Título: Lost Memory of Skin
Autor: Russell Banks
Sinopse: This is a novel that illuminates the shadowed edges of contemporary American culture with startling and unforgettable results. Suspended in a strangely modern day version of limbo, the young man at the center of this morally complex new novel must create a life for himself in the wake of incarceration. Known in his new identity only as the Kid, and on probation after doing time for a liaison with an underage girl, he is shackled to a GPS monitoring device and forbidden to live within 2,500 feet of anywhere children might gather. With nowhere else to go, the Kid takes up residence under a south Florida causeway, in a makeshift encampment with other convicted sex offenders. Barely beyond childhood himself, the Kid, despite his crime, is in many ways an innocent, trapped by impulses and foolish choices he himself struggles to comprehend. Enter the Professor, a man who has built his own life on secrets and lies. A university sociologist of enormous size and intellect, he finds in the Kid the perfect subject for his research on homelessness and recidivism among convicted sex offenders. The two men forge a tentative partnership, the Kid remaining wary of the Professor's motives even as he accepts the counsel and financial assistance of the older man. When the camp beneath the causeway is raided by the police, and later, when a hurricane all but destroys the settlement, the Professor tries to help the Kid in practical matters while trying to teach his young charge new ways of looking at, and understanding, what he has done. But when the Professor's past resurfaces and threatens to destroy his carefully constructed world, the balance in the two men's relationship shifts. Suddenly, the Kid must reconsider everything he has come to believe, and choose what course of action to take when faced with a new kind of moral decision. In this novel the author examines the indistinct boundaries between our intentions and actions. It probes the zeitgeist of a troubled society where zero tolerance has erased any hope of subtlety and compassion, a society where isolating the offender has perhaps created a new kind of victim.
Contexto da obra
Quando a classificação é mais ampla, o contexto do livro costuma depender ainda mais de autoria, tema e edição. “Lost Memory of Skin”, de Russell Banks, publicado pela editora Knopf Canada, em 2011 e com 432 páginas, integra a categoria Livros Variados. Por isso, autoria, edição e tema acabam tendo ainda mais peso na forma de apresentar o livro.
Editora: Knopf Canada
Páginas: 432
Ano: 2011
Edição: 4th Edition
Linguagem: pt_BR
ISBN: 0307401731
ISBN13: 9780307401731
Sobre a editora
Os livros da editora Knopf Canada costumam oferecer narrativas que mesclam profundidade emocional e complexidade temática, frequentemente explorando personagens marcantes em jornadas tanto interiores quanto históricas. A experiência de leitura varia entre histórias que se desenrolam em cenários contemporâneos e outras ambientadas em períodos históricos ricos, como a Renascença italiana ou eventos da Segunda Guerra Mundial. O catálogo sugere uma predileção por tramas que equilibram o suspense psicológico com reflexões sobre identidade, memória e relações humanas. Há obras que se destacam pela escrita cuidadosa e ritmo que alterna entre momentos intensos e pausas contemplativas, além de textos que combinam elementos de mistério com um olhar sensível para a condição humana.
