Marianne Wallace is focused on two things this holiday season: planning the greatest family Christmas ever and cheering on her youngest son’s team in their bid for the state championship. Disaster strikes when the team loses their mascot—the Trout. Is it going too far to ask her to don the costume? So what if her husband has also volunteered her to organize the church Christmas tea. When football playoffs start ramping up, the Christmas tea starts falling apart. Then, one by one her children tell her they can’t come home for Christmas. As life starts to unravel, will Marianne remember the true meaning of the holidays? Views: 16
Andromeda Klein is a quiet, booky girl with an unexciting life. Until herworld takes a turn for the weird. Strangely and suddenly Andromeda's tarotcard readings have begun to predict events with bizarrely literal accuracy. It seems impossible, but it looks like her once-upon-a-time-partner-inoccultism, Daisy Wasserstrom, has begun to harass her. Which wouldn't be quite as strange if Daisy hadn't died the year before. But what is weird is getting arguably worse. Omens, dreams, cards hidden inside a hollowed out book, and images from a file of comics drawn by a previous inhabitant of her family's suburban duplex are all coming together to contain hints of buried truths concerning her family, her circle of 'friends,' her cat, and her secret, estranged, much older and forbidden boyfriend-in-theory. And as Andromeda tries to figure it all out, she finds herself in a whole world of creepy you couldn't even begin to make up. Views: 16
Praise for A Jew Must Die:“Chessex, our new Flaubert, has no equal when describing horror without flinching, screaming sotto voce and exploring guilt in taut prose.”—Le Nouvel Observateur“A masterpiece. Beauty of the world, ubiquity of evil, God’s silence, it’s all there, delivered like a slap to the face.”—Le Point“A great author explores a nightmare not as anachronistic as it might appear.”—L’HebdoA novel based on a true story.On April 16, 1942, a handful of Swiss Nazis in Payerne lure Arthur Bloch, a Jewish cattle merchant, into an empty stable and kill him with a crowbar. Europe is in flames, but this is Switzerland, and Payerne, a rural market town of butchers and bankers, is more worried about unemployment and local bankruptcies than the fate of nations across the border. Fernand Ischi, leader of the local Nazi cell, blames it all on the town’s Jewish population and wants to set an example, thinking the German embassy would be grateful. Ischi's dream of becoming the local gauleiter is shattered, however, when the milk containers used to dissimulate Bloch's body parts is discovered floating in a lake nearby, leading to his arrest.Jacques Chessex, winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt, is one of Switzerland’s greatest authors. He knew the murderers, went to school with their children, and has written a terse, implacable story that has awakened memories in a country that seems to endlessly rediscover dark areas of its past.From Publishers WeeklyThose interested in Nazi activity in neutral Switzerland during WWII will best appreciate this slight novella from Prix Goncourt winner Chessex (The Vampire of Ropraz). In April 1942, in the small market town of Payerne, an anti-Semitic pastor incites a band of local Nazis to set an example for Switzerland and for the Jewish parasites on its soil. National Movement leader Fernand Ischi and his thugs target a representative Jew, cattle-dealer Arthur Bloch, whose murder will make a fine birthday present for Adolf Hitler. While this book generated controversy in Switzerland, where the country's role in WWII is still a sensitive issue, U.S. readers will find that it falls short of, say, Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird and other works that view the Holocaust through isolated instances of violence. Chessex (1934–2009), who was born in Payerne, was also an essayist, poet, and painter. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistStarred Review Chessex, a prominent Swiss writer, died in 2009 at age 75. He was the first non–French citizen to win the Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary award. American readers of this particular novel, which is one of Chessex’s many, will quickly understand why he was so honored. It is a swift and stunning narrative based on a true incident. In the Swiss town of Payenne (the author’s hometown), in 1942, a group of Swiss Nazis kill a successful Jewish cattle trader. It was nothing personal, as it were, but rather an act of intimidation aimed at the Jewish community of Switzerland at large. This spare but heart-piercing novel illustrates the dementedness of Nazism (such a thing as total depravity, pure in its filth) as it captures the European mind-set of the 1930s and 1940s as people looked for scapegoats to blame for the hard economic times, which in turn made anti-Semitism and thus Nazism appealing. The writing is elegant, in provocative contrast to the human crudity and cruelty it depicts. (The atmosphere of the town is described this way: Dark currents flow unseen beneath the assurance and business bustle. Complexions are rosy or ruddy, the soil is rich, but covert dangers lurk.) Read this novel for the history it depicts and for the sheer beauty of its prose. --Brad Hooper Views: 16
The sensuous sixth story in national bestselling author Lisa Cach's passionate Fifty Shades of Grey meets Game of Thrones series about a young Roman Empire slave who, after being tutored in the sexual arts by her king, runs away to save her life.Once trained in the carnal arts to be the king's concubine, Nimia has a prophetic gift that is triggered by her sexual encounters. Finally free, she forsakes the powerful men who have used her gifts for their own gain. As her sexual adventures continue, she searches for true love—and for her people, the Phanne, from whom she was originally stolen. Views: 16
NOTE: This book was created from a ms doc file dated 2005 prior to the publication dates I've found for this book.Linked to the “Dream” series but can be read as a stand-alone story. Christina Faulkner made a bet and now she owed him a kiss. If she’s lucky, he’s forgotten all about it. Shane Jacobs didn’t just want the bet paid. He wanted a whole lot more. But once passion touches its targets, desire transforms simple contact into mesmerizing obsession. And Christina is about to discover that Shane hasn’t forgotten her. In fact, he’s coming back to claim what is his. All of it. Publisher’s Note: This story was previously published in the anthology A Wish, A Kiss, A Dream. Views: 16
In a slightly alternate world the minds of teen offenders are uploaded into computers for rehabilitation—a form of virtual wilderness therapy. Zach is a homo cognoscens, one of the new humans who can enter the virtual Fulgrid. Though still a high school student, he is indentured to the Fulgur Corporation as a counsellor. Laura is a homo sapiens. Their story is part odyssey, part tragedy, part riff on the nature of consciousness.
Podcasts (audiobook), narrated by Welsh actor Ioan Hefin, and further information are available at http://www.lleelowe.com
You can also purchase a paperback edition of the novel. Views: 16
