Longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2014 One hot summer's day, John Cole decides to leave his life behind. He shuts up the bookshop no one ever comes to and drives out of London. When his car breaks down and he becomes lost on an isolated road, he goes looking for help, and stumbles into the grounds of a grand but dilapidated house. Its residents welcome him with open arms - but there's more to this strange community than meets the eye. They all know him by name, they've prepared a room for him, and claim to have been waiting for him all along. As nights and days pass John finds himself drawn into a baffling menagerie. There is Hester, their matriarchal, controlling host; Alex and Claire, siblings full of child-like wonder and delusions; the mercurial Eve; Elijah - a faithless former preacher haunted by the Bible; and chain-smoking Walker,... Views: 70
When Southern-born Adelaide Pride follows her Yankee employer to California, she faces a private civil war and re-examines her values of love and honor. Twenty-six-year-old Adelaide Pride stepped out of the horse-drawn buggy to gaze one last time at the charred remains of her childhood home. Six generations of Prides had lived and entertained there under warm Southern skies. That was before the Civil War- robbing Addie of her youth, her parents, and the man she would have married! Fortunately, an aunt and uncle had taken her in, but they could scarcely afford to feed themselves. Not wishing to remain a burden, Addie accepted a position as a companion to a Yankee spinster at a health spa in Napa Valley, California. Addie shivered with a mixture of fear and anticipation. Very soon she would journey by train to the remote land that was untouched be conflict and overflowing with financial prosperity and social opportunities. Did she dare to hope that her dreams of love and... Views: 70
Born in Nicaragua, Rubén Darío is known as the consummate leader of the Modernista movement, an esthetic trend that swept the Americas from Mexico to Argentina at the end of the nineteenth century. Seeking a language and a style that would distinguish the newly emergent nations from the old imperial power of Spain, Darío's writing offered a refreshingly new vision of the world—an artistic sensibility at once cosmopolitan and connected to the rhythms of nature. The first part of this collection presents Darío's most significant poems in a bilingual format and organized thematically in the way Darío himself envisioned them. The second part is devoted to Darío's prose, including short stories, fables, profiles, travel writing, reportage, opinion pieces, and letters. A sweeping biographical introduction by distinguished critic Ilan Stavans places Darío in historical and artistic context, not only in Latin America but in world... Views: 70
When a woman from the slums marries a rich man who can't pleasure her, she is driven to hunt for love outside the homeCarla is a beautiful girl. She was plucked from the obscurity of a Polish slum to be the wife of a wealthy man—a man who seemingly gives her everything a wife could want. Except the one thing that she needs most: the pleasure she burns for while he snores beside her, the passion that only a lover can give.But adultery seems impossible until, suddenly, it happens. When she seduces a filling-station attendant, ruining her clothes in the grease of a mechanic's floor, she starts to spin out of control. He is the first but not the last, as Carla learns that infidelity is no work at all.This ebook features an illustrated biography of Lawrence Block, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from his personal collection, and a new afterword written by the author. Views: 70
Cass feels the long winter shadows on her heart. Her mother died of cancer and her father has remarried a woman who has moved into their old Manitoba house with her nasty, babyish daughter and an attitude that's very hard to take. Christmas promises to be a miserable time.More than a century earlier, Christmas is proving to be difficult for Beatrice, too, for she has shadows of her own. Some are cast by her circumstances. She sees the growing prejudice against people like her who are of mixed Cree and Scottish backgrounds. And like Cass, she has a stepmother. Her father's new wife is threatened by Beatrice and is driving a wedge into the family. Beatrice can only be sure of her beloved Cree grandmother, relegated to a room upstairs. When a way of escape presents itself to Beatrice by way of an eligible bachelor, she is torn by the choice it offers her. Should she settle for a man she doesn't love or address the problems at home? Through her journal, she explores the... Views: 70
One of the world's most successful crime writers, Georges Simenon has thrilled mystery lovers around the world since 1931 with his matchless creation Inspector Maigret. In The Madman of Bergerac, Maigret gets caught up in an investigation in a provincial French town terrorized by a maniacal murderer-only after being shot following a man who has mysteriously jumped off a moving train. The Madman of Bergerac captures the obsessive snobbery and hypocrisy of small-town bourgeoisie. Views: 70
