The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
Pullman’s first choice is The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa. The book’s synopsis reads: “Fernando Pessoa was many writers in one. He attributed his prolific writings to a wide range of alternate selves, each of which had a distinct biography, ideology, and horoscope. When he died in 1935, Pessoa left behind a trunk filled with unfinished and unpublished writings, among which were the remarkable pages that make up his posthumous masterpiece, The Book of Disquiet, an astonishing work that, in George Steiner’s words, “gives to Lisbon the haunting spell of Joyce’s Dublin or Kafka’s Prague.” Published for the first time some fifty years after his death, this unique collection of short, aphoristic paragraphs comprises the “autobiography” of Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa’s alternate selves. Part intimate diary, part prose poetry, part descriptive narrative, captivatingly translated by Richard Zenith, The Book of Disquiet is one of the greatest works of the twentieth century.”
On the book, Pullman said: “It’s a book of reflections and memories and thoughts. But it doesn’t seem to be in any helpful order. So it really doesn’t matter to me where I pick it up, where I open it, but I always find something original and quirky and strange.”
Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi
This book, also set in Lisbon, this time in 1938. The synopsis reads: “Lisboa, 1938. Bajo la opresiva dictadura de Salazar, el furor de la guerra civil espanola llamando a la puerta y el fascismo italiano de fondo, Pereira, un periodista dedicado a la seccion de sucesos, recibe el encargo de dirigir la pagina cultural de un mediocre periodico. Necesitado de un colaborador, contacta con Monteiro Rossi, joven inequivocamente comprometido con la vida. La intensa relacion que se establece entre el viejo periodista, Monteiro y su novia Marta, cristalizara en una crisis personal, una maduracion interior y una dolorosa toma de conciencia que transformara profundamente la vida de Pereira.”
Pullman said: “It’s got great themes, loyalty, trust, aspiration towards truth, the verity of things in a very short book, just 194 pages long. You can read it in a day. I think it’s the most wonderful novel of the last 20 years. I can’t think of anything I admire more.”
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
The blurb for this one reads: “An elderly artist and her six-year-old granddaughter while away a summer together on a tiny island in the gulf of Finland. Gradually, the two learn to adjust to each other’s fears, whims and yearnings for independence, and a fierce yet understated love emerges—one that encompasses not only the summer inhabitants but the island itself, with its mossy rocks, windswept firs and unpredictable seas.
“Full of brusque humour and wisdom, The Summer Book is a profoundly life-affirming story. Tove Jansson captured much of her own experience and spirit in the book, which was her favourite of the novels she wrote for adults. This new edition sees the return of a European literary gem—fresh, authentic and deeply humane.”
On the book, Pullman said: “It’s a real little family unit that’s described to us here. Jansson does it with such limited means. She’s like a composer who writes exclusively for a string quartet and never adds a clarinet or an oboe, or a brass section. It’s small. But think what Beethoven did with a string quartet.”
Jeeves and Wooster stories by P. G. Wodehouse
For his fourth choice, Pullman selected a series of stories by Wodehouse. A synopsis of Wodehouse and the stories reads: “Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
“Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse’s fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories.
“Wodehouse worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words. After the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career he would produce a novel in about three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. He used a mixture of Edwardian slang, quotations from and allusions to numerous poets, and several literary techniques to produce a prose style that has been compared to comic poetry and musical comedy.”
Pullman said: “Wodehouse wrote hundreds of other things, particularly the Blandings books about Lord Emsworth and his pig, which are almost as good. But what I love about the half-witted Bertie Wooster and his sage and resourceful servant Jeeves is that they have been favourite characters of English readers ever since they first came out well before 1920.”
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
The last choice of Pullman was a little different. He selected the Chambers 20th Century Dictionary. The synopsis states: “Idioms, literary words, contemporary colloquialisms, slang expressions, and scientific and technical terms are included in this authoritative reference work.”
Pullman said: “Why I like it? To start with, it’s the right size. It fits in my hand. It’s a thick book, it’s got 1,300 pages, even more. But it’s book-sized. If you look at the Concise Oxford Dictionary, it used to be this size, but it’s much bigger now.”
