Diary of the Fall


Michel Laub - 2011
    Years later, he relives the episode as he examines the mistakes of his past and struggles for forgiveness. His father, who has Alzheimer’s, obsessively records every memory that comes to mind, and his grandfather, who survived Auschwitz, fills notebook after notebook with the false memories of someone desperate to forget.This powerful novel centered on guilt and the complicated legacy of history asks provocative questions about what it means to be Jewish in the twenty-first century.

Sergeant Getúlio


João Ubaldo Ribeiro - 1971
    It is a tale of virtue." (Prologue)

O Cobrador


Rubem Fonseca - 1979
    Rubem Fonseca's Rio is a city at war, a city whose vast disparities- in wealth, social standing, and prestige- are untenable. In the stories of The Taker, rich and poor live in an uneasy equilibrium, where only overwhelming force can maintain order, and violence and deception are essential tools of survival.

O Matador


Patrícia Melo - 1995
    But instead of being arrested, he is lauded as a local hero. Yet something in the undertow continues to trouble him. Deeply. Maquel pays a visit to Dr. Carvalho--a dentist with gleaming canines and a peculiar interest in violence. The doctor lectures Maquel on "the theory of the born criminal" and offers him a deal: free dental care in exchange for the death of the man who raped his daughter. Soon the dentist's wealthy friends want to make deals with Maquel, too. Maquel has become The Killer. Thus bombarded from without and within, Maquel's life in crime escalates to stunning heights. Brutal infidelities are committed, Mafia-style dealings are conducted, and civic honors are bestowed. From there, the fall is devastating.

The Crimes of Love


Marquis de Sade - 1799
    Sade's villains will stop at nothing to satisfy their depraved passions, and they in turn suffer under the thrall of love. This is the most complete selection from the Marquis de Sade's four-volume collection of short stories, The Crimes of Love. David Coward's vibrant new translation captures the verve of the original, and his introduction and notes describe Sade's notorious career. This new selection includes An Essay on Novels, Sade's penetrating survey of the novelist's art. It also contains the preface to the collection and an important statement of Sade's concept of fiction and one of the few literary manifestoes published during the Revolution. Appendices include the denunciatory review of the collection that it received on publication, and Diderot's vigorous response. A skilled and artful story-teller, Marquis de Sade's is also an intellectual who asks questions about society, about ourselves, and about life. Psychologically astute and defiantly unconventional, these stories show Sade at his best.

Ponciá Vicêncio


Conceição Evaristo - 2006
    Latino/Latina Studies. Translated from the Portuguese by Paloma Martinez-Cruz. The story of a young Afro-Brazilian woman's journey from the land of her enslaved ancestors to the emptiness of urban life. However, the generations of creativity, violence and family cannot be so easily left behind as Poncia is heir to a mysterious psychic gift from her grandfather. Does this gift have the power to bring Poncia back from the emotional vacuum and absolute solitude that has overtaken her in the city? Do the elemental forces of earth, air, fire and water mean anything in the barren urban landscape? A mystical story of family, dreams and hope by the most talented chronicler of Afro-Brazilian life writing today.

The Collected Short Stories, Vol 1: 100 Short Stories


Anton Chekhov - 1880
    In this volume, the reader will find one hundred of his best stories:THE DARLING ARIADNE POLINKA ANYUTA THE TWO VOLODYAS THE TROUSSEAU THE HELPMATE TALENT AN ARTIST'S STORY THREE YEARS THE LADY WITH THE DOG A DOCTOR'S VISIT AN UPHEAVAL IONITCH THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY THE BLACK MONK VOLODYA AN ANONYMOUS STORY THE HUSBAND THE PARTY TERROR A WOMAN'S KINGDOM A PROBLEM THE KISS 'ANNA ON THE NECK' THE TEACHER OF LITERATURE NOT WANTED TYPHUS A MISFORTUNE A TRIFLE FROM LIFE THE WIFE DIFFICULT PEOPLE THE GRASSHOPPER A DREARY STORY THE PRIVY COUNCILLOR THE MAN IN CASE GOOSEBERRIES ABOUT LOVE THE LOTTERY TICKET THE BISHOP THE LETTER EASTER EVE A NIGHTMARE THE MURDER UPROOTED THE STEPPE THE CHORUS GIRL VEROTCHKA MY LIFE AT A COUNTRY HOUSE A FATHER ON THE ROAD ROTHSCHILD'S FIDDLE IVAN MATVEYITCH ZINOTCHKA BAD WEATHER A GENTLEMAN FRIEND A TRIVIAL INCIDENT THE HORSE-STEALERS WARD NO. 6 THE PETCHENYEG A DEAD BODY A HAPPY ENDING THE LOOKING-GLASS OLD AGE DARKNESS THE BEGGAR A STORY WITHOUT A TITLE IN TROUBLE FROST A SLANDER MINDS IN FERMENT GONE ASTRAY AN AVENGER THE JEUNE PREMIER A DEFENCELESS CREATURE AN ENIGMATIC NATURE A HAPPY MAN A TROUBLESOME VISITOR AN ACTOR'S END THE SCHOOLMASTER ENEMIES THE EXAMINING MAGISTRATE BETROTHED FROM THE DIARY OF A VIOLENT-TEMPERED MAN IN THE DARK A PLAY A MYSTERY STRONG IMPRESSIONS DRUNK THE MARSHAL'S WIDOW A BAD BUSINESS IN THE COURT BOOTS JOY LADIES A PECULIAR MAN AT THE BARBER'S AN INADVERTENCE THE ALBUMContains an active table of contents for easy reference.This unexpurgated edition contains the complete text with errors and omissions corrected.

The Club of Angels


Luis Fernando Verissimo - 1998
    Written by one of Brazil's leading authors and columnists, Club of Angels was an immediate success there, and has been on the bestseller list since 1998. It tells the story of ten privileged men, who meet every month to dine fabulously and celebrate their friendship and singularity. When their leader, Ramos, dies of AIDS, the narrator Daniel meets his possible replacement -- Lucido -- in a wineshop. Lucido is mysteriously taciturn, but in the privacy of Daniel's kitchen, he recreates the men's favorite dishes, giving them a gastronomic experience like no other. The tale of bewilderment and death that follows creates an unforgettable literary experience. It is tinged with funny characters, witty dialogue, touching with mordant satire on all segments of Brazilian society. Club of Angels has been translated into English by the renowned Margaret Jull Costa (translator of Jose Saramago, Paulo Coelho, Javier Marias, and Arturo Perez-Reverte).

Education by Stone


João Cabral de Melo Neto - 1996
    Such was the ambition of João Cabral de Melo Neto. Though a great admirer of the thing-rich poetries of Francis Ponge and of Marianne Moore, what interested him even more, as he remarked in his acceptance speech for the 1992 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, was "the exploration of the materiality of words," the "rigorous construction of (. . .) lucid objects of language." His poetry, hard as stone and light as air, is like no other.

Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector


Benjamin Moser - 2009
    Now, after years of research on three continents, drawing on previously unknown manuscripts and dozens of interviews, Benjamin Moser demonstrates how Lispector's development as a writer was directly connected to the story of her turbulent life. Born in the nightmarish landscape of post-World War I Ukraine, Clarice became, virtually from adolescence, a person whose beauty, genius, and eccentricity intrigued Brazil. Why This World tells how this precocious girl, through long exile abroad and difficult personal struggles, matured into a great writer. It also asserts, for the first time, the deep roots in the Jewish mystical tradition that make her the true heir to Kafka as well as the unlikely author of "perhaps the greatest spiritual autobiography of the twentieth century." From Chechelnik to Recife, from Naples and Berne to Washington and Rio de Janeiro, Why This World strips away the mythology surrounding this extraordinary figure and shows how Clarice Lispector transformed one woman's struggles into a universally resonant art.

Collected Works Of George Bernard Shaw


George Bernard Shaw - 2008
    Warren's Profession; Pygmalion. Eight full-cast performances featuring: Kate Burton, Roger Rees, Shirley Knight, Anne Heche, Eric Stoltz, Martin Jarvis, Paxton Whitehead, Richard Dreyfuss, Bruce Davison and many more.

A Sucessora


Carolina Nabuco - 1934
    Known by many as the book that inspired Daphne Du Maurier to write "Rebecca" (who was accused of plagiarism by Nabuco), "The Successor" has been overwhelmed by its follower, which has become a recognized and acclaimed novel all over the world."The Successor" is a psychological piece about the feminine character at conflict; the character of a woman possessed with jealousy of her husband's first wife, living obsessed in a constant torturous effort to find her a flaw that can assure her some peace of mind.

The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship


Charles Bukowski - 1998
    Bukowski's last journals candidly and humorously reveal the events in the writer's life as death draws inexorably nearer, thereby illuminating our own lives and natures, and to give new meaning to what was once only familiar. Crumb has illustrated the text with 12 full-page drawings and a portrait of Bukowski.

Justice


John Galsworthy - 1910
    He is viewed as one of the first writers of the Edwardian era; challenging in his works some of the ideals of society depicted in the preceeding literature of Victorian England. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1932. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga (1906-1921) and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter. From the Four Winds was Galsworthy's first published work in 1897, a collection of short stories. These, and several subsequent works, were published under the pen name John Sinjohn and it would not be until The Island Pharisees (1904) that he would begin publishing under his own name. His first play, The Silver Box (1906) became a success, and he followed it up with The Man of Property (1906), the first in the Forsyte trilogy. Along with other writers of the time such as Shaw his plays addressed the class system and social issues, two of the best known being Strife (1909) and The Skin Game (1920).

The Decameron: Selected Tales


Giovanni Boccaccio
    This is the premise of Boccaccio's Decameron, a landmark of early Renaissance literature and one of the world's great story collections. Vast in scope, teeming with colorful characters, and rich in worldly wisdom, these 25 tales from the original 100 encompass a variety of genres — folktales, ancient myths, fables, and anecdotes ranging from earthy satires of hypocritical clergy to gripping tales of murder and revenge and stories of passionate love. Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Keats drew upon Boccaccio's masterpiece for inspiration, and the grand old storyteller’s fables continue to captivate modern readers.