The award-winning author of The Yellow Birds returns with an extraordinary debut poetry collection.
National Book Award finalist, Iraq war veteran, novelist and poet Kevin Powers creates a deeply affecting portrait of a life shaped by war. Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting captures the many moments that comprise a soldier's life: driving down the Texas highway; waiting for the unknown in the dry Iraq heat; writing a love letter; listening to a mother recount her dreams. Written with evocative language and discernment, Powers's poetry strives to make sense of the war and its echoes through human experience.
Just as The Yellow Birds was hailed as the "first literary masterpiece produced by the Iraq war," this collection will make its mark as a powerful, enduring work (Los Angeles Times). Views: 933
From the acclaimed author of Cut comes this new novel that explores the anguish of living with divided loyalties and the cost of keeping family secrets, as a young teen struggles to keep his family together when his father abandons them. Views: 933
A dazzling new collection of short stories--the first major new work of fiction from the beloved, internationally acclaimed, Haruki Murakami since his #1 best-selling Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.
Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all.
Marked by the same wry humor that has defined his entire body of work, in this collection Murakami has crafted another contemporary classic. Views: 933
Octogenarian Myrtle Clover is fit to be tied when her book club votes to change to a supper club. Who wants chips and dip when they can have Dickens and Twain?But when a body is discovered during the first supper club dinner, the evening quickly gets interesting. Myrtle pits her sleuthing skills against her police chief son's to find the killer....if the killer doesn't find her first.Retired octogenarian schoolteacher Myrtle Clover is fit to be tied when her book club votes to change to a supper club. Who wants chips and dip when they can have Dickens and Twain?The first supper club is a progressive dinner...where Myrtle loses interest during the hors d'oeuvres. But when a body is discovered during the main course, the evening quickly gets interesting. Myrtle pits her sleuthing skills against her police chief son's to find the killer....if the killer doesn't find her first. Views: 933
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight is a perversely magical literary detective story -- subtle, intricate, leading to a tantalizing climax -- about the mysterious life of a famous writer. Many people knew things about Sebastian Knight as a distinguished novelist, but probably fewer than a dozen knew of the two love affairs that so profoundly influenced his career, the second one in such a disastrous way. After Knight's death, his half brother sets out to penetrate the enigma of his life, starting with a few scanty clues in the novelist's private papers. His search proves to be a story of mystery and intrigue as any of his subject's own novels, as baffling, and, in the end, as uniquely rewarding. Views: 933
I had a bright idea, 'Teeny Tiny Tales' of only 78 words.It's much more of a challenge than you might think, and very like those picture puzzles where you slide the squares around in a grid, until they are in the right order.But words are very restless, more, then less, then different - then perfect.:o)These Brother Gregory stories are historical scientific fiction. They start on a cold night in Brno in 1865 when the world learns, for the first time, about the mechanism of genetic inheritance. A giant scientific mystery was revealed, but the time was not quite right. Why? Meet Gregor Mendel, his friends - and his enemies - and find the answer. Views: 932
A sleek, gripping novel of encounters set in Tokyo during the spooky hours between midnight and dawn, by an internationally renowned literary phenomenon.
Murakami's trademark humor, psychological insight, and grasp of spirit and morality are here distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery. Combining the pyrotechnical genius that made Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle international bestsellers, with a surprising infusion of heart, Murakami has produced one of his most enchanting fictions yet.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 931
In his National Book Award–winning novel Augustus, John Williams uncovered the secrets of ancient Rome. With Butcher’s Crossing, his fiercely intelligent, beautifully written western, Williams dismantles the myths of modern America.
It is the 1870s, and Will Andrews, fired up by Emerson to seek “an original relation to nature,” drops out of Harvard and heads west. He washes up in Butcher’s Crossing, a small Kansas town on the outskirts of nowhere. Butcher’s Crossing is full of restless men looking for ways to make money and ways to waste it. Before long Andrews strikes up a friendship with one of them, a man who regales Andrews with tales of immense herds of buffalo, ready for the taking, hidden away in a beautiful valley deep in the Colorado Rockies. He convinces Andrews to join in an expedition to track the animals down. The journey out is grueling, but at the end is a place of paradisal richness. Once there, however, the three men abandon themselves to an orgy of slaughter, so caught up in killing buffalo that they lose all sense of time. Winter soon overtakes them: they are snowed in. Next spring, half-insane with cabin fever, cold, and hunger, they stagger back to Butcher’s Crossing to find a world as irremediably changed as they have been. Views: 930
Dramatization of Uncle Tom's Cabin that Ms. Stowe prepared. Views: 930
14 stories:
Rain.--Red.--The letter.--Before the party.--The outstation.--The round dozen.--The hairless Mexican.--Guilia Lazzari.--Mr. Harrington's washing.--The human element.--The alien corn.--The vessel of wrath.--The door of opportunity.--Neil MacAdam. Views: 930
Lady Ludlow is absolute mistress of Hanbury Court and a resolute opponent of anything that might disturb the class system into which she was born. She will keep no servant who can read and write and insists that the lower orders have no rights, but only duties. But the winds of change are blowing through the village of Hanbury. The vicar, Mr. Gray, wishes to start a Sunday school for religious reasons; Mr. Horner wants to educate the citizens for economic reasons. But Lady Ludlow is not as rigid as one may think. Views: 930
From the author of the best sellers The Last Werewolf and Talulla Rising, the hair-raising conclusion to the saga that has galvanized readers' imaginations: an electrifying, startlingly erotic love story that gives us the final battle for survival between werewolves and vampires, and one last incisive--brilliantly ironic--look at what it means to be, or to not be, human.
Talulla has settled into an uneasy equilibrium: with her twins at her side and the devotion of her lover Walker, it's a normal family life--except for their monthly transformation into werewolves hungry for human flesh. But even this tenuous peace is interrupted for Talulla by nagging thoughts of Remshi, the 20,000-year-old vampire who haunts her dreams. In turn Remshi can't escape the feeling that he knows Talulla from years before (many, many, many years). They have their distractions: Talulla is being pursued by a fanatical Christian cult, and Remshi is following the trail of reckless feedings by a newly turned vampire. But, as the novel unfurls, they are inextricably drawn to each other--and toward the moment when an ancient prophecy may finally come to pass--in this tale of pulse-pounding supernatural suspense. Views: 930
Greene's account of a five year personal involvement with Omar Torrijos, ruler of Panama from 1968-81 and Sergeant Chuchu, one of the few men in the National Guard whom the General trusted completely. It is a fascinating tribute to an inspirational politician in the vital period of his country's history, and to an unusual and enduring friendship. Views: 929
"...the crossed guns in Mr. Howard's parlor drew me like a magnet." That how my grandfather began his favorite story. His pa, my great-grandfather, had been the marshal of a quiet Ozark town that one day erupted in gunfire and an old-fashioned shootout. As a 10-year-old, my grandfather witnessed the gun battle. (This fictionalized account is loosely based on the assassination of Jesse James.)"I reckon nearly all young boys ...have had a fascination for guns, and I was no exception...the crossed guns on the west wall of Mr. Howard's parlor drew me like a magnet." That's how my grandfather started his favorite story. His pa, my great-grandfather, had been the marshal of a quiet little Ozark town that one day erupted in gunfire. As a 10-year-old, my grandfather witnessed the gun battle.(This fictionalized account is loosely based on the assassination of Jesse James.) Views: 929
