Michener brings Hawaii’s epic history vividly to life in a classic saga that has captivated readers since its initial publication in 1959. As the volcanic Hawaiian Islands sprout from the ocean floor, the land remains untouched for centuries—until, little more than a thousand years ago, Polynesian seafarers make the perilous journey across the Pacific, flourishing in this tropical paradise according to their ancient traditions. Then, in the early nineteenth century, American missionaries arrive, bringing with them a new creed and a new way of life. Based on exhaustive research and told in Michener’s immersive prose, Hawaii is the story of disparate peoples struggling to keep their identity, live in harmony, and, ultimately, join together.

    The richest, most depraved man on Earth, Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a space journey to distant worlds with a beautiful woman at his side. Of course there's a catch to the invitation—and a prophetic vision about the purpose of human life that only Vonnegut has the courage to tell.

    It has a long foreword by the novelist himself and a longer afterword by P K Balakrishnan. This special edition also has illustrations by Sherif and photographs of the real characters including Pathumma and goats.

    Raymond Shaw is a hero of the first order. He's an ex-prisoner of war who saved the life of his entire outfit, a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the stepson of an influential senator...and the perfect assassin. Brainwashed during his time as a P.O.W., he is a "sleeper" -- a living weapon to be triggered by a secret signal. He will act without question, no matter what order he is made to carry out. To stop Shaw and those who now control him, his former commanding officer, Bennett Marco, must uncover the truth behind a twisted conspiracy of torture, betrayal, and power that will lead him to the highest levels of the government -- and into the darkest recesses of his own mind....

    The Hamlet, the first book of the series chronicling the advent and rise of the grasping Snopes family in mythical Yoknapatawpha County, is a work that Cleanth Brooks called "one of the richest novels in the Faulkner canon." It recounts how the wily, cunning Flem Snopes dominates the rural community of Frenchman's Bend - and claims the voluptuous Eula Varner as his bride. The Town, the second novel, records Flem's ruthless struggle to take over the county seat of Jefferson, Mississippi. Finally, The Mansion tells of Mink Snopes, whose archaic sense of honor brings about the downfall of his cousin Flem. "For all his concerns with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man," noted Ralph Ellison. "Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics."

    As legend has it, God blessed the only survivor of this medieval pogrom, Rabbi Yom Tov Levy, as one of the Lamed-Vov, the thirty-six Just Men of Jewish tradition, a blessing which extended to one Levy of each succeeding generation. This terrifying and remarkable legacy is traced over eight centuries, from the Spanish Inquisition, to expulsions from England, France, Portugal, Germany, and Russia, and to the small Polish village of Zemyock, where the Levys settle for two centuries in relative peace. It is in the twentieth century that Ernie Levy emerges, The Last of the Just, in 1920s Germany, as Hitler’s sinister star is on the rise and the agonies of Auschwitz loom on the horizon. This classic work, long unavailable in a trade edition, is one of those few novels that, once read, is never forgotten.

    The book quickly won a respected readership and later an audience for the movie with the same name starring Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason. The Hustler is about the victories and losses of one "Fast" Eddie Felson, a poolroom hustler who travels from town to town conning strangers into thinking they could beat him at the game when in fact, he is a skillful player who has never lost a game. Until he meets his match in Minnesota Fats, the true king of the poolroom, causing his life to change drastically. This is a classic tale of a man's struggle with his soul and his self-esteem.

    It gives a voice to hitherto silent actors on the stage of history as it offers a comprehensive account of the social and economic realities reflected in the hopes, dreams, and experiences of Jussi and Alma Koskela and their children in the rural village of Pentti's Corners in south central Finland.

    Bridge, an inspired novel set in the years around World War II that testified to the sapping ennui of an unexamined suburban life. India Bridge, the title character, has three children and a meticulous workaholic husband. She defends her dainty, untouched guest towels from son Douglas, who has the gall to dry his hands on one, and earnestly attempts to control her daughters with pronouncements such as "Now see here, young lady ... in the morning one doesn't wear earrings that dangle." Though her life is increasingly filled with leisure and plenty, she can't shuffle off vague feelings of dissatisfaction, confusion, and futility. Evan S. Connell, who also wrote the twinned novel Mr. Bridge, builds a world with tiny brushstrokes and short, telling vignettes.

    Remarkable for its courage, its color, and its natural control. --The New Yorker An unforgettable novel written with pride and anger, with rebellion and tears. --New York Herald Tribune Set in Brooklyn during the Great Depression and World War II, Brown Girl, Brownstones chronicles the efforts of Barbadian immigrants to surmount poverty and racism and to make their new country home. Selina Boyce is torn between the opposing aspirations of her parents: her hardworking, ambitious mother longs to buy a brownstone row house while her easygoing father prefers to dream of effortless success and his native island's lushness. Featuring a new foreword by Edwidge Danticat, this coming-of-age tale grapples with identity, sexuality, and changing values in a new country, as a young woman must reconcile tradition with potential and change.

    A look at the workings of a modern day hospital through the lens of the pathologists department.

    “Bravura pieces... executed with brilliance and brio”(Chicago Tribune). Translated by Archibald Colquhoun. A Helen and Kurt Wolff BookOriginally published as two distinct volumes: 'Il visconte dimezzato' (1952) and 'Il cavaliere inesistente' (1959). Also published in a single volume with 'The baron in the trees' (Il barone rampante, 1957) as 'Our Ancestors' (I nostri antenati, 1960).

    Many of them have appeared only in foreign magazines while others were printed in small limited editions which have gone out of print. Miller's genius for comedy is at its best in "Money and How It Gets That Way" -- a tongue-in-cheek parody of "economics" provoked by a postcard from Ezra Pound which asked if he "ever thought about money." His deep concern for the role of the artist in society appears in "An Open Letter to All and Sundry," and in "The Angel is My Watermark" he writes of his own passionate love affair with painting. "The Immorality of Morality" is an eloquent discussion of censorship. Some of the stories, such as "First Love," are autobiographical, and there are portraits of friends, such as "Patchen: Man of Anger and Light," and essays on other writers such as Walt Whitman, Thoreau, Sherwood Anderson and Ionesco.Taken together, these highly readable pieces reflect the incredible vitality and variety of interests of the writer who extended the frontiers of modern literature with Tropic of Cancer and other great books.

    At the center of it all is the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, who stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle and its kingdom, unless the conniving Steerpike, who is determined to rise above his menial position and control the House of Groan, has his way.In these extraordinary novels, Peake has created a world where all is like a dream - lush, fantastical, and vivid. Accompanying the text are Peake's own drawings, illustrating the whole assembly of strange and marvelous creatures that inhabit Gormenghast.Also featuring:Introductory essays by Anthony Burgess and Quentin CrispTwelve critical essays, curated by Peake scholar Peter G. WinningtonFragment of the unpublished novel, Titus Awakes

    As William Fiennes wrote in the London Review of Books, 'Mitchell was the laureate of the waters around New York', and in The Bottom of the Harbor he records the lives and practices of the rivermen, with love and understanding and a sharp eye for the eccentric and strange. This is some of the best journalist ever written.

    Marcus Mezentius Manilianus, a learned and wealthy Roman, is travelling in the Orient and arrives in Jerusalem on the day of the crucifixion of Jesus. This marks the departure point on a quest with many questions: Who was this king that died on the cross? What is the secret of his kingdom?

    An amazing, sui generis book, River of Fire spans two and a half millennia. Set during four Indian epochs (the classical, the medieval, the colonial, and the modern post-national), the novel is a meditation on history and human nature, tracing four souls through time. Each section is linked by characters who bear, in every period, the same names: Gautam, Champa, Kamal, and Cyril. Gautam (appearing first as a student of mysticism at the Forest University of Shravasti in the 4th century B.C.E.) and Champa (throughout embodying the enigmatic experience of Indian women) begin and end the novel; Muslim Kamal appears mid-way through, as the Muslims did, and loses himself in the Indian landscape; and Cyril, the Englishman, appears later still. In different eras, different relations from among the four -- romance and war, possession and dispossession. Yet together the characters reflect the oneness of human nature: amidst the nationalist and religious upheavals of Indian history, Hyder argues for a culture that is inclusive.Interweaving parables, legends, dreams, diaries, and letters, Hyder's prose is lyrical and witty. There is really no book like River of Fire. Qurratulain Hyder was awarded the Bharatiya Gnanpith, India's highest literary award, in 1989, and here is her masterpiece, her broadest canvas and her finest art.

    The novel is the second part of the Condor Trilogy (The Legend of the Condor Heroes, The Return of the Condor Heroes, and The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber). Historially set at the end the Song Dynasty and at the beginning of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, the story revolves around Yang Guo and his lover Xiaolongnü in their adventure in the Wulin fraternity, which does not approve of their taboo love between master and apprentice. Original Chinese title is "Shen Diao Xia Lü". Alternate English titles are "The Giant Eagle and Its Companion", and "Divine Eagle, Chivalric Companion". Presented here is book 1 of 5.The protagonist, Yang Guo, is the orphaned son of the antagonist, Yang Kang, of the first novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes. He is raised briefly by the couple Guo Jing and Huang Rong before being sent to the Quanzhen Sect for better guidance in moral values and orthodox martial arts. At Quanzhen, Yang is often picked on and bullied by his fellow students and his teacher Zhao Zhijing is biased against him. Yang flees and ventures unknowingly into the nearby Tomb of the Living Dead, where the Ancient Tomb Sect is housed. He is saved by Xiaolongnü, a mysterious maiden of unknown origin, and becomes her disciple. They live together in the tomb for many years until Yang grows up. By then, Yang sees Xiaolongnü more than merely his highly-respected teacher, as he has gradually developed romantic feelings for her.However, their love is forbidden by societal laws in the Chinese Confucianist society of that time. Throughout the story, their love meets with several tests, such as the misunderstandings that threaten to tear them apart and the encounter with Gongsun Zhi. Finally, after their reunion and marriage, Xiaolongnü leaves Yang again, owing to her belief she cannot recover from a fatal poison, and promises to meet him again sixteen years later. While Yang is wandering the land alone, he meets several formidable pugilists and a giant Condor. His adventures gradually mould him into a courageous pugilist, whose prowess matches the Five Greats of his age. Yang serves his nation by helping the Han Chinese of Song defeat the Mongol invaders. At the end of the novel, he is finally reunited with Xiaolongnü and they are recognized as heroes.

    Haunted by the deaths of his parents and wielding his tin drum Oskar recounts the events of his extraordinary life; from the long nightmare of the Nazi era to his anarchic adventures in post-war Germany.

    Born in a shantytown, Tommaso Puzzilli was once young and hopeful, but he soon succumbs to life on the streets, where he must resort to crime and prostitution simply to stay alive. Written by an author who ultimately suffered the same chilling fate as one of his characters, this fictional account offers a startling portrait of the very real tragedies of urban poverty.

    “The Two Hussars,” inspired by his time in the army, contrasts a dashing father and his mean-spirited son. Illustrating Tolstoy’s belief that art must serve a moral purpose, “What Men Live By” portrays an angel sent to earth to learn three existential rules of life. And in the deeply moving “Master and Man,” a mercenary merchant travels with his unprotesting servant through a blizzard to close a business deal—little realizing he may soon have to settle accounts with his maker.Two hussars --Strider --God sees the truth but waits --A prisoner of the Caucasus --What men live by --Neglect a spark and the house burns down --The two old men --The three hermits --How much land does a man need? --Master and man.

    This is the love story of a Scottish naturalist and a Indian girl in the Canadian wilderness; their destinies are linked with that of the strange barnacle goose from the Hebrides.

    

    After being drawn into the Second World War to command retreating German forces despite his anti-Nazi feelings, Faehmel struggles to re-establish a normal life at the end of the war. He adheres to a rigorous schedule, including a daily game of billiards. When his routine is breached by an old friend from his past, now a power in German reconstruction, Faehmel is forced to confront both public and private memories.

    

    When he asked why, he was told: “This Poland doesn’t exist.” Long out of print, The Graveyard is Hłasko’s portrait of a system built on such denial and willful blindness. Factory worker Franciszek Kowalski is on his way home one evening after drinking with an old friend from the People’s Army when he unthinkingly yells some insults at a policeman. His outburst is taken as criticism of the government, and he is arrested and then expelled from the Party. Kowalski attempts to rehabilitate himself by gathering testimonies from the men he had fought alongside, but each meeting with his former comrades takes him further into the underworld that he realizes has been there all along.Written midway through Hłasko’s meteoric career, The Graveyard set its author and the Polish Communist government implacably against each other, and it’s easy to see why: Hłasko pulls no punches in portraying a regime that is maintained by constant surveillance, intimidation, and profound psychological manipulation.A classic novel of political disillusionment from one of Poland’s seminal writers, an original “Angry Young Man” who lived fast, died young, and wrote brilliantly.

    Vacationing in the Italian Alps, Scotland Yard Inspector Henry Tibbett and his wife, Emmy, discover an international smuggling ring and an unexpected murder

    All my life I have spun in a wild tarantella of unappeased longing--from girl to girl to girl. Yet due to an excessive lack of height (often mistaken for lack of manliness or sex-drive), I have always had what some people (also mistaken) call perfect love--all despair and no fulfillment. Still I go on trying...Now this cat is hip. A typical Shulman character. They're all after the same THING. They'd all rather snap in the struggle than face the shame and desolation of failure. If you are a romantic misfit, wipe the dust off your love-life, read Max Shulman, and get with it!

    In an impoverished village in southern Italy, the life and death of Giacamo Nerone has inspired talk of saint­hood. Father Blaise Meredith, a dying English priest, is sent from the Vatican to investigate—and to try to untangle the web of facts, rumors, and outright lies that surround Nerone's life and death. With spiritual frailty as a backdrop, The Devil's Advocate reminds us how the power of goodness ultimately prevails over despair.

    The vet lives with his bedridden wife and shy daughter Alice in a sinister London suburb. He works constantly, captive to a strange private fury, and treats his family with brutality and contempt. After his wife’s death, the vet takes up with a crass, needling woman who tries to refashion Alice in her own image. And yet as Alice retreats ever deeper into a dream world, she discovers an extraordinary secret power of her own.Harrowing and haunting, like an unexpected cross between Flannery O’Connor and Stephen King, The Vet’s Daughter is a story of outraged innocence that culminates in a scene of appalling triumph.

    The men find a strange world that grows ever stranger, and everywhere there are images of death. The crew's attempt to communicate with this civilization leads to violence and to a cruel truth-cruel precisely because it is so human. Translated by Marc E. Heine. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

    Even in the midst of the Great Depression there are many exciting things to occupy her time. But when the prescription for a sudden illness includes spending the summer at her grandparents' country cottage beside Lake Huron, Elsa must learn to find excitement in "empty" places. Discover with Elsa a summer full of simple yet wonderful new experiences: tending her own garden, fishing on the big lake, exploring a mysterious gully, making new friends, learning to walk barefoot, and picking wild berries. When Elsa returns to the big city at summer's end, will her life ever be the same again?

    Professor Quatermass and his team from the British Experimental Rocket Group wait anxiously for the crew to emerge. But only man is left aboard - a man too shocked to tell what happened to his colleagues. It is thebeginning of a reign of terror which will hold London in its merciless grip - and threaten the entire world!

    The job that will set them up for life. A million dollars split five ways, who wouldn't be interested? The only catch is that it's the very definition of impossible...or is it? Armed with a brilliant plan, the four men and one woman think they can crack it. But as tensions in the group begin to mount and things start to go wrong, the million dollars feels more out of reach than ever. Even though it is right with them...

    Waugh at his devastatingly best in two great novels: "A Handful of Dust" and "Decline and Fall," coupled together in a "Laurel Edition" from Dell Publishing.

    Beautiful, possibly allegorical story in which most of the characters are animals in the forest but other characters are a shepherd and his family, who live there at the edge of the forest.

    As he bought more and more land, the roads became highways, and now the Droveks own a complex of hotels, restaurants, a truck stop, a shopping centre and two gas stations. Papa's eldest son, Charles, is president of the Crossroads Corporation. His son Leo enjoys his token job, and daughter Joan manages the commercial tenants' leases. But when younger son Pete's wife gets restless and lonely, she becomes an easy pawn in a sleazy scheme of robbery and murder. The target? Old Papa Drovek himself.

    Originally published in the UK as The Silver Pencil.

    The light-hearted story of their life together and of the men they meet is suddenly interrupted by the death of Mr. Flower, their meek little landlord. When Denny realizes she may have an important clue to the murderer’s identity, her life is also in danger . . .

    

    Aided by a friend in Budapest, they plan to stowaway aboard a freight train, pass the Austrian border and make their way to Sweden where Latsi's parents have resided for several years. The unpredictable obstacles in this race for freedom add to the existent hazards. The boys are separated, Pishta comes down with a fever and Latsi comes in contact with a Russian spy whose job it is to reclaim wayward refugees. With the help of a Swedish journalist in Austria., the spy is apprehended, the boys reunited and the long dangerous journey completed. A timely topic employs tried and true techniques of story telling in this well thriller in the cloak and dagger vein.

    He was a stranger, but he brought lust and love, rape and hate to this quiet southern town. He was... the intruder.It was a sleepy southern town with nice folks and good schools. Then the intruder arrived from the North. With him came trouble, fear, and hate so vicious it could turn neighbor against neighbor, child against child, white against black - and destroy them all.

    It is only when her grandmother gives her a wedding present, an old chest containing a diary, that she learns about her ancestor, another Arbella, who lived in the early 1700s in the Massachusetts Colony. That Arbella, like the modern Arbella, was uncommonly tall for a woman. She had other distinctive attributes, too, and plenty of adventures, her great-great-great-great-great granddaughter finds out.

    PHOENIX, ARIZONA - (DAY) - HELICOPTER SHOT Above Midtown section of the city.....

    But the cruise they were on was turning out to be a bore. So when the gracious Mr. Tan requests that Greg take a side trip to Singapore to resolve a bureaucratic detail involving a consignment of small arms, Greg is surprisingly receptive. All he has to do is sign some papers, he’s told, and he’ll be paid a handsome fee. And everything does go smoothly, until it comes to getting a check co-signed by the rebel leader…

    and if the treasure we have accumulated makes no show upon our bank statements, neither is it subject to income tax."Lantana, bushy and massive, is Australia's most uncontrollable tropical weed. Inland from the Pacific coast, where the pineapple plantations grow, sprawls the lantana in all its luxuriance. Here, too, putting up constant fight against the weed, is the small farming community of Lantana Lane. Though they stoutly declare that farming means drudgery, misery, penury, monotony, bankruptcy and calamity -- that it is, in short, a mug's game--they are all firmly and happily wedded to the land, and therefore, naturally, to the lantana. From Aunt Isabelle, part-pioneer, part-Parisienne, to Nelson the one-eyed kookaburra bird, each of the Lane's inhabitants makes their own inimitable contribution to this engaging and witty portrait of community life.

    There was a strength about him that was undeniable, a readiness set to explode. Ric was a man well-chosen for the job of saving someone's life, even if it cost him his own. New Mexico was the Last Chance stop on the road - for Ric, for Handsome, for Martin, for Peggy, and for Eve, especially for Eve."