This new collection of sixteen stories reveals John Cheever's expertness employed with greater power to even more impressive effect than heretofore.

    And for a disparate, disconnected clutch of wanderers - many thousands of miles apart but linked by a common goal - four parallel journeys are just beginning.Gorych and his driver, rolling through water, sand and snow on an empty petrol tank; the occupant of a black airship, looking down benevolently as he floats above his Fatherland; young Andrey, who leaves his religious community in search of a new life; and Kharitonov, who trudges from the Sea of Japan to Leningrad, carrying a fuse that, when lit, could blow all and sundry to smithereens.Written in the final years of Communism, The Bickford Fuse is a satirical epic of the Soviet soul, exploring the origins and dead-ends of the Russian mentality from the end of World War Two to the Union's collapse. Blending allegory and fable with real events, and as deliriously absurd as anything Kurkov has written, it is both an elegy for lost years and a song of hope for a future not yet set in stone.

    E. Rölvaag lyrically chronicles the experiences of Nils Vaag, a young Norwegian immigrant. Abandoning the life of a fisherman in Nordland, a region poor but full of mystical beauty, Nils emigrates to the New World in 1912. There he sweeps saloons, lives in a boardinghouse called "Babel" for the many languages used by its residents, and begins to find his way among the people of the city.The Boat of Longing was Rölvaag's favorite of all his books and the only one set in urban America. When it was first published in English in 1933, it received wide praise from American critics. This edition includes an introduction by Einar Haugen, professor emeritus of Scandinavian and Linguistics at Harvard University and author of a critical study of Rölvaag.

    Revealing the phenomenon and difference between faith and belief with prospective to after death ritual.

    Includes the stories "Where I Live," "Harrison Bergeron," "Who Am I This Time?," "Welcome to the Monkey House," "Long Walk to Forever," "The Foster Portfolio," "Miss Temptation," "All the King's Horses," "Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog," "New Dictionary," "Next Door," "More Stately Mansions," "The Hyannis Port Story," and "D.P."

    Their relationship is only held together by a thread. As their marriage disintegrates around them, Adam tries desperately to salvage it – while Emma does everything in her power, not only to avoid the issue, but to avoid him. But what has brought them to this point? Why is Emma traumatised by the very sight of him? And why is Adam having recurring nightmares? Jean McParland has long been living her own nightmare, battling with her son Paul whose violent outbursts have terrorised her and his younger siblings in their own home. Torn between her love for her eldest son and fears for the other children, Jean has shied away from taking decisive action . . . while their lives continued to spin out of control. Then, in just one moment, Adam, Emma and Jean’s lives became inextricably linked and were changed forever.

    

    This is the most complete and generous sampling of the first half of an indispensable American writer's career.

    This extraordinary drama, produced to acclaim at the Actors Theatre of Louisville originally, and at NYC's Second Stage is about a celebrated 1930's French murder case, in which two maids sisters were convicted of murdering their employer and her daughter. This very cinematically structured work explores the motivations whi

    Little Buddha is the remarkable story of a young Seattle boy and his family, taken from their ordinary lives and plunged into an incredible mystical journey in a foreign land.

     Her two daughters, from a previous relationship, are now both adult. Jo, ambitious and independent, is pursuing a career as a barrister. Jo’s younger sister is very different. Shelley, just 20, sweet natured, trusting and innocent, still lives at home and works at a local animal clinic. They are a normal, happy family - and then Shelley meets Sam on the street and everything changes. Martha struggles to accept Shelley’s choice of boyfriend as, with increasing anger, she witnesses the erosion of all Shelley’s values under Sam’s influence. When Martha’s efforts to persuade Shelley to give Sam up fail, she decides on a more direct approach. The consequences of her actions are devastating for everyone and change the course of Martha’s life forever. “After I’d gone up to bed that night, leaving Gabe amidst the carnage I had created in the living room, I formulated my plan. But it was pure chance that I met Sam on Putney Bridge some three weeks later and I went ahead with it.”

    

    

    From his early years in the Netherlands to growing up in Australia during the 1980s, Michael recalls the secret surrounding his estranged Greek father and how scandalous events from the past fractured his family. This is a moving chronicle of a boy’s turbulent relationship with his bullying stepfather, aloof older brother and adored mother, whose cheerful apathy has devastating consequences. As his life unfolds, Michael – now a father – must decide if he can free himself from the dark pull of the past.Reminiscent of the great autobiographical novels of JM Coetzee and Michael Ondaatje, The Last Thread is a beautifully crafted work from an exceptional new writer.

    Encountering ‘Life’ itself in a dream, he’s convinced into playing a game with it. A game that ends when Life's travails get so hard that Sam is pushed to tears.A girl enters Sam’s life. The moment he sets eyes on her he knows she’s going to play hard to get, but sparks do indeed fly between them, taken into a world of romance. When everything looked like its going according to the plan, it just wasn't. This is when Life starts pressing down on Sam. Though Sam’s attitude about living life is to be happy and cool, he finds himself being tested.Circumstances pushes him into a world of discomfort and guilt. Amidst such emotional turmoil, he manages to grip on to hope. Sam is expected to worry, complain, and give up. One event after another sets him on edge to make him shed that tear which veritably ends Life's game. Does he win the game with Life, or will he spiral into what so many people who've given up the fight have fallen into? You simply need to be part of his life to find out.