{"title":"Vesna Main","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"only-a-lodger-and-hardly-that-book-vesna-main-9780857426468","title":"Only a Lodger...And Hardly That","description":"A novel in five parts, Only a Lodger . . . And Hardly That puts Vesna Main's power of beautiful observation on full display as she explores how writing stories about one's ancestors is key route to learning about and fashioning one's own identity. While the stories are self-contained, together they form a narrative whole that approaches this age-old idea from five unique perspectives.  In 'The Eye\/I', we meet someone called She, who obsessively tells the story of her childhood and adolescence to an unnamed narrator. 'The Acrobat' is a sequence of prose poems, written in the style of magic realism, which tell the story of Maria and her life-changing adolescent encounter with a flying circus performer. The female protagonist of the first section narrates 'The Dead', describing the secret life of a grandfather she never truly knew and his unusual habit of sending family members anonymous parcels of carefully chosen books. In 'The Poet', she examines four family photographs in order to piece together a story of her other grandfather, the husband of Maria. The final section, 'The Suitor', is a first-person narrative told by Mr Gustav Otto Wagner, an older man who hoped to marry Maria but was ultimately turned down.      'The Croatian-born novelist Vesna Main writes unusual and formally ambitious fiction. . . . Only a Lodger... And Hardly That is subtitled 'a fictional autobiography' and hovers somewhere between memoir and novel, also playing with perspective and style.'- New Statesman Recommends      '[Vesna] Main is a writer who works subliminal for all it's worth.'- Elaine Aldred, Strange Alliances","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49512841412881,"sku":"GOR011333638","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/085742646X.jpg?v=1751107782"},{"product_id":"good-day-book-vesna-main-9781784631918","title":"Good Day?","description":"This novel-within-a-novel charts the writing of a story about Richard and Anna, a middle-aged professional couple, who face the biggest crisis of their twenty-five-year marriage when he admits seeing prostitutes.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49578729996561,"sku":"GOR010054570","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50390960505105,"sku":"CIN1784631914G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50424292311313,"sku":"GOR010069813","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1784631914.jpg?v=1750802006"},{"product_id":"temptation-a-users-guide-book-vesna-main-9781784631284","title":"Temptation: A Users Guide","description":"This is a collection of twenty short stories of different lengths and written in a variety of styles. Main writes about characters whose passion borders on obsession and who are seeking love and companionship but are doomed to remain alone, with their sense of personal failure as the only company.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49638855606545,"sku":"GOR008894439","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50786714976529,"sku":"GOR008846758","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1784631280.jpg?v=1750802005"},{"product_id":"waiting-for-a-party-book-vesna-main-9781784633226","title":"Waiting for a Party","description":"What is it like to be married for thirty years but experience your first orgasm only after being widowed in your sixties?   \t\t\t\t\tHow does an older woman change once she discovers her sexuality?   \t\t\t\t\tCould she have prevented the death of her husband? Why did she wait for an hour before calling the ambulance once she heard the thud of his body hitting the floor?   \t\t\t\t\tClaire Meadows, 92, a retired piano teacher, reflects on her life, while waiting to be taken to a 102nd birthday party of a friend, a prolific writer of detective stories. She has baked a cake for him, as she has done for the last seventy years.   \t\t\t\t\tShe looks back on her marriage to Bill as a happy time and remembers without bitterness her husband’s secret visits to women whose calling cards, complete with pictures of them in states of undress, were scattered in the bottom drawer of his desk.   \t\t\t\t\tAs a young woman she nurtured two ambitions: to become a concert pianist and to have children. When the former became incompatible with her role of a supportive wife, she accepted the situation and looked forward to becoming a mother.   \t\t\t\t\tBut month after month brought disappointment; her kind husband was sympathetic, always ready to offer a shoulder to cry on.   \t\t\t\t\tYears later, she discovered the reason why she was unable to fall pregnant. And it was nothing to do with her.   \t\t\t\t\tReleased from the bonds of her marriage, and encouraged by her feisty friend Patricia, a single mother, with few inhibitions, Claire embarks on a series of sexual encounters. She even fulfils one of the dreams of her youth in a way she could never have imagined.   \t\t\t\t\tAs she lies in bed, waiting to be taken to the party, Claire relives the details of her affairs with relish. She continues to harbour sexual fantasies and wonders whether there is someone who could still find her desirable.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50993091379473,"sku":"GOR014163691","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51123460735249,"sku":"GOR014180813","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51216047571217,"sku":"NGR9781784633226","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53348023927057,"sku":"GOR014865025","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1784633224.jpg?v=1751448052"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-vesna-main.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}