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The Open Book by Veniamin Kaverin


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Everything Is Illuminated


Jonathan Safran Foer - 2002
    Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war; an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior; and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past.

Angela's Ashes - With Audio CD


F. McCourt - 2006
    BRAND NEW!!!!HARD TO FIND RESOURCE!!!GREAT READ!!!!BRAND NEW!!!GREAT READ!!!!BRAND NEW!!!GREAT READ!!!!BRAND NEW!!!SHIPS VERY QUICKLY!!!!GREAT READ!!!!BEST DEAL!!!!!BEST DEAL POSSIBLE!!!!!

The Alchemist


Paulo Coelho - 1988
    This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and soul-stirring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago, who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried near the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Romany woman, a man who calls himself a king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the right direction for his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or whether Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles in his path; but what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of treasure within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.Illustrator: Jim Tierney

Shantaram


Gregory David Roberts - 2003
    Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear.Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power.Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas—this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart. Based on the life of the author, it is by any measure the debut of an extraordinary voice in literature.

Циники


Anatoly Mariengof - 1928
    In short segments, featuring love, loss, cannibalism, and yes, cynicism, this novella tells the story of a group young people in the middle of revolution-torn Russia, between 1918-1924.

Inspector and Other Plays


Nikolai Gogol - 2000
    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.

Doctor Zhivago


Boris Pasternak - 1957
    One of the results of its publication in the West was Pasternak's complete rejection by Soviet authorities; when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958 he was compelled to decline it. The book quickly became an international best-seller.Dr. Yury Zhivago, Pasternak's alter ego, is a poet, philosopher, and physician whose life is disrupted by the war and by his love for Lara, the wife of a revolutionary. His artistic nature makes him vulnerable to the brutality and harshness of the Bolsheviks. The poems he writes constitute some of the most beautiful writing featured in the novel.

Alice in Wonderland: The Complete Collection (Illustrated Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Illustrated Through the Looking Glass, plus Alice's Adventures Under Ground and The Hunting of the Snark)


Lewis Carroll - 2013
    Collected here is the ultimate Kindle edition of the beloved books starring such timeless characters as Alice, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat, the Queen of Hearts, and the White Rabbit.Included in the Alice in Wonderland Collection are: Both Alice books—Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass—illustrated with over 100 classic illustrations by Sir John Tenniel. An early version of the Alice story and the spinoff nonsense poem "The Hunting of the Snark" Links to free, full-length audio recordings of all the Alice books in this collection. An individual, active Table of Contents for each book accessible from the Kindle "go to" feature. Perfect formatting in rich text compatible with Kindle's Text-to-Speech features. A low, can't-say-no price! Four Complete WorksFour classic works by Lewis Carroll, including both Alice books, complete and unabridged. Books included: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* Includes Original Illustrations by Sir John Tenniel! Through the Looking Glass* Includes Original Illustrations by Sir John Tenniel! Alice's Adventures Underground—an early draft of the Alice story The Hunting of the Snark—a full-length nonsense poem that extends the world of the Jabberwocky poem Down the Rabbit HoleAlso included are special features for any Alice enthusiast, including: A complete list of direct adaptations of Lewis Carroll's classic in film and television. Works inspired by the world of Wonderland, including films and television works, literary sequels and retellings, theme parks attractions, games, and more. Links to free, full-length audio recordings of the Alice books in this collection, as well as other popular children's favorites.

The Adventures of Goodnight & Loving


Leslie Thomas - 1987
    What he doesn't know, as he takes his first light steps across the sunlit meadows near the tiny village of Somerbourne Magna, is that he is embarking on a course that will take him far away from the country, the surroundings and the way of life he has always known. He is embarking on a journey that will eventually take him to the other side of the world.

A Soldier of the Great War


Mark Helprin - 1991
    Then the Great War intervenes. Half a century later, in August of 1964, Alessandro, a white-haired professor, tall and proud, meets an illiterate young factory worker on the road. As they walk toward Monte Prato, a village seventy kilometers away, the old man—a soldier and a hero who became a prisoner and then a deserter, wandering in the hell that claimed Europe—tells him how he tragically lost one family and gained another. The boy, envying the richness and drama of Alessandro's experiences, realizes that this magnificent tale is not merely a story: it's a recapitulation of his life, his reckoning with mortality, and above all, a love song for his family.

Cloud Atlas


David Mitchell - 2004
    Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction as profund as it is playful. Now in his new novel, David Mitchell explores with daring artistry fundamental questions of reality and identity.Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . .Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history.But the story doesn’t end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.

The Funeral Party


Lyudmila Ulitskaya - 1999
    In a sweltering New York City apartment, a group of Russian émigrés gathers round the deathbed of an artist named Alik, a charismatic character beloved by them all, especially the women who take turns nursing him as he fades from this world. Their reminiscences of the dying man and of their lives in Russia are punctuated by debates and squabbles: Whom did Alik love most? Should he be baptized before he dies, as his alcoholic wife, Nina, desperately wishes, or be reconciled to the faith of his birth by a rabbi who happens to be on hand? And what will be the meaning for them of the Yeltsin putsch, which is happening across the world in their long-lost Moscow but also right before their eyes on CNN? This marvelous group of individuals inhabits the first novel by Ludmila Ulitskaya to be published in English, a book that was shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize and has been praised wherever translated editions have appeared. Simultaneously funny and sad, lyrical in its Russian sorrow and devastatingly keen in its observation of character, The Funeral Party introduces to our shores a wonderful writer who captures, wryly and tenderly, our complex thoughts and emotions confronting life and death, love and loss, homeland and exile.From the Hardcover edition.

The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin


Vladimir Voinovich - 1969
    Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, he is sent to an obscure village with one week's ration of canned meat and orders to guard a downed plane. Apparently forgotten by his unit, Chonkin resumes his life as a peasant and passes the war tending the village postmistress's garden. Just after the German invasion, the secret police discover this mysterious soldier lurking behind the front line. Their pursuit of Chonkin and his determined resistance lead to wild skirmishes and slapstick encounters.

Follow the River


James Alexander Thom - 1981
    For months, she lived with them, unbroken, until she escaped, and followed a thousand mile trail to freedom--an extraordinary story of a pioneer woman who risked her life to return to her people.

Painted Lives


Charlotte Vale Allen - 1990
    Mattie Sylvester, a widow of one of America's most celebrated painters, reveals the sordid truth of the past, and of her husband, to her secretary.