A superb new novel by the author of Dreams of My Russian Summersand Requiem for a Lost Empire,set in the period just before, and two decades after, World War II. “Makine is without doubt one of the greatest living writers. Music of a Life proves it.” -Le Figaro( France) A brief but extraordinarily powerful novel by the author of Dreams of My Russian Summersand Requiem for a Lost Empire, Music of a Lifeis set in the period just before, and two decades after, World War II. Alexeï Berg’s father is a well-known dramatist, his mother a famous opera singer. But during Stalin’s reign of terror in the 1930s they, like millions of other Russians, come under attack for their presumed lack of political purity. Harassed and proscribed, they have nonetheless, on the eve of Hitler’s war, not yet been arrested. And young Alexeï himself, a budding classical pianist, has been allowed to continue his musical studies. His first solo concert is scheduled for May 24, 1941. Two days before the concert, on his way home from his final rehearsal, he espies his parents being arrested, taken from their Moscow apartment. Knowing his own arrest will not be far behind, Alexeï flees to the country house of his fiancée, where again betrayal awaits him. He flees, one step ahead of the dreaded secret police until, taking on the identity of a dead soldier, he enlists in the Soviet army. Thus begins his seemingly endless journey, through war and peace, until he lands, two decades later, in a snowbound train station in the Urals, where he relates his harrowing saga to the novel’s narrator. Music of a Lifehas been Andreï Makine’s biggest bestselling novel internationally since Dreams of My Russian Summers.It is, in the words of France’s most distinguished daily newspaper Le Monde,“extremely powerful… a gem.” Views: 66
On the last day of summer, some years ago, a young college graduate moves to Chicago and rents a small apartment on the north side of the city, by the vast and muscular lake. This is the story of the five seasons he lives there, during which he meets gangsters, gamblers, policemen, a brave and garrulous bus driver, a cricket player, a librettist, his first girlfriend, a shy apartment manager, and many other riveting souls, not to mention a wise and personable dog of indeterminate breed. A love letter to Chicago, the Great American City, and a wry account of a young man's coming-of-age during the one summer in White Sox history when they had the best outfield in baseball, Brian Doyle's Chicago is a novel that will plunge you into a city you will never forget, and may well wish to visit for the rest of your days. Views: 66
The Quintaglio Ascension trilogy depicts an Earth-like world on a moon which orbits a gas giant, inhabited by a species of highly evolved, sentient Tyrannosaurs called Quintaglios, among various other creatures from the late cretaceous period, imported to this moon by aliens 65 million years prior to the story. Views: 66
As revolution simmers, a poet finds himself with a chance for the crown In Etrara, the winter is bitter and endless, but Valemar does not feel the chill. A loyal courtier, he prefers wine and poetry to palace intrigue and has never let ambition draw him into danger. But when the dire portents of a soothsayer darken a royal feast, all the land learns that the king's days are numbered. Revolution is coming, and soon a new head will wear the crown. But whose will it be? While carousing at a gambling den in the lower city, Val's cousin kills one of the king's favorites in a barroom brawl. Rather than leave his kin to the mercy of the city guards, Val helps him flee and take refuge in a fishing village on the far side of the kingdom. Here Val learns a secret that could change Etrara forever and turn this carefree poet into the savior of a frostbitten land. Views: 66
A killer is reenacting the deaths of Hollywood's blond bombshells, and Valentino must stop him before it's too late in Loren D. Estleman's Brazen.UCLA film archivist and sometime film detective Valentino doesn't take friend and former actress Beata Limerick very seriously when she tells him that she quit acting because of the curse on blond actresses. Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Thelma Todd, Sharon Tate... they all had more fun, but none of them made it out of the business alive, and according to Limerick, she wasn't taking any chances. But when Valentino finds Beata's body staged the way Monroe was found, "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" playing on repeat; he knows Limerick's death was no accident.Police detective Ray Padilla doesn't quite suspect Valentino is the killer, but he can't let him off that easy. After all, the film archivist seems to be involved in more than his share of intrigue and death, which makes him a prime suspect. But Valentino... Views: 66
The Winter King is the eighth anticipated novel in the Big Bad Wolf spinoff series, The Kings, by NYT and USA Today bestselling author Heather Killough-Walden. Views: 66
The Kennedy Connection author R.G. Belsky pens an original novella where the once-disgraced newspaper reporter Gil Malloy picks up a lead a fellow reporter kept secret from everyone—and which may have led to her murder…Still plagued from the fallout of the “Houston” prostitute scandal, New York Daily News reporter Gil Malloy finds an opportunity to land a big story and return his reputation to good standing when a star reporter at the paper is found dead in an abandoned building. Even with all hands on deck to cover the high-profile case, no one at the paper can make sense of her death. But Gil’s investigative instinct takes over. Following up on a scoop the dead reporter had inexplicably kept secret, he is led to a peculiar event from decades ago: the Gallagher family murders.High-profile murder, corrupt city politicians, serial killers, the press, the police—it’s all here in the follow-up to the critically acclaimed... Views: 66
More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA Views: 66
