Granada
The Light of Andalucía
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- 3,99 €
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- 3,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
AN INDEPENDENT TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR
A TELEGRAPH TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR
Yearning for a change, Steven Nightingale took his family to live in the ancient Andalucian city of Granada. But as he journeyed through its hidden courtyards, scented gardens and sun-warmed plazas, Steven discovered that Granada's present cannot be separated from its past, and began an eight-year quest to discover more.
Where once Christians, Muslims and Jews lived peacefully together and the arts and sciences flourished, Granada also witnessed brutality: places of worship razed to the ground, books burned, massacre and anarchy. In the 1600s the once-populous city was reduced to 6,000 who lived among rubble. In the next three centuries, the deterioration worsened, and the city became a refuge for anarchists; then during the Spanish Civil War, fascism took hold.
Literary and sensual, Steven Nightingale produces a portrait of a now-thriving city and the joy he discovered there, revealing the resilience and kindness of its people, the resonance of its gardens and architecture and the cyclical nature of darkness and light in the history of Andalucia. At once personal and far-reaching, Granada is an epic journey through the soul of this most iconic of cities.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Writing in poetic prose, Nightingale (The Lost Coast) presents a historical, mystical, and personal travelogue of Granada, Spain. More broadly, Nightingale introduces readers to the amalgamated Andalusian culture of Islamic, Jewish, and Christian roots. Contemplating the intellectual corpus of al-Andalus an 800-year kingdom ruled by Muslim emirs and Christian kings, advised by Jewish courtiers Nightingale sketches out the far-reaching influence of Andalusian civilization. He invites readers into his labyrinthine neighborhood in Granada, the Albayz n, and into the lush love and tender repose of his own garden and family. Weaving the two together, al-Andalus and the Albayz n, Nightingale unleashes centuries of the "uncommon energies, exploratory zeal, and systematic rigor" of Granada, presenting its poetry, philosophy, music, art, mysticism, mathematics, literature, governance, and religious pluralism as "a schoolroom where we might learn." Nightingale's intimate reflections and succulent style present a textured picture of the city and its people, culture, and antiquity. Armchair travelers will find themselves easily lured through the portals of history hidden in brick and mortar, tiles and tilled gardens. Photos.
