Book picks similar to
Witchfinder General by Ronald Bassett
horror
fiction
historical-fiction
folk-horror
Casanova in Bohemia
Andrei Codrescu - 2002
In his national bestseller "The Blood Countess," Andrei Codrescu brought to life the bloodthirsty royal Elizabeth Bathory, who embodied nearly all the contradictions of the seventeenth century. Now he depicts the astonishing life of the legendary Casanova, as the old adventurer relives his life while writing his memoirs in a provincial Bohemian castle at the end of the eighteenth century. Far from being defeated by age, Casanova delights in the maidservants, reacts with intellectual vigor to the unfolding of the French Revolution, and collaborates with Mozart on "Don Giovanni." Long considered the rhapsodist of an age of aristocratic mirth, scandal, and innumerable affairs, Casanova was also a first-rate intellect who corresponded and argued with Voltaire and Rousseau. His published work, besides the celebrated "History of My Life," includes a multivolume fantasy fiction novel that predates and anticipates Jules Verne; translations of Italian classics into French; and a number of plays that were produced on the great stages of Europe.Casanova's romantic legend overshadowed his literary work, which was, for the most part, not published until 1960. The fate of his writings was nearly as fabulous and intriguing as that of their author. Still, even in abridged, bowdlerized, and fragmentary form, Casanova's memoirs have inspired writers as diverse as Flaubert, Stendhal, Hermann Hesse, and now, Andrei Codrescu. Codrescu's vivid fictional account illuminates the interest we still havein this uncompromising and magical libertine, while it imagines how his life would have continued if Casanova's immortality had extended beyond the literary.In Codrescu's retelling of the Casanova legend, readers are introduced to an age far less inhibited than our own, and far more interesting in its vices. At once a libertine, a defender of women, a reactionary, a revolutionary, a brilliant observer, and a visionary, Casanova was a man ahead of his time both in thought and in action. Finally, in this inventive and absorbing work, Casanova is given due credit for his writings, his philosophies, and, of course, for the amorous magic that has been made known to so many.
A Nazi On Trial In God's Court
Roberta Kagan - 2012
It is 1,235 words Himmler; Hitler's right hand man has committed suicide to escape persecution after the fall of the Third Reich. What he doesn't realize is he must now face a higher court. God's court. In this story he will meet Jesus and be tried in heaven for crimes against humanity and the final judgment may surprise you..
The Foot Soldier
Mark Rubinstein - 2013
The Foot Soldier brings you to the hell of jungle combat. Close your eyes and this novella takes you there. It conveys the terror and brutality of jungle warfare and their effect on the American riflemen--those who bore the greatest burden. It's every bit as compelling as The Things They Carried.
Haunted مسكون
Rym Ghazal - 2011
هذه الإشاعة تدفع مجموعة من الشبان إلىزيارة المكان للتحقق بأنفسهم من الموضوع. مغامرات تتداخلوقصص تتشعب، يسافر عبرها فهد وفارس ونور وسامي فيرحلة عبر الزمن، وعبر تجارب تؤدي إلى فهم أعمق للذات.The only fairy tale or rather “jinn-tale” bedtime stories to come out of the Middle East are hundreds of years old. Well, it was about time for a new one. Part folklore, part philosophy, part myth, and part truth, “Maskoon” (The Haunted) is a young reader’s book based on a real haunted palace in the UAE.The author’s visit to the palace left her with questions and doubts that translated into this bedtime fable-like tale of friendship, loneliness, courage and love.Maskoon was hailed by the media as one of the first novel-length books written in Arabic within the paranormal/horror genre. The book contains a special poetic contribution from the renowned Emirati poet, Rashid Sharar.
The Haunting of Thores-Cross: A Yorkshire Ghost Story
Karen Perkins - 2012
A haunting historical thriller set in Britain's North Yorkshire Moors about isolation, superstition and persecution, The Haunting of Thores-Cross explores 18th century life in a picturesque but isolated village in the North Yorkshire Moors. When a vulnerable young girl is ostracised within her community and accused of witchcraft, the descendants of her neighbours will suffer for centuries to come.*Silver Medal Winner, European fiction - 2015 IPPY Book Awards *#1 Bestseller in 6 Amazon Categories, including Ghost Suspense, British Horror and Gothic Romance*Top 10 Bestseller in 8 more, including Historical Thrillers and Occult Horror*Over 100 5-STAR reviews on Amazon.com Likened by independent reviewers on Amazon to the Brontë sisters, Edgar Allen Poe, Barbara Erskine and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Karen Perkins' novels are filled with unflinching honesty and an acute understanding of human nature. She explores not only the depths of humanity, but the depths of human motivation behind the actions and pain people inflict upon each other, as well as the repercussions of these actions not only in the short term, but also the later generations who live with the implications of the past. Emma Moorcroft is still grieving after a late miscarriage and moves to her dream house at Thruscross Reservoir with her husband, Dave. Both Emma and Dave hope that moving into their new home signifies a fresh start, but life is not that simple. Emma has nightmares about the reservoir and the drowned village that lies beneath the water, and is further disturbed by the sound of church bells - from a church that no longer exists. Jennet is fifteen and lives in the isolated community of Thores-Cross, where life revolves about the sheep on which they depend. Following the sudden loss of both her parents, she is seduced by the local wool merchant, Richard Ramsgill. She becomes pregnant and is shunned not only by Ramsgill, but by the entire village. Lonely and embittered, Jennet's problems escalate, leading to tragic consequences which continue to have an effect through the centuries. Emma becomes fixated on Jennet, neglecting herself, her beloved dogs and her husband to the point where her marriage may not survive. As Jennet and Emma's lives become further entwined, Emma's obsession deepens and she realises that the curse Jennet inflicted on the Ramsgill family over two hundred years ago is still claiming lives. Emma is the only one who can stop Jennet killing again, but will her efforts be enough? The Haunting of Thores-Cross was previously titled Thores-Cross.The Yorkshire Ghost Stories are all stand-alone, complete books, and can be read in any order
Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude: A Casebook
Gene H. Bell-Villada - 2002
Each casebook reprints documents relating to a work's historical context and reception, presents the best critical studies, and, when possible, features an interview with the author. Accessible and informative to scholars, students, and nonspecialist readers alike, the books in this series provide a wide range of critical and informative commentaries on major texts. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude is arguably the most important novel in twentieth-century Latin American literature. This Casebook features ten critical articles on Garcia Marquez's great work. Carefully selected from the most important work on the novel over the past three decades, they include pieces by Carlos Fuentes, Iris Zavala, James Higgins, Jean Franco, Michael Wood, and Gene H. Bell-Villada. Among the intriguing aspects of the work discussed are its mythic dimension, its "magical" side, its representations of women, its relationship with past chronicles of exploration and discovery, its portrayals of Western power and imperialism, its astounding diffusion throughout the globe and the media, and its simple truth-telling, its fidelity to the tangled history of Latin America. The book incorporates several theoretical approaches--historical, feminist, postcolonial; the first English translation of Fuentes's renowned, oft-cited, eight page meditation on the work; a general introduction; and a 1982 interview with Garcia Marquez.
The Girl and the Sunbird
Rebecca Stonehill - 2016
Accompanied by her chaperone, Miss Logan, Iris soon discovers a kindred spirit who shares her thirst for knowledge. As they journey from Cambridgeshire to East Africa, Iris’s eyes are opened to a world she never knew existed beyond the comforts of her family home. But when Iris meets Jeremy, she realizes in a heartbeat that they will never be compatible. He is cold and cruel, spending long periods of time on hunting expeditions and leaving Iris alone. Determined to make the best of her new life, Iris begins to adjust to her surroundings; the windswept plains of Nairobi, and the delightful sunbirds that visit her window every day. And when she meets Kamau, a school teacher, Iris finds her calling, assisting him to teach the local children English. Kamau is everything Jeremy is not. He is passionate, kind and he occupies Iris’s every thought. She must make a choice, but if she follows her heart, the price she must pay will be devastating.
Bird Cottage
Eva Meijer - 2016
I want to find out how they behave when they're freeLen Howard was forty years old when she decided to leave her London life and loves behind, retire to the English countryside and devote the rest of her days to her one true passion: birds.Moving to a small cottage in Sussex, she wrote two bestselling books, astonishing the world with her observations on the tits, robins, sparrows and other birds that lived nearby, flew freely in and out of her windows, and would even perch on her shoulder as she typed.This moving novel imagines the story of this remarkable woman's decision to defy society's expectations, and the joy she drew from her extraordinary relationship with the natural world.
The Last Commando
Michael Asher - 2009
. .Libya, 1942 - Rommel's Africa Korps is sweeping across the desert. Ragged Allied forces are being torn apart in brutal fire-fights on the scorched sands. A desperate message to the Prime Minister is entrusted to First Officer Madeleine Rose, WRNS. Her codename: Runefish.When GHQ hears that Runefish's plane is lost behind enemy lines, they send for battle-hardened Sergeant Tom Caine. Caine is a first class soldier who nearly always does what he's told. He will lead a squad of specialist commandos into the heart of enemy territory and either rescue or execute Runefish. If he refuses to take this near-suicide mission he faces court martial. Now the outcome of the war depends on his following orders.Death or glory beckon . . .
Gondar
Nicholas Luard - 1988
Richly created and lushly told, it is peopled with unforgettable characters both real and imaginary, set in an Africa of violence, spectacle and romance.
Frankissstein: A Love Story
Jeanette Winterson - 2019
‘Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.'What will happen when homo sapiens is no longer the smartest being on the planet? Jeanette Winterson shows us how much closer we are to that future than we realise. Funny and furious, bold and clear-sighted, Frankissstein is a love story about life itself.
Night of the Ripper
Robert Bloch - 1984
Historical fiction featuring Jack the Ripper, Arthur Conan Doyle, George Bernard Shaw, and, yes, the Elephant Man.
The Liar's Dictionary
Eley Williams - 2020
the phenomenon of false entries within dictionaries and works of reference. Often used as a safeguard against copyright infringement.Peter Winceworth, Victorian lexicographer, is toiling away at the letter S for Swansby's multivolume Encyclopaedic Dictionary. His disaffection compels him to insert unauthorized fictitious entries into the dictionary in an attempt to assert some sense of individual purpose and artistic freedom.In the present day, Mallory, a young intern employed by the publisher, is tasked with uncovering these mountweazels before the work is digitized. She also has to contend with threatening phone calls from an anonymous caller. Is the change in the definition of marriage really that upsetting? And does the caller really intend for the Swansby's staff to 'burn in hell'?As these two narratives combine, both Winceworth and Mallory discover how they might negotiate the complexities of the often nonsensical, relentless, untrustworthy, hoax-strewn, and undefinable path we call life. An exhilarating debut novel from a formidably brilliant young writer, The Liar's Dictionary celebrates the rigidity, fragility, absurdity, and joy of language.
Wylding Hall
Elizabeth Hand - 2015
There they create the album that will make their reputation, but at a terrifying cost: Julian Blake, the group’s lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen or heard from again.Now, years later, the surviving musicians, along with their friends and lovers—including a psychic, a photographer, and the band’s manager—meet with a young documentary filmmaker to tell their own versions of what happened that summer. But whose story is true? And what really happened to Julian Blake?