And yet, none of it can hide the growing turbulence in her marriage, which suddenly has Tanya doubting what she once cherished.Then Curtis goes too far, and Tanya's confronted with the worst betrayal a woman can face. Plunged into a bittersweet journey of discovery, she suddenly finds herself learning painful new lessons about love, loyalty, and sensual temptation. . ..and discovering the wisdom to celebrate the victories that are hers alone.Casting The First Stone listens in on the heart of a woman torn between loving who her husband was and hating who he has become. Roby weaves a fast-paced story about faith's challenges in a world made up of material desires and other physical temptations. Taken right from the headlines, Roby's cautionary tale looks at the other side of church politics and the emotional toll it takes.

    One good deed takes her into another world . . . Sixteen-year-old Matilda is a poor Covent Garden flower girl until the day she saves the life of Tabitha, a minister's daughter. Welcomed into Tabitha's family, Matilda is offered the chance of a lifetime. She leaves behind London's slums and enters the darkest corners of New York. And she travels across the plains to the Wild West, where San Francisco is in the grip of the gold rush. Streetwise and strong-willed, Matilda forges a new life for herself and Tabitha among pioneers like Captain James Russell - a man to whom she is deeply attracted. Yet a civil war will soon rip apart this new nation. Can Matilda and those she loves brave separation and carry on, never looking back? Lesley Pearse is the author of bestsellers Gypsy and Remember Me. Never Look Back is a historical novel of love and survival at the time of the American Civil War. Fans of Susan Lewis will love the way Lesley Pearse weaves her plots and characters together. Praise for Lesley Pearse: 'With characters it is impossible not to care about ... this is storytelling at its very best' Daily Mail 'Lose yourself in this epic saga' Bella 'An emotional and moving epic you won't forget in a hurry' Woman's Weekly Find Lesley on Twitter @LesleyPearse or find out more on her website, www.lesleypearse.co.uk.

    . .Annette Goode is a shy, awkward, overweight child with a terrible secret. Frightened and ashamed, Annette withdraws into a world of books and food. But the summer Annette turns thirteen, something incredible happens: Rhoda Nelson chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, generous Rhoda, who is everything Annette is not--gorgeous, slim, and worldly--welcomes Annette into the heart of her eccentric family, which includes her handsome and dignified father;her lovely, fragile "Muh'Dear;" her brooding, dangerous brother Jock;and her colorful white relatives--half-crazy Uncle Johnny, sultry Aunt Lola, and scary, surly Granny Goose.With Rhoda's help, Annette survives adolescence and blossoms as a woman. But when her beautiful best friend makes a stunning confession about a horrific childhood crime, Annette's world will never be the same."A coming-of-age journey depicted with wit, poignancy and bite." --Publishers Weekly

    Louis bombshell named Meesa. With money in the bank, designer clothes in her closet and true friends by her side, Meesa still longs for more. All of her life she's wanted for one thing and one thing only, love. When she meets the infamous Black, a street pharmacist from the North side of The Lou, finally love is in her grasp. Follow Meesa and Black, this century's new notorious Bonnie and Clyde, through the roller coaster ride that their tight to death relationship brings. From ups, downs, love, hate, lies, abuse and murder, they go through it all. Like the saying goes: everything that looks good to you ain't always good for you. But in the end, love always conquers all... doesn't it?

    That play, and the others that followed, have been produced all over the world. This anthology includes Kane's never-before-published Channel 4 screenplay, Skin. Complete Plays include Blasted, Phaedra's Love, Cleansed, Crave, 4.48 Psychosis, and Skin.

    Lynn Harris...He is a devilish and handsome ex-football player, now a rising sports agent at one of the hottest firms in the country. Irrepressible and dangerously alluring, John "Basil" Henderson has a history with women (and a few men). Basil is the consummate guy's guy: a commitment-phobe gadfly known for a double-edged magnetism that has the ability to thrill--and wound.She is the uncompromising Yancey Harrington Braxton, an up-and-coming Broadway star who oozes charm and bleeds ambition. Young, beautiful, and dangerously crafty, Yancey is prepared to do whatever she must to get what she wants. A femme fatale who has left more than a few brokenhearted men in her wake, Yancey is intrigued and besotted by Basil.Both believe that in each other they've finally met their match.A lavish wedding is planned, and the ultimate power couple plans to spend their lives in holy matrimony. But just before the nuptials, fate and a little comeuppance from the past threaten the happy couple's future.Masterful storyteller E. Lynn Harris takes the reader on a delicious ride into the mischievous lives of two very unforgettable characters.

    The combination of dazzling wit, subtle social criticism, sumptuous settings and the theme of a guilty secret proved a winner, both here and in his next three plays, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and his undisputed masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest. This volume includes all Wilde's plays from his early tragedy Vera to the controversial Salome and the little known fragments, La Sainte Courtisane and A Florentine Tragedy. The edition affords a rare chance to see Wilde's best known work in the context of his entire dramatic output, and to appreciate plays which have hitherto received scant critical attention.

    They inspired some of the most famous productions and performances in theatrical and film history, and they continue to grip audiences all over the world. Now, in an authoritative two-volume edition, The Library of America collects the plays that define Williams’s extraordinary range and achievement.This first volume begins with the stunning rediscovered plays of Williams’s early career: Spring Storm, a tragedy of provincial longing that prefigures the mood and language of his later work, and Not About Nightingales, a stark prison drama, produced in 1998 to international acclaim, that resounds with the playwright’s outraged idealism. With the autobiographical The Glass Menagerie in 1944, Williams attained what he later called “the catastrophe of success,” a success made all the greater by A Streetcar Named Desire, his most famous play and one of the most influential works of modern American literature.Forging an idiom that uniquely blended lyricism and brutality, a tragic sense of life and a genius for comic observation, he continued to revolutionize the American theater with a series of masterpieces: the poignant and melancholy Summer and Smoke, the light-hearted erotic comedy The Rose Tattoo, the sprawling and surrealistic Camino Real, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the Pulitzer Prize–winning portrayal of a ruthless family struggle. This volume also contains Battle of Angels (an early version of Orpheus Descending), and a selection of Williams’s one-act plays, including 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, The Property Is Condemned, and I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix, a meditation on the life and work of D. H. Lawrence.This edition includes a newly researched chronology of Tennessee Williams’s life, explanatory notes (including cast lists of many of the original productions), and an essay on the texts.This volume is edited by Mel Gussow (1933–2005), who was a drama critic, a cultural writer at The New York Times, and author of several books, including Edward Albee: A Singular Journey, and by Kenneth Holditch, professor emeritus at the University of New Orleans, editor since 1989 of the Tennessee Williams Journal, and the author of In Old New Orleans.--front flap

    S. Eliot, Daniel Albright, Douglas Archibald, Harold Bloom, George Bornstein, Elizabeth Cullingford, Paul de Man, Richard Ellman, R. F. Foster, Stephen Gwynn, Seamus Heaney, Marjorie Howes, John Kelly, Declan Kiberd, Lucy McDiarmid, Michael North, Thomas Parkinson, Marjorie Perloff, James Pethica, Jahan Ramazani, Ronald Schuchard, Michael J. Sidnell, Anita Sokolsky, and Helen Vendler. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are included.

    The struggle of the self to remain intact has moved in her work from civil war, into the family, into the couple, into the individual, and finally into the theatre of phychosis: the mind itself. This play was written in 1999 shortly before the playwright took her own life at age 28. On the page, the piece looks like a poem. No characters are named, and even their number is unspecified. It could be a journey through one person's mind, or an interview between a doctor and his patient.

    supper club patrons come to enjoy rich, savory gourmet food, sip intoxicating cocktails, and drick in the soulful sounds of live music. It's the perfect place to dine, unwind, catch up--and mayhbe even fall in love...

    Celia Lytton is the beautiful and strong-willed daughter of wealthy aristocrats and she is used to getting her way. She moves through life making difficult and often dangerous decisions that affect herself and others-her husband, Oliver, and their children; the destitute Sylvia Miller, whose life is transformed by Celia's intrusion; as well as Oliver's daunting elder sister, who is not all she appears to be; and Sebastian Brooke, for whom Celia makes the most dangerous decision of all. Set against the tumultuous backdrop of London and New York in the First World War, No Angel is, as British Good Housekeeping wrote, "an absorbing page-turner, packed with believable characters and satisfyingly extreme villains, eccentrics, and manipulators." Readers of Maeve Binchy, Barbara Taylor Bradford, and Anita Shreve will fall in love with this epic, un-put-downable novel.With more than 3.5 million copies sold, Penny Vincenzi is one of the world's preeminent writers of popular fiction-and American readers no longer have to miss out on the fun. With the publication of No Angel, a novel introducing the engaging cast of characters in the Lytton family, Overlook opens a thrilling new dimension to this author's already illustrious career.

    Set against the Independence struggles of two British colonies, Of Marriageable Age is ultimately a story of personal triumph against a brutal fate, brought to life by a multicultural cast of characters:Savitri, intuitive and charismatic, grows up among the servants of a pre-war English household in the Raj. But the traditional customs of her Brahmin family clash against English upper-class prejudice, threatening her love for the privileged son of the house. Nataraj, raised as the son of an idealistic doctor in rural South India, finds life in London heady, with girls and grass easily available… until he is summoned back home to face raw reality.Saroj, her fire hidden by outward reserve, comes of age in Guyana, South America, the daughter of a strictly orthodox and very racist Hindu father. Her life changes forever on the day she finally rebels against him. ... and even against her gentle, apparently docile Ma.But Ma harbours a deep secret… one that binds these three so disparate lives and hurtles them towards a truth that could destroy their world.Reviews'A big book, big themes, an exotic background and characters that will live with you forever… unputdownable.' Katie Fforde'Beautifully and cleverly written. A wondrous, spellbinding story which grips you from the first to the last page… I can't recall when I last enjoyed a book so much.' Lesley Pearse'It's a wonderful panoramic story and conveys such vivid pictures of the countries it portrays I was immediately transported and completely captivated. A terrific writer.' Barbara Erskine'From the first page I was hooked with this enchanting book… unputdownable.' Audrey Howard'A vast canvas of memorable characters across a kaleidoscope of cultures… her epic story feels like an authentic reflection of a world full of sadness, joy and surprise.' The Observer--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

    Life took her to Barefoot House as the paid companion of an elderly woman, and seemed to promise lifelong happiness in New York with the handsome, charismatic Jack Coltrane.But once again, life is not turning out the way Josie has imagined and she finds herself back in Liverpool, alone. As she renews old loves and former friendships, and reflects on her time at Barefoot House, she embarks upon a career which is as unlikely as it is successful.

    She is arguably the most important teacher of acting in American history. Over her long career, both in New York and Hollywood, she offered her vast acting knowledge to generations of actors, including Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, and Robert De Niro. The great voice finally ended in the early Nineties, but her decades of experience and teaching have been brilliantly caught and encapsulated by Howard Kissel in the twenty-two lessons in this book.

    It has been produced and taught all over the world. Its companion play, The Destiny of Me, is the stirring story of an AIDS activist forced to put his life in the hands of the very doctor he has been denouncing.

    Her first book has found a publisher, a daring new surgery promises to take away the birthmark that mars her lovely face; and there's a new man in her life, a man who sees beyond her flaw. . .into her heart. Best of all, though, is that Abby has been reunited with her sister Mallory. Separated as girls after their parents died in a double tragedy, Abby always dreamed that, one day, they would be together again.But while two loving sisters make up for lost time, danger hides in the shadows. Now, Abby and Mallory have planned a sumptuous party--unaware that their gathering will include and uninvited guest who will do anything to keep the past hidden. . .

    The problem? He wants to have sex with her while she wants to obey God and stay pure until marriage. With pressures coming from all sides, Payton begins to wonder if waiting is really worth it. When he breaks it off with her for a more willing girl, Payton's world crashes down on her. As she struggles to answer these questions and gets to know Tad Taylor, Payton realizes that following God is the real secret to staying pure.

    When heavy bombing is followed by the news that their parents and brother are dead, the sisters are devastated. Then they discover that their uncle, Steve, is not who they thought he was - and it becomes clear that the Brinsleys have been living a life for years.

    In a critical preface, Bentley finds all four works to be a Gogolian treatment of love - or the lack of love - and by the same token, thoroughly original works of dramatic art. Also includes a piece on Gamblers by the eminent Polish critic Jan Kott.

    Although Catherine wasn't a blood relation, kindly Annie Fane had taken her in after her parents were mysteriously murdered. But the superstitious townsfolk of Camarune used to consider Annie a witch, and they immediately apply the label to Catherine as well, menacing the schoolteacher's plan to stay in the isolated cabin while she tries to make sense of her life. Then she meets Luke DePriest, the area's sexy sheriff, who tries to protect her, all while hunting a thief who's been leaving strange wooden carvings in the place of the goods he steals. When a deranged farmer shoots Catherine in the back, the townsfolk are jolted back to their senses, Luke and Catherine are forced to confront their love for each other, and Catherine finally discovers the long-lost truth of her past.

    The adventurous and sometimes shocking later works of playwright Tennessee Williams, from 1957 to 1980, are collected in this volume, which includes "Orpheus Descending, Suddenly Last Summer", and "The Night of the Iguana".

    With her hallmark exuberance and cast of characters so sassy, resilient, and full of life that they breathe, dream, and shout right off the page.

    Her stories remind us how precious and fragile life can be—and that we must risk our hearts every day to know happiness. Follow the Stars Home is just such a novel: a story of poignancy and heartbreak, grace and courage.Being a good mother is never simple: each day brings new choices and challenges. For Dianne Robbins, being a devoted single mother has resulted in her greatest joy and her darkest hours. Weeks before her daughter was born, she and her husband, Tim McIntosh, received the news every parent fears. Tim had not reckoned on their child being anything less than perfect, and abruptly fled to a solitary existence on the sea, leaving Dianne with a newborn—almost alone.It was Tim's brother, Alan, the town pediatrician, who stood by Dianne and her exceptional daughter. Throughout years of waiting, watching, and caring, Alan hid his love for his brother's wife. But one of the many hard choices Dianne has made is to close her heart toward any man—especially one named McIntosh. It will take a very special twelve-year-old to remind them all that love comes in many forms and can be received with as much grace as it is given.As lyrical and moving as the poetry of nature, Follow the Stars Home is a miracle of storytelling that will take your breath away. If words alone can dare us to confront our fears and to choose joy over sorrow, then Luanne Rice's magnificent novel is a benediction and a call to celebrate our lives.

    He has a bad habit of breaking people’s jaws and getting thrown into jail. Granted, he only breaks jaws that deserved some breaking, but his anger is tearing his life apart. And now he’s starting a whole new feud, this time with the once-estranged, now-reconciled husband of his lover, Laurel. This is the one that will very nearly cost him his life.The story then swings back in time to the roots of Hayden’s anger: the father who tormented him, the kid brother who got all the approval, and the one fatal mistake that Hayden has never been able to forgive himself for making.Back in Hayden’s present, as he is trying to get out of the hospital and back on his feet, his daughter Allegra comes back around. He hasn’t seen her in more than 15 years, but she’s getting married, and wants her father to walk her down the aisle. But Hayden can barely walk. And he’s not ready to confront the wife and daughter who exiled him, his family of origin, and his painful past. But the past catches up with Hayden, ready or not. And Hayden, now too disabled for violence, must work all the way through his anger and find new ways to make peace with his life.

    Toole, is the basis for the Oscar-winning motion picture starring Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman. Breathing life into vivid, compelling characters who radiate the fierce intensity of the worlds they inhabit, Million Dollar Baby "is not just fight fiction at its finest, it is excellent fiction, period" (Dan Rather).

    Kate Carrington has cut all ties with Africa, the land of her birth. Her past is buried alongside her missionary parents, the last reminders locked safely away in the attic. But when a mysterious woman moves in next door, Kate's carefully constructed world is torn apart.Annah Mason has led an extraordinary life – one that has taken her from a hospital in Langali to the company of rainmakers deep in the Tanzanian bush. Her connection with the Waganga people has brought her the great love of her life, and freedom beyond her dreams. Yet she carries with her a painful secret. Now, the time has come for her to tell her story – to finally set Kate free.

    Set in 1973 and starring Frances McDormand, Billy Crudup, and Noah Taylor, Crowe's new film tells the story of a fifteen-year-old boy whose dream of becoming a rock journalist comes true when Rolling Stone sends him on tour with the up-and-coming rock band Stillwater—loosely based on Led Zeppelin—over the objections of his protective mother. Crowe brings the same wry humor he brought to Jerry Maguire as well as the brilliant evocations of teen life that animated his earlier cult film Fast Times at Ridgemont High to chronicle and celebrate a pivotal moment in rock history—and one teenage boy's place in it.

    Stormbreaker They told him his uncle died in an accident. He wasn't wearing his seatbelt, they said. But when fourteen-year-old Alex finds his uncle's windshield riddled with bullet holes, he knows it was no accident. What he doesn't know yet is that his uncle was killed while on a top-secret mission. But he is about to, and once he does, there is no turning back. Finding himself in the middle of terrorists, Alex must outsmart the people who want him dead. The government has given him the technology, but only he can provide the courage. Should he fail, every child in England will be murdered in cold blood. 2. Point Blanc When an investigation into a series of mysterious deaths leads agents to an elite prep school for rebellious kids, MI6 assigns Alex Rider to the case. Before he knows it, Alex is hanging out with the sons of the rich and powerful, and something feels wrong. These former juvenile delinquents have turned well-behaved, studious—and identical—overnight. It's up to Alex to find out who is masterminding this nefarious plot, before they find him. 3. Skeleton Key Alex Rider has been through a lot for his fourteen years. He's been shot at by international terrorists, chased down a mountainside on a makeshift snowboard, and has stood face-to-face with pure evil. Twice, young Alex has managed to save the world. And twice, he has almost been killed doing it. But now Alex faces something even more dangerous. The desperation of a man who has lost everything he cared for: his country and his only son. A man who just happens to have a nuclear weapon and a serious grudge against the free world. To see his beloved Russia once again be a dominant power, he will stop at nothing. Unless Alex can stop him first... Uniting forces with America's own CIA for the first time, teen spy Alex Rider battles terror from the sun-baked beaches of Miami all the way to the barren ice fields of northernmost Russia. 4. Eagle Strike Sir Damian Cray is a philanthropist, peace activist, and the world's most famous pop star. But still it's not enough. He needs more if he is to save the world. Trouble is, only Alex Rider recognizes that it's the world that needs saving from Sir Damian Cray. Underneath the luster of glamour and fame lies a twisted mind, ready to sacrifice the world for his beliefs. But in the past, Alex has always had the backing of the government. This time, he's on his own. Can one teenager convince the world that the most popular man on earth is a madman bent on destruction-before time runs out? 5. Scorpia Alex Rider, teen spy, has always been told he is the spitting image of the father he never knew. But when Alex learns that his father may have been an assassin for the most lethal and powerful terrorist organization in the world, Scorpia, his world shatters. Now Scorpia wants Alex on their side, and Alex no longer has the strength to fight them. That is, until he learns of Scorpia’s latest plot: an operation known only as “Invisible Sword” that will result in the death of thousands of people. Can Alex prevent the slaughter, or will Scorpia prove once and for all that the terror will not be stopped? 6. Ark Angel The sniper’s bullet nearly killed him. But Alex Rider managed to survive . . . just in time for more trouble to come his way. When kidnappers attempt to snatch a fellow patient from the exclusive hospital where Alex is recovering, he knows he has to stop him. But the boy he saves is no ordinary patient: He is the son of Nikolai Drevin, one of the richest men in the world. The eccentric billionaire has been targeted by Force Three, a group of eco-terrorists who claim his project Ark Angel—the first luxury hotel in outer space—is a danger to the environment. Soon Alex discovers that Force Three will stop at nothing to destroy Ark Angel, even if it means sending four hundred tons of molten glass and steel hurtling down to Earth and killing millions . . . unless Alex can stop them.

    "One of the most talked about scripts of the year, Adaptation is the story of an orchid collector (Chris Cooper), a journalist (Meryl Streep, as author Susan Orlean), and the screenwriter (Charlie Kaufman, played by Nicolas Cage) who, in adapting Orlean's bestselling book The Orchid Thief writes himself and his twin brother (also played by Cage) into the movie." "In the foreword, written exclusively for this Newmarket edition, Orlean reveals her own struggle to tell the story of the orchid, and her delight that "strangely, marvelously, hilariously, Kaufman's screenplay has ended up not being a literal adaptation of my book, but a spiritual one."" Kaufman and Jonze take readers behind the scenes of Adaptation and their other films to speak about how they collaborate, where truth and fiction diverge, the challenges of balancing various storylines, why they do not like to comment on the meaning of their work, and Kaufman's approach to writing.

    For Toby Percival, the son of the owner of factory where she and her mother work, is in love with her. Her mother fears they'll both lose their jobs when Toby's father finds out, but Sarah's prepared to risk everything for Toby's love. Maurice Percival is furious when he discovers his son is involved with a factory girl. Determined to defy his father, Toby joins the army. Sarah is left facing what seem to be insurmountable obstacles, but with the help of her friends, family and a strength she never knew she possessed, she discovers there is a light at the end of the tunnel, though it shines from a different direction to the one she expected.

    The monkey's cruel incarceration in a cage is avenged when the birds trick the Twits into believing the world has turned upside-down. The Twits join in, aided by the birds who drop glue on their hair, and the audience is encouraged to play their part in freeing the monkeys.

    Vincent is living in Los Angeles, trying to forget his own shattered marriage. They want to plan a future together—but first they have to stop running from their pasts. Eric Jerome Dickey, a rising star on the bestseller lists, delivers a boldly honest novel—about love that starts with a lie.

    But for Brian there is no enchantment, only the burden of trying to honor Sarah's dying wish that he hold onto the property.With the local doctor, Cecilia Keeble, Brian begins to explore the mysteries of the old estate. In the process he discovers a medieval secret which offers a key to renew his spirit and heal his broken heart. The power of prayer reaches through the centuries in a surprising and mysterious way…

    With their latest work, O Brother, Where Art Though?, The Oscar-winning team returns to the period-piece films of their earlier career (Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy) and showcase once-again their pitch-perfect ear for hilarious and outrageous dialogue, as well as their penchant for the fantastic. Based on Homer's Odyssey, the movie stars George Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill, along with Coen-mainstay John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson as fugitives from a chain gang who embark on a mystical and musical journey through 1930s Mississippi. History and allegory are expertly entwined as, along the way, the three escapees encounter a blind prophet, are tempted by sirens, do battle with a Cyclops (in the form of a one-eyed Klansman), fall in with George "Baby Face" Nelson on a bank heist, and cut a blues record with a young guitar prodigy who bears a striking resemblance to the real-life Robert Johnson.

    Perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Annie Groves.Maeve Brannigan is only eighteen when she leaves her rural home in County Donegal and moves to Birmingham, where she falls in love with handsome Brendan Hogan. But married life isn’t as idyllic as she’d imagined, and when Maeve falls pregnant with their first child, she soon realises that Brendan isn’t the man she thought he was.Saddled with a violent husband and with two young’uns needing her protection, Maeve bears her life as best she can. After a particularly vicious attack, she is forced to flee back to Ireland – but her presence is greeted with open hostility by the close-knit catholic community that she was once so eager to escape. Driven away to face her abusive husband, Maeve’s future looks bleak. Will she find the strength to break free and make the prospect of a better life a reality rather than a distant dream?

    The letter A is as far as she gets. Hester Smith of Fucking A works the only job available—abortionist to the lower class, in order to save for a reunion picnic with her imprisoned son. Her branded A bleeds afresh every time a patient comes to see her.These are two mature, beautifully crafted, inventive and poetic plays by one of the most unique voices writing for the stage today.

    As her choices affect her family and friends, she falls into a new career and a new relationship, certain she'll live and love on her own terms.

    Includes: The Hospital, Network, and Altered States .

    A few hours later, Alice is lying in a coma after an accident that may or may not have been a suicide attempt. Alice's family gathers at her bedside and as they wait, argue, and remember, long-buried tensions emerge. The more they talk, the more they seem to conceal. Alice, meanwhile, slides between varying levels of consciousness, recalling her past and a love affair that recently ended. A riveting story that skips through time and interweaves multiple points of view, After You'd Gone is a novel of stunning psychological depth and marks the debut of a major literary talent.

    It is not about terrorism, the holocaust, or understanding death. They are the framework for this heartwarming story about a never-a-serious-thought high school senior and his best friend, a Deaf-blind, legless old man, who teaches him how to capture and hold, The Pristine American Dream. Pristine, "Characteristics of the earliest period or condition: original: still pure: uncorrupted: unspoiled [Pristine beauty]." Webster's New World Dictionary. Sometime, somehow, somewhere, we, as a people, stopped living and dreaming The Pristine American Dream as our Founding Fathers knew it. Like colors fading from a handkerchief long forgotten on a cedar post, the Dream has faded from our thoughts and aspirations. The change has been imperceptible, yet over time all of the brilliance has faded to the dull, uninspiring and common. The Pristine American Dream has taken on a different hue. To some, the American Dream has become a passionate search for easy wealth by hitting it big in the lottery, sweepstakes, a big lawsuit, or receiving an inheritance. To others it is landing a professional sports contract, or achieving prominence in politics, business or popularity without any thought to inherent rights. As important as these achievements may be to some people, The Pristine American Dream is much better. This story showcases The Pristine American Dream, which is those inalienable or inherent rights guaranteed to each American by virtue of their birth, and the diligence, hard work and determination required to obtain and enjoy the privileges of life. Simply put, inherent rights are the rights to be and to do good. Everything that is good is right, an inherent right. Nobody ever has the right to do bad; they only have the power to choose it. Many people see goodness as the result of religious dedication instead of the catalyst that fires the furnace of happiness. No matter what circumstances' individuals, families, communities or nations find themselves in, they always enjoy more peace of mind and happiness when they maintain their inherent rights. Privileges are the sweet things of life for which one must work to receive. This is a fiction story. The setting is Declo, Idaho during the years of 1966 and 1967. All the characters are fiction, but like many great fiction characters they may resemble living or dead individuals whose lives have impacted that of the author. Most family names are indigenous to the Declo community, yet there should not be any inference made that any of the characters are living or have ever lived. There are, however, certain authenthic individuals who make cameo appearances to add color to its historical setting.

    The Norton Shakespeare, Based on the Oxford Edition invites readers to rediscover Shakespeare—the working man of the theater, not the universal bard-and to rediscover his plays as scripts to be performed, not works to be immortalized. Combining the freshly edited texts of the Oxford Edition with lively introductions by Stephen Greenblatt and his co-editors, glossaries and annotations, and an elegant single-column page (that of the Norton Anthologies), this edition of Shakespeare invites contemporary readers to see and read Shakespeare afresh. Greenblatt's full introduction creates a window into Shakespeare world-the culture, demographics, commerce, politics, and religion of early-modern England—Shakespeare's family background and professional life, the Elizabethan industries of theater and printing, and the subsequent centuries of Shakespeare textual editing.

    Their destinies come together one fateful afternoon when the feared outlaw makes the choice to rescue a young woman in trouble. For her part, Josie Hunter considers the brief encounter at an end once the girl is safe, but Rebecca Cameron has other ideas...

    Then tragedy strikes -- and Lou and her younger brother, Oz, must go with their invalid mother to live on their great-grandmother's farm in the Virginia mountains. Suddenly Lou finds herself coming of age in a new landscape, making her first true friend, and experiencing adventures tragic, comic, and audacious. But the forces of greed and justice are about to clash over her new home...and as their struggle is played out in a crowded Virginia courtroom, it will determine the future of two children, an entire town, and the mountains they love.

    Written between the ages of 13 and 18, Emilie Autumn's debut poetry book quickly sold out amongst her followers upon its release back in 2000, and the audio version has since become a sought after collector's item.Now, through the magic of digital downloads, this unique spoken word book/album with EA's original musical accompaniment is available again.This edition contains 48 poems, including the well-known "How To Break A Heart," from which New York's Rochester Ballet Company created an original ballet.

    In the prequel to The Animals of Farthing Wood, THE ADVENTURE BEGINS we meet an earlier generation of animals whose descendants will make their epic journey from Farthing Wood to White Deer Park. Then read how the animals survived their first and harshest winter away from Farthing Wood in IN THE GRIP OF WINTER.

    It is best remembered for bringing mental illness and its patients’ plight to the attention of the media and the public.The play uses effective techniques of flashbacks; moving the characters in and out of their schizophrenic and normal selves to elicit the rational and emotional experiences of two schizophrenics, Vinod and Saloma.Off Centre was first staged in September 1993 at The Drama Centre.

    It's the dream and the possibility that give meaning to Yearsonend. . . . For years now it hasn't been about gold . . . it's been about much more than that. . . . Take Mario Salviati, for instance: once the gold is found, the general will let him go. We'd be able to leave the past where it belongs. . . . Secrets abound in the South African Karoo -- a remote landscape of mountains and desert, where legend weaves its way into daily life. A fabulous merman sculpture miraculously appears one morning in the yard of eccentric artist Jonty Jack, and Ingi Friedlander, a young art curator for the National Gallery at Cape Town, comes to Yearsonend to buy the masterpiece. When Jonty refuses her offer, Ingi resolves to stay and win him over. Intrigued by hints of the town's unusual history, Ingi persistently questions its inhabitants, who reveal that a mythical trove of gold is buried nearby. For several centuries gold fever has gripped the town and sent ripples of suspicion through those who live there. Tracing the roots of Yearsonend's violent and magical history of feuding families, troubled love, and corrosive greed, the narrative shuttles between the past and the present, linking two patriarchs with shadowy pasts, an earthy angel, a woman without a face, a ragtag band of soldiers, and a host of other colorful characters. As Ingi delves deeper into the mysteries of Yearsonend, she is inexplicably drawn to Mario Salviati, a deaf, dumb, and blind Italian stonecutter who holds the key to many of the town's secrets. A spectacular climax sheds light on many unanswered questions, and Ingi and the Yearsonenders learn thatthey are searching not only for their past, but also for the promise of the future. With extraordinary imagination and lyricism, Etienne van Heerden captures the essence of a land steeped in myth, and of a culturally diverse people, for whom storytelling and history are inextricably linked. In the rich magic-realism tradition of One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Long Silence of Mario Salviati is an unforgettable journey toward understanding and inspiration.

    When war breaks out in 1939, the Bennett family is on a tram heading down Tong Road as Neville Chamberlain addresses the nation. 'So, not quite partaking in the national mood and, as ever, unbrushed by the wings of history.'The precocious Alan yearns to see the places and lead the life he reads about in books, but not even the war provides the excitement he longs for. This is an ordinary childhood - hiking in the Dales on Sundays, trips into town with Mam - recalled with wry observation and ironic understatement, which is by turns moving and hilarious.These beautifully rendered snapshots, which include poignant portraits of his parents, confirm Bennett at the forefront of contemporary writing. Presented here as a new edition, Telling Tales will delight Bennett fans and enchant a new generation of readers.

    H. Auden, poet and critic, will conduct a course on Shakespeare at the New School for Social Research beginning Wednesday. Mr. Auden has announced that in his course . . . he proposes to read all Shakespeare's plays in chronological order. The New York Times reported this item on September 27, 1946, giving notice of a rare opportunity to hear one of the century's great poets comment on one of the greatest poets of all time. Published here for the first time, these lectures now make Auden's thoughts on Shakespeare available widely.Painstakingly reconstructed by Arthur Kirsch from the notes of students who attended, primarily Alan Ansen, who became Auden's secretary and friend, the lectures afford remarkable insights into Shakespeare's plays as well as the sonnets.A remarkable lecturer, Auden could inspire his listeners to great feats of recall and dictation. Consequently, the poet's unique voice, often down to the precise details of his phrasing, speaks clearly and eloquently throughout this volume. In these lectures, we hear Auden alluding to authors from Homer, Dante, and St. Augustine to Kierkegaard, Ibsen, and T. S. Eliot, drawing upon the full range of European literature and opera, and referring to the day's newspapers and magazines, movies and cartoons. The result is an extended instance of the live conversation that Auden believed criticism to be. Notably a conversation between Auden's capacious thought and the work of Shakespeare, these lectures are also a prelude to many ideas developed in Auden's later prose--a prose in which, one critic has remarked, all the artists of the past are alive and talking among themselves.Reflecting the twentieth-century poet's lifelong engagement with the crowning masterpieces of English literature, these lectures add immeasurably to both our understanding of Auden and our appreciation of Shakespeare.

    August Wilson's radical and provocative call to arms.

    Now, under Stephen Greenblatt's direction, the editors have considered afresh each introduction and all of the apparatus to make the Second Edition an even better teaching tool.

    Her characters suffer and survive against the enormous weight of the times with a dignity that inspires. Her work challenges the audience and reader to reexamine the conflicts and meaning of our everyday lives through her singular, poetic imagery and language.Includes: One Flea SpareIn the Heart of AmericaSlaughter CityThe War BoysThe Trestle at Pope's Creek

    Their singular takes on their craft, their influences, their lives, the state of contemporary theater, and the tricks of the trade create an illuminating and unparalleled record of the life of the theater itself."At its best,  theater is an antidote to the whiff of barbarity in the millennial air. 'My feeling is that people in a group, en masse, watching something, react differently, and perhaps more profoundly, than they do when they're alone in their living rooms,' Arthur Miller says here. In the dark, facing the stage, surrounded by others, the paying customer can let himself go; he is emboldened. The theatrical encounter allows a member of the public to think against received opinions. He can submerge himself in the extraordinary, admit his darkest, most infantile wishes, feel the pulse of the contemporary, hear the sludge of street talk turned into poetry. This enterprise can be joyous and dangerous; when the theater's game is good and tense, it is both."--from the Introduction by John Lahr

    The madcap adventures of Cartman, Kenny and pals: this book is a sequel to the first which was published in the autumn of 1999.

    446-386 b.c.), one of the world's greatest comic dramatists, has been admired since antiquity for his iridescent wit and beguiling fantasy, exuberant language, and brilliant satire of the social, intellectual, and political life of Athens at its height. In this third volume of a new Loeb Classical Library edition of Aristophanes' plays, Jeffrey Henderson presents a freshly edited Greek text facing a lively, unexpurgated translation with full explanatory notes. In Birds Aristophanes turns from the pointed political satire characteristic of earlier plays to a fantasy that soars literally into the air in search of a carefree world. Here the enterprising protagonists create a utopian counter-Athens, called Cloudcuckooland, ruled by birds. Lysistrata blends uninhibited comedy and an earnest call for peace. Lysistrata, our first comic heroine, organizes a panhellenic conjugal strike of young wives until their husbands end the war between Athens and Sparta. Athenian women again take center stage in Women at the Thesmophoria, this time to punish Euripides for portraying them as wicked. Parody of Euripides' plots enlivens this witty confrontation of the sexes.

    I - Destiny: Fleeing an abusive father and a hopeless life in Ireland in 1895, nineteen-year-old Tom Callahan takes passage on a ship bound for America. On board, he meets Katrina Hansen, a young Norwegian woman traveling to Utah. It's not a likely match. The brash Irishman is a Catholic, a brawler and a young man without prospects. Katrina is a refined young woman, yet naive in the ways of the world. Lured into a polygamous marriage, she finds herself abandoned on a remote Mexican beach as the man she loves, unaware of her status, seeks his fortune in Alaska. Destiny is a sprawling historical novel set at the turn of the 19th century, played out in such far-flung places as New York City, the gold fields of Alaska and Old Mexico.Vol.II - Conflict: Tom Callahan strikes it rich in the Alaska goldfield while Katrina struggles to remain alive in Mexico. Demonstrating her determination and faith, the reader is shown the resilience of this young woman who has grown beyond her years. Continuing through 1912 and the disastrous voyage of HMS Titanic, Conflict will keep you on the edge of your seat.Vol. III - Reunion: It's 1917 and American has entered World War I. Tom and Katie's son, in an effort to prove his worth to his father, has joined what President Woodrow Wilson is calling - the fight to make the world safe for democracy-. As the war ends, Tommy is selected for appointment to the Naval Academy, while his father is arrested and imprisoned in Ireland for gun running in the great Irish Civil War. Set against turbulent events in world history and filled with vivid scenes as well as tender emotions, Reunion takes the reader around the world.Vol. IV - Prelude: Tom and Katrina Callahan continue their story in the years between the two world wars. Their three children have grown up and are making their way in a world that is propelling itself toward World War II. Tess has her heart set on a Hollywood movie career; PJ is a successful sheep rancher in New Zealand and Tommy is pursuing his career in the Marine Corps and learning not only about war, but about the perils of romance. When Tommy finds himself in England prior to WWII, Winston Churchill calls on him to examine the economic growth of the German nation as they secretly prepare for war.Vol. V - Reprisal - Continuing the series into WWII as Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Callahan III faces personal tragedy during the Blitz in London as the war presents a very personal face. As he leaves his Embassy post to return to the United States, America joins Europe in the worldwide conflagration. For the second time in his young life, the son of Thomas and Katrina Callahan finds himself immersed in front-line battle, torn between his duty and the love of a beautiful woman who desires only his safety.The conclusion of The Callahans will leave you enthralled as the children and grandchildren of a once-young Irish immigrant and his Norwegian bride leave their mark upon the world.

    Marigold provides an Introduction in which he reflects on his graduation from low-budget independent cinema to a big-budget studio picture, while nevertheless continuing to explore unsettling, often unglamorous human stories with his particular blend of human empathy and an unblinking eye for the details of existence.

    Presented here are 250 tips, including the way to set a laugh, the use of opposites, a clear definition of "actions", how to use a "breath score", and even how to react if you're fired.

    Frank Kermode, Britain's most distinguished scholar of sixteenth-century and seventeenth-century literature, has been thinking about Shakespeare's plays all his life. This book is a distillation of that lifetime of thinking.The finest tragedies written in English were all composed in the first decade of the seventeenth century, and it is generally accepted that the best ones were Shakespeare's. Their language is often difficult, and it must have been hard even for contemporaries to understand. How did this language develop? How did it happen that Shakespeare's audience could appreciate Hamlet at the beginning of the decade and Coriolanus near the end of it?In this long-awaited work, Kermode argues that something extraordinary started to happen to Shakespeare's language at a date close to 1600, and he sets out to explore the nature and consequences of the dynamic transformation that followed. For it is in the magnificent, suggestive power of the poetic language itself that audiences have always found meaning and value. The originality of Kermode's argument, the elegance and humor of his prose, and the intelligence of his discussion make this a landmark in Shakespearean studies.

    Strongly influenced by Hollywood films of the thirties and forties, his many-layered novels and prays integrate serious fiction and popular culture, mixing political and sexual themes with B-movie scenarios. When his first two novels were published in the rate 1960s, they delighted the public but were dismissed as frivolous by the leftist intellectuals of the Boom; his third novel. was banned by the Peronist government for irreverence. His influence was already left, though -- even by writers who had dismissed him -- and by the time the firm version of Kiss of the Spider Woman became a worldwide hit, he was a renowned literary figure.Puig's way of life was as unconventional as his fiction: he spoke of himself in the female form in Spanish, renamed his friends for his favorite movie stars, referred to his young mate devotees as "daughters", and, as a perennial expatriate, lived (often with his mother) everywhere from Rome to Rio de Janeiro. Suzanne Jill Levine, his principal English translator, draws upon years of friendship as well as copious research and interviews in her remarkable book, the first biography of the inimitable writer.

    Remarkable, sumptuous artwork by top children's illustrator Christian Birmingham enhances this faithful abridgement of the Dickens classic.

    Of his latest play, The New York Times has written, "Uproarious ... wall-to-wall laughs ... Mr. Busch has swum straight into the mainstream and stays comfortably afloat there." Busch is the author of such plays as Vampire Lesbians of Sodom -- one of the longest-running plays in Off-Broadway history -- and Psycho Beach Party, a cross between Gidget and Spellbound. After a successful Off-Broadway run at New York City's Manhattan Theater Club, Busch moves to Broadway with The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, a hilarious comedy about a self-absorbed Upper West Side doctor's wife whose life is devoted to mornings at the Whitney, afternoons at the Museum of Modern Art, and evenings at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Her world is shaken and transformed when a childhood friend makes an unexpected visit.

    Not one to accept her fate, she makes a grand escape from the imperial palace Can she find her true destiny now that she's free?

    This guide introduces, explores and analyzes in detail the principal themes and styles of the work of Sean O'Casey. It also places it in the context of modern theatre, and includes a select bibliography.

    Daniel Gerould's landmark work, Theatre/Theory/Theatre, collects history's most influential Eastern and Western dramatic theorists - poets, playwrights, directors and philosophers - whose ideas about theatre continue to shape its future. In complete texts and choice excerpts spanning centuries, we see an ongoing dialogue and exchange of ideas between actors and directors like Craig and Meyerhold, and writers such as Nietzsche and Yeats. Each of Gerould's introductory essays shows fascinating insight into both the life and the theory of the author. From Horace to Soyinka, Corneille to Brecht, this is an indispensable compendium of the greatest dramatic theory ever written.

    Imbued with a humane, passionate, and uniquely moving vision, yet powerfully engaged in politics and history, these simply written novels comprise a modern classic, one of the great sagas of world literature.The Pretenders centers around the short life of Antonio Samson. A graduate student with revolutionary leanings, Samson meets the seductive Carmen Villa, daughter of a powerful, and corrupt, industrialist. Working toward a reform that would give the native Ilocanos more control over their land, he leads a double life, loving, and eventually marrying, the seductive Carmen, whose father stands for everything he despises. When he is betrayed by his wife, this inner conflict breaks into the open and threatens to destroy him. More than just the story of an individual life, The Pretenders is the moving tale of the life of a people, a people who often feel alienated from their own country, and who seem powerless to take control of their fate.Mass is told by the illegitimate son of Antonio Samson. Grown up, Pepe escapes from his village, drawn by the excitement and danger of the city. But in Manila he ends up in the sprawling slum of Tondo, still as poor as ever, and unable to participate in the life he came for. Yet, as Pepe moves from one morass to another, he finally comes to an understanding of his life. As much a story of hope as of despair, Mass is an affirmation of thestrong spirit of the Filipino people, a spirit that refuses to be broken, even by the most devastating adversity.Popular abroad, Mass was a bestseller in Holland, for example. Chronologically, it is the final book of the Rosales Saga, completing this consequential work.

    This edition contains substantial excerpts from the original four-act version which was never produed, as well as the full test of the final three-act version, selections from Wilde's correspondence, and commentary by George Bernard Shaw, Max Beerbohm, St. John Hankin, and James Agate.

    In this text the figure of Robin Hood can be viewed in historical perspective, from the early accounts in the chronicles through the ballads, plays and romances that grew around his fame and impressed him on our fictional and historical imaginations.

    Based on the novel by Vladimir Nabokov, Schiff tells the astounding story behind the most controversial movie of our time. 75 movie stills. "Like Nabokov's novel, it is an eloquent tragedy laced with wit and a serious, disturbing work of art..." - The New York Times

    Your one-stop classical workshop! At last, over 175 of Shakespeare's finest and most performable monologues taken from all thirty-seven plays are here in two easy-to-use volumes (Men and Women). Selections travel the entire spectrum of the great dramatist's vision, from comedies, wit and romances, to tragedies, pathos and histories. Soliloquy! is an excellent and comprehensive collection of Shakespeare's speeches. Not only are the monologues wide-ranging and varied, but they are superbly annotated. Each volume is prefaced by an informative and reassuring introduction, which explains the signals and signposts by which Shakespeare helps the actor on his journey through the text. It includes a very good explanation of blank verse, with excellent examples of irregularities which are specifically related to character and acting intentions. These two books are a must for any actor in search of a 'classical' audition piece.' Elizabeth Smith, Voice Director, Juilliard

    The guide presents the major debates that surround these works as they develop, from Martin Esslin's early appropriation of the plays as examples of the Theatre of the Absurd, to recent poststructuralist and postcolonial readings by critics such as Steven Connor, Mary Bryden and Declan Kiberd. Throughout, Boxall clarifies and contextualizes critical responses to the plays, and considers the difficult relationship between Beckett and his critics.

    Introductory essays to each work by some of theatre's most distinguished artists give historical and critical perspective to Gardner's achievement. Includes: A THOUSAND CLOWNS - THE GOODBYE PEOPLE - THIEVES - I'M NOT RAPPAPORT - CONVERSATIONS WITH MY FATHER - WHO IS HARRY KELLERMAN AND WHY IS HE SAYING THOSE TERRIBLE THINGS ABOUT ME?.

    as if Evelyn Waugh and Bret Easton Ellis had collaborated on a horrifying morality play". These qualities are apparent in this volume, which includes Dealing with Clair, in which a routine real-estate deal results in a mysterious assault on the agent, and The Treatment, which focuses on the fantasies -- sexual and otherwise -- among the young and not so young in New York's Tribeca.

    This courageous and controversial choice indirectly expands the modern definition of literature to include the power of the spoken word."Volume One includes:We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!ElizabethArchangels Don't Play PinballAbout Face

    Durer, foreword by Jan Kott. Painter, playwrights, novelist, aesthetician, philosopher, and expert on drugs, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz - or Witkacy, as he called himself - remains Poland's outstanding figure in the arts between the two world wars. This volume brings together three of Witkiewicz's best works for the stage as well as a selection from his critical writing. The plays deal with the author's principal themes and obsessions: the dilemma of the artist in the twentieth century; the revolutions in science and politics; and the bankruptcy of all ideology, the decline of western civilization, and the coming of totalitarianism. Yet, far from being solemn or even serious in tone, these apocalyptic dramas are permeated with grotesque humor and characterized by a wild theatricality that particularly appeals to contemporary sensibility.

    The Applause book of The Fisher King is essential reading for any fan of this 4-star film from Terry Gilliam that Playboy calls "an astonishing comedy about love, loss and redemption" and Vogue says "takes enormous risks and pulls off the challenge." It includes: over 200 photographs, deleted and altered scenes, interviews with Robin Williams & Terry Gilliam, a symposium about the making of the film, the complete credits, and more.

    In an Australia Day ceremony the Prime Minister is going to anoint him as the man who best understands what Australia has become. And Hunter Carlyon is black again. And the woman he loves has gone missing in a war-zone, leaving him haunted by her voice on his mobile phone...Anson Cameron's style is unique. In Tin Toys he speaks to us once again in our own language, and makes the truths of our world surface before us.Praise for Anson Cameron:"Anson Cameron writes a tough, gutsy story that is so well crafted you know there's someone behind the wheel from the word go."- The Age"[Silences Long Gone] is a fine piece of writing; fluent, accessible and emotionally sophisticated. Highly recommended."- Canberra Times"Wayward and rich and seriously funny."- Adelaide Advertiser

    Somerset Maugham includes the complete texts of three novels--The Moon and Sixpence, The Painted Veil, and The Magician--as well as five short stories--Rain, The Letter, Alien Corn, The Pool, and Mackintosh. Original.

    In these three pieces, the award-winning writer and performer celebrates the power of words to rescue the young black women she portrays from their constricted worlds.In the Obie Award-winning play "Beauty's Daughter," Diane yearns to free herself from her soul-deadening surroundings, where people drown their unfulfilled aspirations in drugs and alcohol. In "Monster," Theresa imagines a life in the rock-'n'-roll poetry bohemia of Manhattan's Lower East Side and away from her home in East Harlem, where she is scorned as a misfit. And in "The Gimmick," Alexis escapes her brutal reality among the library bookshelves, where she dreams of becoming a writer in Paris. Charged with fearless wisdom, these three electrifying plays transform rage-filled ghetto experience into a triumph of rhapsodic expression.

    It is written by director and acting teacher, Wesley Van Tassel, and is designed for professional actors in stage and film, theatre students, and anyone who enjoys acting, directing or reading Shakespeare. It seeks to create a bridge from realism to heightened text, enabling actors to conquer the challenges of Shakespeare through mastery of the language. Extensive exercises move beyond traditional voice work to teach the specific skills vital to effective delivery. Detailed explanations and easy-to-follow exercises cover the intricacies of breathing, scansion, phrasing, rhythm, antithesis, imagery, text analysis, acting objectives and more. There is a one-day brush-up section providing solutions for working actors' immediate concerns, and expanded skill practice sections for long-term learning.

    Best known for her ongoing work as a member of The Five Lesbian Brothers, Kron's solo pieces are very personal examinations of both herself and her family history. This is singularly clear in 2.5 Minute Ride, where her writing deftly maneuvers between the tragic drama of the Holocaust and the wry comedy of her family's attempts to pursue pleasure at the local amusement park. This critically acclaimed work played to sold out audience for over six months at New York's Public Theatre. Also included is the riotous 101 Humiliating Stories, which first premiered in 1993, and in fact only consists of seventeen tales but each, as the author observes, has several humiliations. It recounts the adventures and misadventures of a self-described Big Lesbian as she tests the boundaries of decorum in social and professional situations.

    Henley includes her own memories and impressions and those of her friends in introductions to each play.

    But that peace is shattered by the discovery of a dead infant in the barn of an Amish farmer. A police investigation quickly leads to two startling disclosures: the newborn's mother is an unmarried Amish woman, eighteen-year-old Katie Fisher. And the infant did not die of natural causes. Although Katie denies the medical proof that she gave birth to the child, circumstantial evidence leads to her arrest for the murder of her baby. One hundred miles away, Philadelphia defense attorney Ellie Hathaway has achieved an enviable, high-profile career. But her latest court victory has set the sands shifting beneath her. Single at thirty-nine and unsatisfied with her relationship, Ellie doesn't look back when she turns down her chance to make partner and takes off for an open-ended stay at her great-aunt's home in Paradise. Fate brings her to Katie Fisher. Suddenly, Ellie sees the chance to defend a client who truly needs her, not just one who can afford her. But taking on this case challenges Ellie in more ways than one. She finds herself not only in a clash of wills with a client who does not want to be defended but also in a clash of cultures with a people whose channels of justice are markedly different from her own. Immersing herself in Katie Fisher's life -- and in a world founded on faith, humility, duty, and honesty -- Ellie begins to understand the pressures and sacrifices of those who to live plain. As she peels away the layers of fact and fantasy, Ellie calls on an old friend for guidance. Now, just as this man from Ellie's past reenters her life, she must uncover the truth about a complex case, a tragic loss, the bonds of love -- and her own deepest fears and desires.

    His death has brought into her midst both her sister, Claire, who wants to take Catherine back to New York with her, and Hal, a former student of Catherine's father who hopes to find some hint of Robert's genius among his incoherent scribblings. The passion that Hal feels for math both moves and angers Catherine, who, in her exhaustion, is torn between missing her father and resenting the great sacrifices she made for him. For Catherine has inherited at least a part of her father's brilliance -- and perhaps some of his instability as well. As she and Hal become attracted to each other, they push at the edges of each other's knowledge, considering not only the unpredictability of genius but also the human instinct toward love and trust.

    Beginning with the rediscovery of a long-lost best friend, INTO THE TANGLE OF FRIENDSHIP follows the intertwining stories of a cast of characters for whom friendship is a saving grace. We meet a next-door neighbor facing the death of a spouse, watch two young boys learn what it means to be friends, and feel the heartache of a professional caregiver whose compassion and dedication ultimately come up short. Kephart is concerned with the haphazard ways we find one another, the tragedy, boredom, and sheer carelessness that break us apart, the myriad reasons people stay together and grow. What is friendship, and what is its secret calculus? Telling stories to illuminate this question, she also engages us in an essential dialogue about what it means to be fully alive. Profound, original, and exquisitely written, INTO THE TANGLE OF FRIENDSHIP is a hymn to the intimate realities of our lives and what makes those lives not only worth living but magical. It will resonate with anyone who has ever had a friend, or lost one.

    In a hunting story to beat all hunting stories, ESCANABA IN DA MOONLIGHT spins a hilarious tale of humor, horror and heart as Reuben goes to any and all lengths to remove himself from the wrong end of the family record book.

    Placing the protagonists and their suffering in a modern context, Ehn produces what he calls "contemporary fairy tales for the stage." The subject matter, he explains in the Preface, is "exploded biography," or "the means by which the self is overmastered by acts of the imagination, by acts of faith." An important contribution to current explorations of the poetic and spiritual in the theater, these surprising dramas create their own language, interrogating the limits of empathy and faith. "The plays grow out of [Ehn's] deep Catholic faith which reveals a specifically Franciscan spiritual energy in its community-based ethos and hallowed desire to infuse contemporary life with a feeling for the divine... Ehn's saint plays partake of the century-long Judeo-Christian tradition of modern writers dramatizing the great themes of faith, evil, spiritual longing and soul states in plays that include saints, angels or biblical characters... His joyful drama sings the praises of the poetic voice and image in portraits of people crafted like beautiful holy cards."--Bonnie Marranca, Plays for the End of the Century

    Preparations for the great day - service at Westminster, reception at Claridges - are on schedule; the bridesmaids' bouquets made up; the cake decorated. Then Freddie decides that she cannot go through with it. Unable to face the indignation and fury of Alex, her parents, or anyone else, she flees to a friend's cottage in Dorset. At first sight its state of dilapidation is so extreme that Freddie decides she cannot possibly stay there. But she has reckoned without the attentions of Guy Gilderoy; the culinary delights of the Rector and his wife; a family of neglected children; and the primitive and secret shrines she finds in her garden. In her attempts to make sense of her new life, Freddie discovers much about herself that is surprising as the ghosts of her childhood are laid to rest.

    Filled with heroes and tricksters, comedy and drama, these entertaining plays are a wonderful way to bring Native cultures to life for young people. Each play has multiple parts that can be adjusted to suit the size of a particular group and includes simple, informative suggestions for props, scenery, and costumes that children can help to create. Introductory notes and beautiful, detailed illustrations add to young readers' understanding of the seven Native nations whose traditions have inspired the plays.

    Based on a five-volume Chinese novel by Wang Du Lu, the project was scripted by Wang Hui Ling (Eat Drink Man Woman), James Schamus (The Ice Storm), and Tsai Kuo Jung. Marking Ang Lee's first Chinese-language feature since 1994, the film is punctuated by beautifully choreographed fight scenes and dazzling stunts masterminded by Yuen Wo-Ping, who worked on The Matrix. The actors include the two most popular Asian actors in the world, Chow Yun Fat (Anna and the King, The Replacement Killers) and Michelle Yeoh (Supercop, Tomorrow Never Dies).The Newmarket book includes the screenplay, stunning full-color photographs before and behind the cameras, interviews and notes with filmmakers, features on the history and tradition of martial arts storytelling and filmmaking, and articles by Time's Richard Corliss and world renowned film scholar David Bordwell.

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    Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.