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A highly anticipated, bold new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours—three linked visionary narratives set in the ever-mysterious, turbulent city of New York
In each section of Michael Cunningham's new book, we encounter the same group of characters: a young boy, an older man, and a young woman. "In the Machine" is a ghost story which takes place at the height of the Industrial Revolution, as human beings confront the alienated realities of the new machine age. "The Children's Crusade," set in the early twenty-first century, plays with the conventions of the noir thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band which is detonating bombs seemingly at random around the city. The third part, "Like Beauty," evokes a New York 150 years into the future, when the city is all but overwhelmed by refugees from the first inhabited planet to be contacted by the people of Earth. Presiding over each episode of this interrelated whole is the prophetic figure of the poet Walt Whitman, who promised his future readers, "It avails not, neither distance nor place...I am with you, and know how it is."
SPECIMEN DAYS is a genre-bending, haunting, and transformative ode to life in our greatest city—a work of surpassing power and beauty by one of the most original and daring writers at work today.

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In a novel of human progress and social decline, three characters are seen in three different eras: the Industrial Revolution; the 21st century and 150 years into the future as the poet Walt Whitman presides over each episode.

"In each section of Michael Cunningham's new novel, we encounter the same group of characters: a young boy, a man, and a woman. "In the Machine" is a ghost story that takes place at the height of the industrial revolution, as human beings confront the alienating realities of the new machine age. "The Children's Crusade, " set in the early twenty-first century, plays with the conventions of the noir thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band that is detonating bombs, seemingly at random, around the city. The third part, "Like Beauty," evokes a New York 150 years into the future, when the city is all but overwhelmed by refugees from the first inhabited planet to be contacted by the people of Earth." "Presiding over each episode of this inter-related whole is the prophetic figure of the poet Walt Whitman. Specimen Days is a transformative ode to life in our greatest city, and a meditation on the direction and meaning of America's destiny."--BOOK JACKET.

With three intertwined narratives Michael Cunningham traces the arc of technology from the development of industry to the birth of technologically-modified human beings.

Prophetic poet Walt Whitman presides over each interlinked episode in a visionary novel set in the city of New York, featuring the same group of characters--a young boy, an older man, and a young woman.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Hours', time, technology and love are the central concerns of a provocative novel that calls to mind David Mitchell's 'Cloud Atlas'. Lucas, Catherine, Simon: three characters meet time and again in the three linked narratives that form 'Specimen Days'. The first, a science fiction of the past, tells of a boy whose brother was 'devoured' by the machine he operated. The second is a noirish thriller set in our century, as a police psychologist attempts to track down a group of terrorists. And the third and final strand accompanies two strange beings into the future. A novel of connecting and reconnecting, inspired by the writings of the great visionary poet Walt Whitman, 'Specimen Days' is a genre-bending, haunting ode to life itself - a work of surpassing power and beauty by one of the most original and daring writers at work today.

One of the most anticipated novels of this or any other year, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours. Specimen Days is three linked visionary narratives about the relationship between man and machine. The first narrative, a ghost story set at the height of the Industrial Revolution, tells the story of man-eating machines. An ecstatic boy, barely embodied in the physical world, speaks in the voice of the great visionary poet Walt Whitman. He works at an oppressive factory connected to the making of a mysterious substance with some universal function and on which the world's economy somehow depends. The slight boy can barely operate the massive machine which speaks to him in the voice of his devoured brother. A woman who was to have married the brother is now the object of obsessive interest by the boy. In a city in which all are mastered by the machine, the boy is convinced that the woman must be saved before she too is devoured. This grisly but ultimately transformative story establishes three main characters who will appear, re-incarnated, in the other two sections of this startling modern novel. transcendence as is made manifest by the recurrence of the words of Whitman ('It avails not, neither distance nor place...I am with you, and know how it is'). In part two, a noir thriller set in the early years of our current century, the city is at threat from maniacal bombers, while the third and last part plays with the sci-fi genre, taking our characters centuries into the future. The man who was devoured by a machine in part one is now literally a machine - a robot who becomes fully human before our eyes. The woman is a refugee from another part of the universe, a warrior in her native land but a servant on this planet. The boy leaves the earth at the novel's close in search of a new-found land. Specimen Days is a genre bending, haunting ode to life itself - a work of surpassing power and beauty by one of the most original and daring writers at work today.

A novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Hours'.

New York City serves as the setting for a three-part novel featuring a recurring trio of characters, struggling with issues of love and loss, fear, violence, and poetry during the Industrial Revolution, the early twenty-first century, and 150 years into the future.

Three linked narratives featuring the same characters but set in three time periods in the ever-mysterious, ever-turbulent city of New York.

Specimen Days tells three stories, all set in Manhattan from different time periods, linked by characters with the same names and by Walt Whitman's poetry. Whitman himself appears briefly in the 19th-century episode in which a 13-year-old boy, the son of Irish immigrants, works in a factory. The second is set in the present and follows a police psychologist as she investigates a series of bizarre murder-suicides. The last occurs 150 years in the future: Manhattan has become a theme park, and tourists pay to be assaulted.

In this bold novel, Michael Cunningham, the Pulitzer Prize-winningauthor of The Hours and A Home at the End of the World, spinsthree brilliant linked narratives, each set in the ever-mysterious, everchangingand ever-turbulent city of New York. From a ghost story that takes place at theheight of the Industrial Revolution, to a noir thriller of terrorism inthe early 21st century, to a tale of a future New York overwhelmed by alienrefugees, Specimen Days is a genrebending, haunting novel ofmetamorphosis. Acclaimed by critics and readers, this is a literary work ofaudacious power and beauty by one of the most original and daring authorswriting today.

Michael Cunningham's bold new novel is three related stories spanning three-hundred years of New York history. In the Machine is a ghost story that takes place at the height of the industrial revolution. The Children's Crusade, set in the early twenty-first century, plays with the conventions of the thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band that is detonating bombs, seemingly at random, around the city. The third part, Like Beauty, evokes a New York 150 years into the future, when the city is all but overwhelmed by refugees from the first inhabited planet to be contacted by the people of Earth. And presiding over each episode of this interrelated whole is the prophetic figure of the poet Walt Whitman...

A highly anticipated, bold new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours-three linked visionary narratives set in the ever-mysterious, turbulent city of New York

Three stories set in New York City all involve the same group of characters, a young boy, a man, and a woman. Cunningham gives us a look at America's destiny and life in one of the world's greatest cities at different times in history.

'Specimen Days' is three linked visionary narratives about the relationship between man and machine. The first narrative, a ghost story set at the height of the Industrial Revolution, tells the story of man-eating machines. An ecstatic boy, barely embodied in the physical world, speaks in the voice of the great visionary poet Walt Whitman. He works at an oppressive factory connected to the making of a mysterious substance with some universal function and on which the world's economy somehow depends. The slight boy can barely operate the massive machine which speaks to him in the voice of his devoured brother. A woman who was to have married the brother is now the object of obsessive interest by the boy. In a city in which all are mastered by the machine, the boy is convinced that the woman must be saved before she too is devoured. This grisly but ultimately transformative story establishes three main characters who will appear, reincarnated, in the other two sections of this startling ...

Tre historier med et gennemgående motiv, Walt Whitman og hans digte, om det så er i fortidens New York under industrialiseringen, eller thrilleren om en usædvanlig terrorgruppe i nutiden, eller historien om byen der 150 ude i fremtiden er omdannet til forlystelsespark.

I en fortl̆ling om menneskelige fremskridt og social forfald fl̜ges tre personer i tre forskellige tidsaldre: Den industrielle revolution, det 21. r̄hundrede og 150 r̄ efter ind i fremtiden. Det hele er oplevet igennem digteren Walt Whitman.

I denne originale og genreoverskridende roman som er en hyldest til livet i alle dets former, dukker de samme tre personer op i tre forskellige historier, der tidsms̆sigt spn̆der fra den nr̆e fortid til 150 r̄ ind i fremtiden og genrems̆sigt fra spg̜elseshistorie over moderne thriller til science fiction.

De modo similar a como hizo en Las Horas con Virginia Woolf, Michael Cunningham se inspira en Walt Whitman para crear una novela cautivadora y emotiva. Días cruciales esta compuesta por un elegante tríptico de relatos en épocas y situaciones diferentes, pero que nos hablan sobre las dificultades del progreso humano y el declive social. El primer relato es de un niño que observa con asombro el surgimiento del mundo industrial en el siglo XIX, al que relaciona de una manera poética y extravagante con el mundo de los muertos. El segundo está impregnado por el ambiente paranoico posterior al 11 de septiembre. Una psicóloga forense tiene que enfrentarse con un extraño caso de un niño bomba que poco a poco se revela como el principio de una compleja estrategia terrorista. El tercero es un relato futurista en el que un androide responde a un extraño designio y escapa de Nueva York, convertida en un delirante parque temático, para encontrarse con seres aún más extraños.

Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham (2006)