An extraordinary, previously unpublished work from the author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights, Joan Didion. In November 1999, Joan Didion began seeing a psychiatrist because, as she wrote to a friend, her family had had 'a rough few years.' She described the sessions in a journal she created for her husband, John Gregory Dunne.For several months, Didion recorded conversations with the psychiatrist in meticulous detail. The initial sessions focused on alcoholism, adoption, depression, anxiety, guilt, and the heartbreaking complexities of her relationship with her daughter, Quintana.The subjects evolved to include her work, which she was finding difficult to maintain for sustained periods. There were discussions about her own childhood-misunderstandings and lack of communication with her mother and father, her early tendency to anticipate catastrophe-and the question of legacy, or, as she put it, 'what it's been worth.' The analysis would continue for more than a decade.Didion's journal was crafted with the singular intelligence, precision, and elegance that characterize all of her writing. It is an unprecedently intimate account that reveals sides of her that were unknown, but the voice is unmistakably hers-questioning, courageous, and clear in the face of a wrenchingly painful journey.

Román Kniha denních modliteb zasadila americká prozaička a reportérka Joan Didionová do fiktivní, politicky nestabilní středoamerické země jménem Boca Grande. Zde se protínají životní dráhy vypravěčky a vystudované antropoložky Grace Strasser-Mendanové a zdánlivě bezelstné Charlotte Douglasové, po jejíž dceři pátrá FBI. I v tomto románu se legendární spisovatelka představuje jako nesmiřitelná, břitká a nadmíru přesná pozorovatelka geopolitických událostí i privátních dramat s citem pro dialog a zkratku. Schopnost podmanivě načrtnout lidský osud a v ostře nasvícených situacích nahlodat představy o smyslu jedincova života i o možnosti jeho poznání jsou důvodem, proč knihy Joan Didionové dodnes nabízejí strhující a zneklidňující čtenářský zážitek.

V románu Demokracie se v rychlých střizích střídají výjevy z New Yorku a Havaje, Jakarty a Kuala Lumpuru, vojenských základen a luxusních hotelů. Spojené státy prožívají definitivní debakl války ve Vietnamu a protagonistka knihy Inez Victorová kolísá mezi dvěma mocnými muži, senátorem Harrym Victorem a agentem Jackem Lovettem. Důležitou postavou v jejím příběhu je i jeho vypravěčka - Joan Didionová. Ta v románu vystupuje pod vlastním jménem a projevuje se jako nesmiřitelná pozorovatelka života privilegovaných Američanů. V pořadí čtvrtý román proslulé americké spisovatelky a reportérky je považován za jeden z jejích tvůrčích vrcholů. Zvláště působivě se zde spojuje její nenapodobitelná prozaická břitkost a reportérská pronikavost.

The iconic writer whose prose was as influential and as it is unmistakably hers is joined in conversation with Sheila Heti, Hilton Als, Dave Eggers, Hari Kunzru and many more.Some writers define a generation. Some a genre. Joan Didion did both, and much more. Didion rose to prominence with her nonfiction collection,Slouching Towards Bethlehem, and she quickly became the writer who captured the zeitgeist of the washed-out, acid hangover of the 60s. But as a bicoastal writer of fiction and nonfiction whose writing ranged from personal essays and raw, intimate memoirs to reportage on international affairs and social justice, Didion is much harder to pin down than her reputation might suggest.This collection encompasses it all, in conversations that delve into her underappreciated mid-career works, her influences, the loss of her husband and daughter, and her most infamous essays. Far from the evasive, terse minimalist that has come to dominate the image of Joan Didion, what this collection reveals is a warm, thoughtful woman whose well earned legacy promises to live on for readers and writers for many generations to come.

Joan Didion’s hugely influential collection of essays which defines, for many, the America which rose from the ashes of the Sixties. We tell ourselves stories in order to live. The princess is caged in the consulate.The man with the candy will lead the children into the sea. In this now legendary journey into the hinterland of the American psyche, Didion searches for stories as the Sixties implode. She waits for Jim Morrison to show up, visits the Black Panthers in prison, parties with Janis Joplin and buys dresses with Charles Manson’s girls.She and her reader emerge, cauterized, from this devastating tour of that age of self discovery into the harsh light of the morning after.