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A Well Full of Leaves by Elizabeth Myers
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Sleepwalker in a Fog
Tatyana Tolstaya - 1992
Here is Denisov, who fears his greatest accomplishment in life will be the treatise he wrote and tore up. He is betrothed to Lora, an incessant talker who dreams of having a fluffy tail. We also read of Natasha, who searches Leningrad and her memory for her lost love; of Dmitry Ilich's elaborate seduction of Olga Mikhailovna; and more. In the tradition of such writers as Gogol and Chekhov, Tatyana Tolstaya transforms ordinary lives into something magical and strange.Translated from the Russian by Jamey GambrellFrom the Trade Paperback edition.
Through the Wall
Ludmilla Petrushevskaya - 2009
Ludmilla Petrushevskaya has been acclaimed as one of Russia's greatest living writers. These five dreamlike and blackly comic stories, two of which are here in English for the first time, tell of lost children, midnight forests, strange transformations, cruel curses, grief and resilience, in the darkest of modern fairy tales. This book contains "Through the Wall" and "Anna and Maria".
A Scarcity of Love
Anna Kavan - 1956
As in 'Ice', Kavan discards such aids to realism as geography and mundane physical facts - even time seems to have halt in a menacing country of the emotions where the very ground is uneasy with seismic-like threats. 'A Scarcity of Love' tells the story of a young girl, rejected by her narcissistic and vengeful mother, whose life thereafter is a continuing series of betrayals that can lead only to the dead end of madness and death. Like Sylvia Plath, Anna Kavan was capable of nearly perfect control over language as she strove to describe, in the simplest and most ordinary of terms, her bizarre and hallucinatory landscape of derangement.
I'll Bring You Buttercups
Elizabeth Elgin - 1993
It is also the story of the entanglements and rivalries of the two families who separately employ Alice and Tom.
The Stone Fields: An Epitaph for the Living
Courtney Angela Brkic - 2004
Unlike many aid workers, Brkic was drawn there by her family history, and although fluent in the language, she was advised to avoid letting local workers discover her ethnicity. Brkic helped set up a morgue in Tuzla, assisting pathologists with autopsies and laying out personal effects for photographing. Later, she helped excavate graves at Srebenica, where many thousands had been indiscriminately slaughtered. This was not the only excavating she was doing. As she describes the gruesome work of recovering remains and transcribing the memories of survivors, she also explores her family's history in Yugoslavia, telling of her grandmother's childhood in Herzegovina, early widowhood, and imprisonment during World War II for hiding her Jewish lover. "The Stone Fields," deeply personal and wise, asks what it takes to prevent the violent loss of life, and what we are willing to risk in the process.
TV Go Home
Charlie Brooker - 2001
Its humour attracts over 150,000 readers a month - an audience that is constantly growing. This book is that website - multiplied by eight and presented in a handy, portable paper-and-inkward edition. Based on the website, "TV Go Home" is a spoof listings magazine that does for the Radio Times what The Onion did for newspapers. Savage, satirical, surreal, and frequently incredibly stupid, this book should make you laugh out loud.
Getting Out of the House
Isla Dewar - 2005
It relieved the hurt she felt when she overheard Maisie say she preferred her older daughter, Cathryn. Now, Nora lives in Edinburgh, far from her gaudily decorated suburban London home and the volatile Maisie. She is introduced to a circle of friends who all work in the same publisher's offices. In Brendan, the gentle deputy editor, she finds a friend who shares her deprecating humour, and fascination with trivia, as they chat and walk about town. And in Nathan, she finds a lover she adores.Though always braced for betrayal, this time it takes her by storm. It is only when she learns to forgive, and be forgiven, that she begins to come to terms with her past.
Napoleon in Egypt
Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti - 1798
Sheik Al-Jabarti's chronicle is a unique combination of historical narration and reflection combined with daily observations about the atmosphere in Cairo and the mood among the local population. The book is an Arab view of a turning point in modern history. This expanded edition celebrates the 250th anniversary of Al-Jabarti's birth. The French view of these events is described by Napoleon's secretary; Edward W. Said, Columbia University, provides a stinging critique of French preoccupation with Egypt and the resulting cultural "Orientalism"; Robert Tignor (Princeton University) provides a scintillating introduction. An additional chapter by editor Shmuel Moreh examines the Arabic interpretation of Al-Jabarti's writings. Illustrated.
A House Divided
Rachel McLean - 2018
When the government she has served targets her Muslim husband and sons, her loyalties are tested. And when her family is about to be torn apart, she must take drastic action to protect them.A House Divided is a tense and timely thriller about political extremism and divided loyalties, and their impact on one woman.
The Rapist
Les Edgerton - 2013
Master storyteller Les Edgerton guides us on a haunting journey inside the criminal mind to show that no matter how depraved a person appears to be, there might still exist a spark of humanity.
Joan Miro: I Work Like a Gardener
Joan MirĂ³ - 2017
Their conversation, one of the most illuminating and insightful looks into MirO's philosophy and creative process, was first published in a limited edition of seventy five copies in 1964. Though long out of print, this bilingual "treasure," in the words of Maria Popova, "remains the most direct and comprehensive record of MirO's ideas on art." This beautiful new edition presents an updated English translation of MirO's invaluable text in an elegant and striking package. In addition to Taillandier's original foreword, a new preface by preeminent MirO scholar Robert Lubar provides wider context and insight. An appendix includes the original French text in its entirety. Joan MirO I Work Like a Gardener brings to life the words and work of one of the most beloved and influential artists of the twentieth century.
Bright Girls
Clare Chambers - 2009
They have been forced to leave their home in Oxford, where they live with their father, because of threats to their safety.
The Boy I Loved Before
Jenny Colgan - 2004
While it might be okay for Sashy, it's certainly not what she envisioned for herself when she was sixteen. So when her boyfriend proposes to her during the reception, Flora makes a wish to go back and do it all over again. The next morning she wakes up to find that she has been given the ultimate second chance--she's sixteen again. As Flora navigates school, first loves--new and old--and discovers what it really means to make adult choices, will she stay in her new body or try and find her way home?--in Jenny Colgan's The Boy I Loved Before.
Flypaper
Robert Musil - 1936
In these nine stories and essays, he considers holidaymakers and stone monuments, tales of war and blackbirds, and the great pathos of a tiny death: a fly's impossible fight against the grip of flypaper.
Palace of the Peacock
Wilson Harris - 1960
In this novel, first published in 1960, can be traced the poetic vision, the themes and the designs of Harris's subsequent work, which included The Guyana Quartet.