Maggie O’Farrell’s This Must Be the Place is a smart, sophisticated, spellbinding summer read that captures the collapse—and reawakening—of an extraordinary marriage.
Daniel Sullivan, a young American professor reeling from a failed marriage and a brutal custody battle, is on holiday in Ireland when he falls in love with Claudette, a world-famous sexual icon and actress who fled fame for a reclusive life in a rural village. Together, they make an idyllic life in the country, raising two more children in blissful seclusion—until a secret from Daniel’s past threatens to destroy their meticulously constructed and fiercely protected home. What follows is a journey through Daniel’s many lives told in his voice and the voices of those who have made him the man he is: the American son and daughter he has not seen for many years; the family he has made with Claudette; and irrepressible, irreverent Claudette herself. Shot through with humor and wisdom, This Must Be the Place is a powerful rumination on the nature of identity, and the complexities of loyalty and devotion—a gripping story of an extraordinary family and an extraordinary love. Views: 797
Chance A Tale in Two Parts by Joseph Conrad Views: 797
You are here invited to read the story of an Event which occurred in an out-of-the-way corner of England, some years since. The persons principally concerned in the Event are:—a blind girl; two (twin) brothers; a skilled surgeon; and a curious foreign woman. I am the curious foreign woman. And I take it on myself—for reasons which will presently appear—to tell the story. So far we understand each other. Good. I may make myself known to you as briefly as I can. I am Madame Pratolungo—widow of that celebrated South American patriot, Doctor Pratolungo. I am French by birth. Before I married the Doctor, I went through many vicissitudes in my own country. They ended in leaving me (at an age which is of no consequence to anybody) with some experience of the world; with a cultivated musical talent on the pianoforte; and with a comfortable little fortune unexpectedly bequeathed to me by a relative of my dear dead mother (which fortune I shared with good Papa and with my younger sisters). To these qualifications I added another, the most precious of all, when I married the Doctor; namely—a strong infusion of ultra-liberal principles. Vive la République! Views: 797
From the collection Dreamin’ Dreams; A short humourous story in 2,000 words.In Ireland 1942, you made your own fun!Anyway, my turn came and I threw the shovel the highest, but this time it came straight back down like a guillotine and it took the tip off my brother’s nose. We all froze in horror. Then my sister picked up the tip and stuck it back on his face a second before the scream came.Every family has a secret. When a peculiar couple moves into the derelict house across the street, Marty White, the only kid resident of the Dullest Place in the Universe, is certain they have something to hide. What he discovers is something not only out of this world, but in a different world entirely.Marty's new neighbours, the Beatniks, have uncovered a connection to Over There—a world just like Marty's one, but backwards—in their bathroom mirror. Over There is filled with reflections: malevolent doppelgängers his world was never meant to see. No sooner does Marty discover this place when he finds himself standing in it. At first this seems like nothing more than his neighbours' cruel attempt at getting rid of him, but he soon realises there's much more to it than that.Marty has his own secret. A big one. He just doesn't know it yet. Views: 797
R is having a no-life crisis - he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he'd rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization. And then he meets a girl. First as his captive, then his reluctant house guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R's gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn't want to eat this girl - although she looks delicious - he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can't imagine, and their hopeless world won't change without a fight. Views: 797
A collection of two novellas, Hardboiled & Hard Luck concerns two young women making sense of the past. In "Hardboiled," the narrator is hiking in the mountains, reminiscing about an old lover-the only lesbian relationship the narrator ever had-who is now dead. In a dream, she is visited by her ex-lover, who berates her for forgetting the anniversary of her death. Later that night, a woman knocks on her hotel room door, saying that she was locked out of her room by her married lover. The woman turns out to be the ghost of a woman who killed herself in the hotel. The narrator dreams again of her old lover, with a sense of closure.
In "Hard Luck" a woman tells the story of her sister, who has been in a coma for a long time. Although her fiance broke the engagement, his older brother Sakai kept coming to the hospital to visit. There is a touching scene where the sister appears to respond when the narrator and Sakai peel tangerines, which the sister loved. The narrator is now in graduate school, studying Italian literature, preparing to go to Italy. She is drawn to Sakai, and it turns out that the feelings are mutual. The narrator goes to her sister's old company to get her things. Everyone is crying. The narrator talks with her father. Her sister dies and is cremated. The ex-fiance comes to the funeral, and there is a tragic bittersweet reconciliation between the two families. The narrator has a final conversation with Sakai in which it seems he may come to Italy. Views: 796
About The Author: Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was born in 1881 in Guildford, the son of a civil servant, and educated at Dulwich College. He spent a brief period working for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank before abandoning finance for writing, earning a living by journalism and selling stories to magazines. An enormously popular and prolific writer, he produced about 100 books. In Jeeves, the ever resourceful "gentleman's personal gentleman", and the good-hearted young blunderer Bertie Wooster, he created two of the best known and best loved characters in twentieth century literature. Their exploits, first collected in Carry On, Jeeves, were chronicled in fourteen books, and have been repeatedly adapted for television, radio and the stage. Wodehouse also created many other comic figures, notably Lord Emsworth, the Hon. Galahad Threepwood, Psmith and the numerous members of the Drones Club. He was part-author and writer of fifteen straight plays and 250 lyrics for some 30 musical comedies. The... Name: P. G. Wodehouse Also Known As: Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (full name); P. Brooke-Haven, Pelham Grenville, J. Plum, C. P. West, J. Walker Williams, and Basil Windham Date of Birth: October 15, 1881 Place of Birth: Guildford, Surrey, England Date of Death: February 14, 1975 Place of Death: Southampton, New York Education: Dulwich College, 1894-1900 Biography Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was born in 1881 in Guildford, the son of a civil servant, and educated at Dulwich College. He spent a brief period working for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank before abandoning finance for writing, earning a living by journalism and selling stories to magazines. An enormously popular and prolific writer, he produced about 100 books. In Jeeves, the ever resourceful "gentleman's personal gentleman", and the good-hearted young blunderer Bertie Wooster, he created two of the best known and best loved characters in twentieth century literature. Their exploits, first collected in Views: 796
In this outrageously farcical adventure, hero George Giles sets out to conquer the terrible "Wescac" computer system that threatens to destroy his community in this brilliant "fantasy of theology, sociology, and sex" ("Time"). Views: 796
"My gord, Carnehan," says Daniel, "This is a tremenjus business, and we've got the whole country as far as it's worth having."
Literature’s most famous adventure story, this stirring tale of two happy-go-lucky British ne’re-do-wells trying to carve out their own kingdom in the remote mountains of Afghanistan has also proved over time to be a work of penetrating and lasting political insight—amidst its raucous humor and swashbuckling bravado is a devastatingly astute dissection of imperialism and its heroic pretensions.
Written when he was only 22 years old, the tale also features some of Rudyard Kipling’s most crystalline prose, and one of the most beautifully rendered, spectacularly exotic settings he ever used. Best of all, it features two of his most unforgettable characters, the ultra-vivid Cockneys Peachy Carnahan and Daniel Dravot, who impart to the story its ultimate, astonishing twist: it is both a tragedy and a triumph.
**The Art of The Novella Series
**Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time. Views: 795
First published in 1818, *Persuasion* was Jane Austen's last work. Its mellow character and autumnal tone have long made it a favorite with Austen readers. Set in Somersetshire and Bath, the novel revolves around the lives and love affair of Sir Walter Elliot, his daughters Elizabeth, Anne, and Mary, and various in-laws, friends, suitors, and other characters, In Anne Elliot, the author created perhaps her sweetest, most appealing heroine.
At the center of the novel is Anne's thwarted romance with Captain Frederick Wentworth, a navy man Anne met and fell in love with when she was 19. At the time, Wentworth was deemed an unsuitable match and Anne was forced to break off the relationship. Eight years later, however, they meet again. By this time Captain Wentworth has made his fortune in the navy and is an attractive "catch." However, Anne is now uncertain about his feelings for her. But after various twists and turns of fortune, the novel ends on a happy note.
In *Persuasion*, as in such novels as *Sense and Sensibility*, *Pride and Prejudice*, and *Emma*, Austen limned the plight of young women who could escape the constraints of family life only by marrying, and suggest the foolishness of women who believed they were free and not dependent on the financial and social resources of men. At the same time, *Persuasion* offers an ironic and subtle paean to the true love that enables one woman to rise above straitened economic circumstances and the stifling social conventions that restricted women to narrowly circumscribed lives in the common sitting room.
Sure to appeal to admirers of Jane Austen, *Persuasion* will delight any reader with its finely drawn characters, gentle satire, and charming re-creation of the genteel world of the 19th-century English countryside.
** Views: 795
It begins at a funeral, where the truth is hidden away inside the pages of a book no one was ever meant to read. But these words were never destined to stay silent. They are words with the power to make some sense of a girl’s life and death and reveal secrets that are terrible and beautiful enough to condemn and redeem both the guilty and the innocent.‘There was no laughing and joking that morning. There could be no relief, no celebration of a fruitful life lived to a natural conclusion. That had never been an option.’It begins at a funeral, where the truth is hidden away inside the pages of a book no one was ever meant to read. But these words were never destined to stay silent. They are words with the power to make some sense of a girl’s life and death and reveal secrets that are terrible and beautiful enough to condemn and redeem both the guilty and the innocent. Part nine of the Diamonds collection of short stories and a sequel to Lily Green and Hello, Emptiness, Revelations is a story about grief, revenge, and the power of words and love. Views: 795
"Potok writes powerfully about the suffering of innocent people caught in the cross-fire of a war they cannot begin to understand....Humanity and compassion for his characters leap from every page."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
As the Chinese and the army of the North sweep south during the Korean War, an old peasant farmer and his wife flee their village across the bleak, bombed-out landscape. They soon come upon a boy in a ditch who is wounded and unconscious. Stirred by possessiveness and caring the woman refuses to leave the boy behind. The man thinks she is crazy to nurse this boy, to risk their lives for some dying stranger. Angry and bewildered, he waits for the boy to die. And when the boy does not die, the old man begins to believe that the boy possesss a magic upon which all their lives depend....
From the Paperback edition. Views: 795
"The Storm" is a short story by the American writer Kate Chopin, written in 1898. It did not appear in print in Chopin's lifetime; it was published in 1969. This story is the sequel to Chopin's At the Cadian Ball. Views: 795
Fernando Alberto Ruiz, AKA El Rey del Mar, may have been the world's most famous (or infamous) drug lord. But even after a Hollywood film, not many know the true story of his wild life. The drugs. The violence. The mermaids. 2900 words.Fernando Alberto Ruiz, AKA El Rey Del Mar, may have been the world's most famous (or infamous) drug lord. But even after a Hollywood film, not many know the entire story of his wild life. The drugs. The violence. The mermaids.Now, with the news of the late drug lord's passing, what better time than to take a look back over the life of one of the world's most interesting men. A hero to some, a criminal to others. He was Fernando Alberto Ruiz, El Rey Del Mar. The King of the Sea.Approximately 2900 words in length. Views: 795
The end of the world didn’t happen overnight.
After years of societal breakdowns, wars and quakes and rising tides, humanity was already near the edge. Then came a final blow no one could have expected: all the world’s corpses rising up to make more.
Born into this bleak and bloody landscape, twelve-year-old Julie struggles to hold on to hope as she and her parents drive across the wastelands of America, a nightmarish road trip in search of a new home.
Hungry, lost, and scared, sixteen-year-old Nora finds herself her brother’s sole guardian after her parents abandon them in the not-quite-empty ruins of Seattle.
And in the darkness of a forest, a dead man opens his eyes. Who is he? What is he? With no clues beyond a red tie and the letter “R,” he must unravel the grim mystery of his existence—right after he learns how to think, how to walk, and how to satisfy the monster howling in his belly. The New Hunger is a glimpse of the past and a path to an astonishing future… Views: 795
