walk in the footstep of the Master from chapter 5 through chapter 12.Here, opposition to Jesus and His ministry begins in earnest. Up through chapter 4 of John''s gospel, the leadership of Israel was curious about whom this new rabbi really was. The ministry of John the Baptist had captured the attention of the nation with his proclamation that the kingdom of God was at hand and that folks needed to repent of their sins in preparation of the coming Messiah.At first, the Jews just dismissed Jesus as another new rabbi on the block. But His popularity had grown rapidly, outstripping even that of the Baptizer. The signs that He was doing had caught the attention of the masses as well as the Jews. When He cleansed the temple and chased out all the vendors, which was a primary source of income for the priests, He became a regular topic of conversation in the Great Sanhedrin.We will begin to see that the curiosity of the Jews turned to frustration, their frustrations turned to anger, and their anger turned to hatred, until finally a plot was devised to have Him killed. That was the only way they would ever stop Him and save their positions of power and control over the people.Strap in for the ride. It''s going to get really, really bumpy. Who ever said being a Christian and being bold in your faith would ever be easy? The truth is it could get you killed, and history has demonstrated that many have died for their faith. Let''s follow along with the One they have all been willing to die for.

John's gospel is unique. What makes it unique is the author, John, and the perspective he brings to the person and character of Jesus. John was Jesus's closest friend. You might say his best friend! Peter, James, and John were part of an inner circle that Jesus included exclusively. Only these three were allowed into the room when Jesus raised the synagogue official's daughter from the dead. Only these three were invited onto the mountain to witness his transfiguration experience. It was John that leaned on Jesus's breast at the Last Supper and was told who the betrayer was. And in Jesus's moment of deepest distress in the garden before his death, only these three were invited deep into the garden to pray with Jesus. But more than all that, John was the first disciple to be chosen and the only one at the very end. Only John was at the foot of the cross comforting Jesus's mother while the rest hid in fear. And it was because of John's unique relationship with Jesus that Jesus committed the care of his mother to him. John writes long after the other gospel letters had been distributed among the churches. John describes seven miracles, five unique to his gospel. John includes seven "e;I am"e; statements and is the only writer that uses the phrase "e;Truly, truly..."e; to underscore the extreme importance of these statements. John writes not as a follower, and not just as an eyewitness but as Jesus's best friend. And John writes for one single, specific purpose: "e;That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name"e; (John 20:31). To miss this is to miss the very reason for your existence on this planet!

A history of the Irish Boundary Commission. It looks at British attempts from 1886 onwards to satisfy the Irish Nationalist demand for Home Rule, Ulster and British Unionist resistance to this demand, the 1920 partition of Ireland, and the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, where the roots of the establishment of the Commission are to be found.

Brought to you by Penguin. WINNER OF THE EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE 2016 A comic masterpiece about love, art, greed and the banking crisis, from the author of Skippy Dies What links the Investment Bank of Torabundo, www.myhotswaitress.com (yes, hots with an s, dont ask), an art heist, a novel called For the Love of a Clown, a four-year-old boy named after TV detective Remington Steele, a lonely French banker, a tiny Pacific island, and a pest control business run by an ex-KGB man? You guessed it . . . The Mark and the Void is Paul Murrays madcap new novel of institutional folly, following the success of his wildly original breakout hit, Skippy Dies. While marooned at his banking job in the bewilderingly damp and insular realm known as Ireland, Claude Martingale is approached by a down-on-his-luck author, Paul, looking for his next great subject. Claude finds that his life gets steadily more exciting under Pauls fictionalizing influence; he even falls in love with a beautiful waitress. But Pauls plan is not what it seems-and neither is Claudes employer, the Bank of Torabundo, which inflates through dodgy takeovers and derivatives-trading until-well, you can probably guess how that shakes out. The Mark and the Void is a stirring examination of the deceptions carried out in the names of art, love and commerce - and is also probably the funniest novel ever written about a financial crisis. Paul Murray 2015 (P) Penguin Audio 2015

Achieving a sustainable society is the biggest issue of our time. This book presents a complete 'curriculum' for effecting a personal transformation towards sustainability, showing you how to align your personal and professional actions with your values and beliefs. It is full of activities that can be done individually or in groups.

Paul Murray's Skippy Dies is a tragicomic masterpiece about a Dublin boarding schoolLonglisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010Ruprecht Van Doren is an overweight genius whose hobbies include very difficult maths and the Search of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Daniel 'Skippy' Juster is his roommate. In the grand old Dublin institution that is Seabrook College for Boys, nobody pays either of them much attention. But when Skippy falls for Lori, the frisbee-playing siren from the girls' school next door, suddenly all kinds of people take an interest - including Carl, part-time drug-dealer and official school psychopath. . . A tragic comedy of epic sweep and dimension, Skippy Dies scours the corners of the human heart and wrings every drop of pathos, humour and hopelessness out of life, love, Robert Graves, mermaids, M-theory, and everything in between.'That rare thing, a comic epic. . . Murray is a brilliant comic writer, but also humane and touching, and he captures the misery and elation, joy and anxiety of teenage life' David Nicholls, Guardian'Novels rarely come as funny and as moving as this utterly brilliant exploration of teenhood and the anticlimax of becoming an adult . . . one of the finest comic novels written anywhere' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times'I loved Skippy Dies . . . three novels fused into one ignited tragicomic tour de force' Ali Smith, Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year'An unforgettably exuberant saga set in an Irish boys' school. The insulting repartee is Shakespearean, the minor characters hilarious, and Murray captures the fleeting joys and lasting sorrows of adolescence perfectly' Emma Donoghue, Daily Telegraph'A triumph . . . brimful of wit and narrative energy' Sunday Times'The sprawling brilliance of Paul Murray's darkly comic second novel works on many different levels . . . When you finish the last page, you may be tempted to start all over again' MetroPaul Murray is the author of An Evening of Long Goodbyes, shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award in 2005, and Skippy Dies, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010.

Acclaimed as one of the funniest and most assured Irish novels of recent years, An Evening of Long Goodbyes is the story of Dubliner Charles Hythloday and the heroic squandering of the family inheritance. Featuring drinking, greyhound racing, vanishing furniture, more drinking, old movies, assorted Dublin lowlife, eviction and the perils of community theatre, Paul Murray's debut novel is a tour de force of comedic writing wrapped in an honest-to-goodness tale of a man- and a family - living in denial . . .

Based on previously unpublished sources, this study offers a new perspective of Hearn's writings, and reveals a multi-faceted character of considerable depth, intelligence and literary skill.