Hugendubel.info - Die B2B Online-Buchhandlung 

Merkliste
Die Merkliste ist leer.
Bitte warten - die Druckansicht der Seite wird vorbereitet.
Der Druckdialog öffnet sich, sobald die Seite vollständig geladen wurde.
Sollte die Druckvorschau unvollständig sein, bitte schliessen und "Erneut drucken" wählen.

The Dark Side of the Sky

E-BookEPUBePub WasserzeichenE-Book
368 Seiten
Englisch
Titan Bookserschienen am07.05.2024
A page-turning literary fantasy filled with terror and wonder, set in a sun-baked Southern Italy, for fans of The Girls by Emma Cline, The Magus by John Fowles and The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. It's been labelled a doomsday cult, but the Bastion might be humanity's last hope. Amidst all the lies and chaos, come hear their true story, in their own words. On the rural coast of Puglia, Italy, Becca and Ric run the Bastion, offering solace and a home for lost souls. Each year they welcome new members to join the Open Feast, where they teach them to release their burdens and create a better world, in a journey of self-discovery and spiritual teachings. But the Bastion has secrets. The Bastion has a destiny. Deep in the Inner Pinewood, a place of real magic and beauty, they are all that stands against the dark forces that would tear the sky wide open. And what of those who call Becca and Ric liars? Cult leaders and con artists? What of those who tried to leave the Bastion? As it becomes increasingly difficult to tell truth from fiction, who can you trust to save us all?

Francesco Dimitri is an Italian author and speaker living in London. He is on the Faculty of the School of Life. He is considered one of the foremost fantasy writers in Italy, and his works have been widely appreciated by non-genre readers too. A film has been made from his first novel, La Ragazza dei miei Sogni (The Girl of My Dreams). The Book of Hidden Things is his debut novel in English.mehr
Verfügbare Formate
TaschenbuchKartoniert, Paperback
EUR13,00
E-BookEPUBePub WasserzeichenE-Book
EUR11,49

Produkt

KlappentextA page-turning literary fantasy filled with terror and wonder, set in a sun-baked Southern Italy, for fans of The Girls by Emma Cline, The Magus by John Fowles and The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. It's been labelled a doomsday cult, but the Bastion might be humanity's last hope. Amidst all the lies and chaos, come hear their true story, in their own words. On the rural coast of Puglia, Italy, Becca and Ric run the Bastion, offering solace and a home for lost souls. Each year they welcome new members to join the Open Feast, where they teach them to release their burdens and create a better world, in a journey of self-discovery and spiritual teachings. But the Bastion has secrets. The Bastion has a destiny. Deep in the Inner Pinewood, a place of real magic and beauty, they are all that stands against the dark forces that would tear the sky wide open. And what of those who call Becca and Ric liars? Cult leaders and con artists? What of those who tried to leave the Bastion? As it becomes increasingly difficult to tell truth from fiction, who can you trust to save us all?

Francesco Dimitri is an Italian author and speaker living in London. He is on the Faculty of the School of Life. He is considered one of the foremost fantasy writers in Italy, and his works have been widely appreciated by non-genre readers too. A film has been made from his first novel, La Ragazza dei miei Sogni (The Girl of My Dreams). The Book of Hidden Things is his debut novel in English.
Details
Weitere ISBN/GTIN9781803363721
ProduktartE-Book
EinbandartE-Book
FormatEPUB
Format HinweisePub Wasserzeichen
FormatE101
Erscheinungsjahr2024
Erscheinungsdatum07.05.2024
Seiten368 Seiten
SpracheEnglisch
Dateigrösse3376 Kbytes
Artikel-Nr.14672318
Rubriken
Genre9201

Inhalt/Kritik

Leseprobe

LILA

I laughed. I was given an earth-shattering revelation and my immediate reaction was to laugh. It was just too beautiful! A week earlier, I was living with my mum and dad in this dull grey town, all factories and dim streetlamps. Now I found myself in a pinewood by the beach, reeling from the best sex I´d ever had, holding hands with a hot guy, under a sky... no, I can´t describe that sky with simple words, the way you do a car or a piece of furniture. Could you describe love that way? Could you describe death? Sam wrote a melody to give a sense of it, and Imogen a prose poem.

A lot of folks made fun of us, saying that we could not give an account of so many of our experiences. We insisted that we could, and we had, if only they bothered to look at our art with an open mind. But they wrote it off as sentimental garbage, and asked to see hard proof, which we obviously could not produce. They said we were drunk, high, sexed-out, carried away, all of which was true, but it was like saying that a nail cannot possibly be in the wall because it took a hammer to drive it there. The kinder ones called us brainwashed, the others, the vast majority of them, said we were quacks. Not that we cared. Becca and Ric had got us ready for that moment. They taught us that people will want to destroy what they don´t get. It was just too beautiful. All of it.

Galen squeezed my hand before asking Becca, What do you mean?´

What I said.´

The hum continued.

You said you need us for your mission.´

Yes.´

Which is...?´ Galen asked with the devil-may-care attitude we loved.

I wished I could be more like him; so cool, so carefree. I looked at the sky, and it was an earthly sky again; a good one, fat with stars and dripping with the white of the Milky Way, but earthly.

Becca said, You have questions - rightly so. I promise we´ll explain everything, starting tomorrow, but you´re going to have to stay with us for a little longer after the others leave. Can you do that for me?´

Sure,´ said Galen, without a moment´s doubt.

Only then it occurred to me that I was naked, and Galen wasn´t holding my hand anymore. I think I had the smallest voice in the world when I said, I can´t.´

Why?´ Becca asked.

I´m skint. I can´t afford...´

Becca took my hand and kissed it. Oh, Lila. You don´t have to pay a thing.´

I don´t want to be a bother.´

You could never be a bother.´

It was an immense relief to hear Becca say that. I wanted nothing more than to stay. It wasn´t that I´d never been so happy in my life; it was that I had discovered I´d never been happy, at all. Not before finding this. I briefly thought of calling Mum, and discarded the idea.

THE BASTION

We sensed Lila and Galen´s excitement. Ours was twice theirs. The Open Feast had been hard work, and we could not be sure it would pay off. It had, in spades. After stagnating for too long, we were on the move again. We couldn´t wait to see where the road would lead us.

LILA

I found a string of texts and voicemails on my phone. Where are you? they said. Sweetheart, we love you. We are so worried for you. I can´t sleep for how worried I am. Why are you doing this to me? And as was to be expected: Dad is beside himself. As if that was rare. Also: It´s not too late to say you´re sorry. The messages swung between the guilt-inducing to the threatening. Mum´s voice was on the verge of breaking down in one, and firm in the next one, when she ordered, this has gone on long enough. Call me, Daniela.

I told Galen, and his comment was: So you still live with your family.´

We were by the peasant hut. I was sitting on the masonry seat, Galen was splayed out on the ground, intent on turning a robin´s body into one of his Oddballs. It took me a while to get a sense of what he was doing; a jeweller´s lens on his right eye, he was attaching a pig´s tooth to the bird´s red breast, making it as if the tooth was bursting out of it. I was not sure how much I liked it, but it was impressive.

Against my will, I admitted that yes, I lived with my family. Saying to world-trotting Galen that I slept in the same bed which I did as a little girl was not great.

And why didn´t you just say that you were going somewhere?´

I left a note.´

Yeah, but why didn´t you tell them?´

They wouldn´t have let me go.´

Aren´t you nineteen?´

Yeah.´

So what could they do?´

I shrugged, hoping to mirror Galen´s attitude.

They´re bad then,´ he said.

Not very,´ I answered. I felt as if I were betraying Mum - maybe Dad too - by complaining. Just... a bit much.´

I left home at fourteen and never looked back.´

How come?´

Mum was on crack and Dad pimped her out.´ He paused, looked at his work in progress, took some more stuffing from a pouch. So.´

I felt terrible. Here I was, complaining about two perfectly sane parents to someone who´d been raised in hell. I´m so sorry, Galen.´

Water and bridges. I barely remember their faces.´

My answer was killed in my throat by Becca´s voice. Am I interrupting?´

Not at all,´ said Galen.

Becca sat down with her distinctive grace, swaying like a ribbon in a breeze. I´m sorry we´ve been ignoring you two. With all the people leaving - it´s mental.´

We´re having a good time.´

I promised we would talk.´

Galen put away the half-formed Oddball. That you did.´

Let me tell you straight away, I can´t answer many of your questions.´

Can´t or won´t?´

A bit of both.´

Fair enough.´ Galen pointed his smile at me. You first?´

Sure. I...´ I paused. That sky. Did I see it?´

Becca said, Did you?´

Yes...?´

Good.´

Galen asked, And what was it?´

A French scholar, Claude Lecouteux, wrote that the light of the Otherworld is different from that of ours. Almost all religions postulate an Otherworld of sorts, a place for spirits, gods and lost souls - and it shines with its own light. The sky you have seen, that too shines with its own light.´

I opened my eyes wide. You took us to Heaven.´

Becca shook her head. We already are in Heaven. And Hell. The Otherworld is around us and within us, like air, like thoughts, like a colour we can´t quite see, not without some training.´

Training you can give us?´ Galen asked.

We are going to teach you how to shift consciousness. Everything is conscious, and even more, everything is consciousness. Every person, every tree, every rock is ultimately made not of atoms, not of quarks, but of consciousness. Matter is nothing but one of the shapes that consciousness - or soul, if you want to use a more poetic language - can take. When one shape comes undone, in death, the soul goes on and forms another. Everything is forever becoming something else.´ Becca touched the pine needles and dead leaves covering the ground. This is the Otherworld.´ She brought the hand to my heart. This is Heaven, this is Hell, this is Faerie, this is the place where spirits and monsters and demons and angels live. This. The dullness and predictability of the everyday world is an illusion. We gave you a peek at the beautiful truth hidden behind it.´

How do you know all that?´ I asked, and I wanted to slap myself for how challenging I sounded.

Becca smiled at me. I had an experience, a revelation. And so will you, if you stay. We will guide you through a specific set of exercises which will break open the gates of Heaven and Hell for you.´

Galen smirked. Not afraid of overselling?´

Not a bit.´

You really, really want us to stay.´

I´m not being shy about it.´

Because you need our help with your mission.´

Our mission. We are in it together.´

And the mission is?´

Not yet. It would be like wanting to run before learning to walk.´

I can run.´

Oh, Galen. We all believed that, when we started, and we were wrong.´ Becca put a hand on his cheek. I was surprised to find I was only a little jealous, not much. But trust me - trust us - and you will learn to walk, and run, and fly.´ Galen put his hand on Becca´s, looked at her. After a moment, Becca drew her hand back. If I told you now what it is that we´re going to do, you´d probably leave. Stay. Go through our training. We´re going to start with some simple breathing routines. See if they do something for you.´

What if I told you I´m leaving if you don´t tell me?´ Galen said, in that charming tone of his that was impossible to determine as serious or light-hearted.

You´re too curious to do that.´

You sure?´

Go on,´ Becca said. Nobody´s stopping you.´

Galen shook his head and laughed.

I had to ask, Sorry, but how long are we talking about?´

I couldn´t say.´ Becca sighed. Look, we´re a community here. Ric and I may be the figureheads, but we make things happen all together, as a family. Ric and I don´t control everything. In fact, we don´t control anything.´

Becca looked at me in a way that almost...
mehr

Autor

Francesco Dimitri is an Italian author and speaker living in London. He is on the Faculty of the School of Life. He is considered one of the foremost fantasy writers in Italy, and his works have been widely appreciated by non-genre readers too. A film has been made from his first novel, La Ragazza dei miei Sogni (The Girl of My Dreams). The Book of Hidden Things is his debut novel in English.