After almost three years 21stC schoolboy Jamie meets up with Grimm again and this time Grimm finally tells Jamie the true story of King Arthur - well almost true, as true as his memory recalls, for he is no longer the young man, but the old man.After almost three years 21stC schoolboy Jamie meets up with Grimm again and this time Grimm finally tells Jamie the true story of King Arthur - well almost true, as true as his memory recalls, for he is no longer the young man, but the old man. The story he tells is far from that told in the legends.The unexpected reunion is at the annual re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings where Jamie is with the Anglo-Saxon group he has joined and Grimm has had too much to drink.This is the final installment of Grimm Tales, that is unless the old man decides otherwise. Views: 863
Poor Jacob Two-Two. Not only must he say everything twice just to be heard over his four brothers and sisters, but he finds himself the prisoner of the dreaded Hooded Fang. What had he done to deserve such a punishment? The worst crime of all – insulting a grown-up! Although he’s small, Jacob is not helpless, especially when The Infamous Two come to his aid.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 863
Here are the interlocking affairs of four men: Robin Woodfield, an architect in his late forties trying to build an idyllic life in Dorset with his young lover, Justin, a would-be actor increasingly disenchanted with the countryside; Robin's attractive and dangerously volatile twenty-two-year-old son Danny; and Justin's former boyfriend Alex, whose life is unexpectedly transformed by a night of house music and a tab of ecstasy.As each falls under the spell of romance or drugs, country living or rough trade, a richly ironic picture emerges of the illusions of love, and of the clashing imperatives of modern gay life: the hunger for contact and the fear of commitment, the need for permanence and the continual disruptions of sex. Ultimately, The Spell details the restlessness of every human heart. Views: 863
16 modern fiction superstars shine a startling light on the romance and pain of the infamous literary pair Heathcliff and Cathy.
Short stories to stir the heart and awaken vital conversation about love.
Sixteen stories inspired by Wuthering Heights.
In ‘Terminus’ a young woman hides in an empty Brighton hotel; in ‘Thicker Than Blood’ a man sits in a hot tub stalking his newly-married love on social media; and in ‘A bird half-eaten’ an amateur boxer prepares for a match.
A woman recalls the ‘Heathcliffs I Have Known’ and the physical danger she has borne at their hands; in ‘Anima’ a child and a fox are unified in one startling moment of violence; and in ‘One Letter Different’ two teenagers walk the moors and face up to their respective buried secrets.
Curated by Kate Mosse and commissioned for Emily Brontë’s bicentenary year in 2018, these fresh, modern stories pulse with the raw beauty and pain of love and are as timely as they are illuminating.
The full list of contributors is:
Leila Aboulela, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Joanna Cannon, Alison Case, Juno Dawson, Louise Doughty, Sophie Hannah, Anna James, Erin Kelly, Dorothy Koomson, Grace McCleen, Lisa McInerney, Laurie Penny, Nikesh Shukla, Michael Stewart and Louisa Young. Views: 862
For two years, Walter Stackhouse has been a faithful and supportive husband to his wife, Clara. She is distant and neurotic, and Walter finds himself harboring gruesome fantasies about her demise. When Clara's dead body turns up at the bottom of a cliff in a manner uncannily resembling the recent death of a woman named Helen Kimmel who was murdered by her husband, Walter finds himself under scrutiny. He commits several blunders that claim his career and his reputation, cost him his friends, and eventually threaten his life. The Blunderer examines the dark obsessions that lie beneath the surface of seemingly ordinary people. With unerring psychological insight, Patricia Highsmith portrays characters who cross the precarious line separating fantasy from reality.
NB: The title in England was changed to Lament for a Lover. Views: 862
When you are alone and hurt, it is comforting to know that someone really cares.Night Kings:Humans own the day and yet it’s the supernatural that lay claim to the night. Vampires, the oldest of night’s children, have at last found a home in Salem and it’s a home they’re unwilling to part from. Their mortal enemies, the werewolves, lurk not just in the vast forests that surround the city, but inside the very fabric of the community. Salem has always been able to weather the storm that brew between both factions, but they’re about to learn that they aren’t the only creatures that go bump in the night.The Lady in Red:The city of Salem has long held dark secrets within its ancient walls. Those secrets emerge into the daylight when the death of a reaper puts a whole city under the microscope. No one is going to be safe when the search heats up and forces vampires, werewolves, and witches alike to come out of hiding and take a side in the war to come.Please Note: Night Kings is a YA collection of episodic short stories based in the city of Salem. It is not intended to be read as a novel and should be noted before purchase that a single episode won’t take longer than a few hours to complete.Warning: This eBook contains graphic imagery and coarse language. Views: 862
When I was twelve, a fortune teller told me that my one true love would die young and leave me all alone.
Everyone said she was a fraud, that she was just making it up.
I'd really like to know why the hell a person would make up a thing like that.
Written with the snap, glitter and wit of The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, God-Shaped Hole is a memorable, poignant love story that will leave you weeping with laughter. It is told in the wry, vulnerable voice of Beatrice "Trixie" Jordan who replies to a personal ad, "If your intentions are pure I am seeking a friend for the end of the world."
In doing so, she meets Jacob Grace, a charming, effervescent thirty-something writer, a free spirit who is a passionate seeker of life. He possesses his own turn of phrase and ways of thinking and feeling that dissonantly harmonize with Trixie's off-center vision as they roller coaster through the joys and furies of their wrenching romance. Along the way they try to come to terms with the hurt brought about by their distant fathers who, in different ways, forsook them.
This story will prove so touching you will rush to share it with a friend or loved one or even a stranger. Views: 862
A man builds a tree house by a river, in anticipation of the coming flood. A sugar-beet crashes through a young woman's windscreen. A boy sets fire to a barn. A pair of itinerant labourers sit by a lake, talking about shovels and sex, while fighter-planes fly low overhead and prepare for war.
These aren't the sort of things you imagine happening to someone like you. But sometimes they do.
Set in the flat and threatened fenland landscape, where the sky is dominant and the sea lurks just beyond the horizon, these delicate, dangerous, and sometimes deeply funny stories tell of things buried and unearthed, of familiar places made strange, and of lives where much is hidden, much is at risk, and tender moments are hard-won.
Watch Jon McGregor reading from This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You
Jon McGregor discusses This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You Views: 862
When Manuel is hassled by high school basketball player Latrell, he decides to teach Latrell a lesson in humility on the court. Sure, soccer is Manuel's sport not basketball, and Latrell is several inches taller, but Manuel isn't worried. What Latrell doesn't know is that Manuel is something more than human.On the white painted veranda of a post colonial Bombay hotel, two men meet in the stifling heat of the approaching monsoon. They are a generation apart and their ideologies diverge but they share the same turbulent moment in time; a time of upheaval and monumental shift that is changing their world and unveiling the dawn of an uncertain future.But the storm clouds that gather over world events are also forming over their own private worlds as they confront each other with questions of their past and their future; questions they would prefer not to face. Views: 861
From the author of the instant New York Times bestseller Tenth of December comes a darkly comic short story, a fable about the all too real impact that we humans have on the environment—now available for the first time as an eBook.
Fox 8 has always been known as the daydreamer in his pack, the one his fellow foxes regarded with a knowing snort and a roll of the eyes. That is, until Fox 8 develops a unique skill: He teaches himself to speak “Yuman” by hiding in the bushes outside a house and listening to children’s bedtime stories. The power of language fuels his abundant curiosity about people—even after “danjer” arrives in the form of a new shopping mall that cuts off his food supply, sending Fox 8 on a harrowing quest to help save his pack. Told with his distinctive blend of humor and pathos, Fox 8 showcases the extraordinary imaginative talents of George Saunders, whom the New York Times called “the writer for our time.”
Praise for George Saunders and *Tenth of December
“The best book you’ll read this year . . . more moving and emotionally accessible than anything that has come before.”—The New York Times Magazine
“Saunders is a complete original, unlike anyone else.”—Dave Eggers
“Affecting [and] wincingly funny . . . It’s no exaggeration to say that the short story master George Saunders helped change the trajectory of American fiction.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Subversive, hilarious, and emotionally piercing.”—Jennifer Egan
“Not since Twain has America produced a satirist this funny.”—Zadie Smith
“George Saunders makes the all-but-impossible look effortless. We’re lucky to have him.”—Jonathan Franzen
“Tenth of December* isn’t just [Saunders’s] most unexpected work yet; it’s also his best . . . as weird, scary, and devastating as America itself.”—NPR
“An astoundingly tuned voice—graceful, dark, authentic, and funny—telling just the kinds of stories we need to get us through these times.”—Thomas Pynchon
“The best short-story writer in English alive.” —Mary Karr Views: 861
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. Views: 861
*To help her class win the school contest, Dawn Bosco will have to find the person who is trying to ruin their play, Little Red Riding Hood* Ms. Rooney’s second-grade class is determined to win the school contest by putting on a surprise play. Dawn Bosco will play Little Red Riding Hood, and Jason Bazyk will be the Big Bad Wolf. But someone is trying to ruin everything. First, Dawn hears a scary voice backstage. Then, the wolf suit goes missing. Dawn has to get to the bottom of the mystery in order to save the play and win the prize. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Patricia Reilly Giff including rare photos from the author’s personal collection. Views: 861
From the Booker Prize-winner Ben Okri: a classic love story set in a country trying to come to terms with its past.
An epic of daily life, DANGEROUS LOVE is a story of doomed love, of star-crossed lovers, separated not by their families, but by the very circumstances of their lives.
'I hope among my novels this one achieves something I have long sought.' BEN OKRI. Views: 860
After the discovery of The P.H.O.T.O. Sergeant Robert (Big 'S') Scarburg Sr. and his son Captain Robert (Little 'S') Scarburg Jr., both from the 5th Special Forces, must escape with their valuable find. Where do they go from deep within the jungle of Cambodia. How do they avoid the Russians, the aliens and their own countrymen who all desire to have the secrets of The P.H.O.T.O for themselves.Emotion can be so overpowering that it overrides the voice of reason. This was Nonma's experience when he fell head over heels in love with Ramat. Was it really worth the price he had to pay? Views: 860
This collection of ten connected stories or dreams has a surrealistic atmosphere. Some are weird, others are grotesquely funny. Among the ten nights, the first, second, third, and fifth nights start with the same sentence "This is the dream I dreamed." Whether Sosecki actually had these dreams or whether they were complete fictions is not known. Views: 860
