This doesn't matter. This doesn't matter. This doesn't matter. This doesn't matter. This doesn't matter. Views: 141
A glimpse into the melting pot of reputations and rumours in the twilight years of communism in Albania, as the morning's orthodoxies become heresies by dinner-time, and everyone must step nimbly to keep out of jail. The fragile nature of political realities in present-day China too, is summed up.From Publishers WeeklySet in the mid-1970s, as the alliance between Albania and Communist China unravels, this subversively inventive satire traces the impact of the zigzagging Albanian party line on the personal lives of a group of friends and associates. These include a jittery Albanian diplomat in Beijing, his jealously insecure wife, an establishment novelist who confronts "the void inside him" and a civil servant who writes an "autocritique" castigating himself for his petty-bourgeois mentality. A Kafkaesque subplot concerns an army officer who's arrested, apparently for refusing to obey an order. Albanian novelist Kadare ( The Palace of Dreams ), who lives in France, sketches a devastating portrait of Mao Zedong as a megalomaniac whose goal is "the brainwashing of the human race." Historical figures like Zhou Enlai and genocidal Cambodian leader Pol Pot appear intermittently in an elliptic narrative spliced with dreams, officers' coerced confessions and short-short stories. China, depicted as a dystopia where simple human relations are stultified and surveillance is a way of life, becomes a mirror image of Albania through Kadare's mordantly ironic vision. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalUnder communism, foreign relations between a smaller country and the huge country that serves as its "host" affect the day-to-day lives of many individuals, especially in the smaller country. An Albanian by birth now living in France, Kadare (The Palace of Dreams, LJ 9/1/93) shows how Albania's relationship with China affects the life of Silva Dibra, a government employee, wife, and mother. The endless succession of her days seem to blend together as Silva worries about her husband, Gjergi, who makes sudden and frequent trips to China, and her brother, Arian, who is in the military. She also thinks constantly about her dead sister, Ana. Through Silva, we learn the thoughts of too many other characters: her husband, daughter, brother, co-workers, endless friends, Chairman Mao, Zhou En-lai, and a stream of other Chinese bureaucrats. There are some good, funny ideas here, and a number of chapters would work effectively as short stories. Strung together, however, they create what is essentially a plotless novel that strains the reader's interest.Olivia Opello, Onondaga Cty. PL, Syracuse, N.Y.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 141
An Unusual BeginningA billboard on the side of a Seattle road is common enough--but one advertising for a bride? It's Chase Goodwin's solution to the problem of finding a wife quickly, a wife to bring home to Alaska. Lesley Campbell has her own reasons for responding...and in no time she's the Bride Wanted in Chase's life! Views: 141
Who killed twenty-four-year-old Priscilla Hart? This highly motivated, idealistic American student had come to India to volunteer in women's health programs, but had her work made a killer out of an enraged husband? Or was her death the result of a xenophobic attack? Had an indiscriminate love affair spun out of control? Had a disgruntled, deeply jealous colleague been pushed to the edge? Or was she simply the innocent victim of a riot that had exploded in that fateful year of 1989 between Hindus and Muslims? Experimenting masterfully with narrative form in this brilliant tour de force, internationally acclaimed novelist Shashi Tharoor chronicles the mystery of Priscilla Hart's death through the often contradictory accounts of a dozen or more characters, all of whom relate their own versions of the events surrounding her killing. Like his two previous novels, Riot probes and reveals the richness of India, and is at once about love, hate, cultural collision, the... Views: 141
Englisch dreams in an Amish heart...Her career took her into the Englisch world...Is love enough to bring her home?Temporarily in her Amish community to help with her sick brother's business, nurse Rachel Blank can't wait to get back to the Englisch world...and far away from Arden Esh. Her brother's headstrong carpentry partner challenges her at every turn. But when a family crisis redefines their relationship, will Rachel realize the life she really wants is right here...with Arden? Views: 141
Sixteen-year-old Rasheed is smart, tough and a survivor. In his neighborhood, he has to be. The streets are run by a gang called the E Street Locals, and they've been trying to jump him in since he was a child. So far, he's managed to escape their clutches. But the gang is not his only problem. Rasheed's sister, Daneeka, was paralyzed in a drive-by shooting, and now she's confined to a wheelchair, mentally frozen at the age of nine. His mother is an addict. His father hasn't been heard from in years. High school is no safer than the streets, so Rasheed seeks solace at the local university campus. There he meets a young woman named Lanaia who takes an interest in him. He also bumps up against a police officer who he thinks at first is hassling him just because he's black. But eventually Rasheed realizes that the officer is only pushing him to become a better person. Though he can't escape his home life, or the gang, as easily as he'd like, Rasheed does learn some valuable lessons... Views: 141
A Queen. A Harem of Kings. Can Shay really do this? Does she even have a choice in the matter?Warning: This book is a Slow Burn Reverse Harem with a Cliffhanger ending.My name is Shay. I'm nineteen years old.Every Fader in the country is after me.I know what you’re thinking. That I either did something horrible or that I'm a criminal.None of those things are true.No.The only crime I committed was to be born a female with the wolf's god symbol on my skin.We've been running.Running for nineteen years. They knew, my parents knew, and my mother's last dying wish was for my father to protect me. To run.So my father packed up his newborn twins, kissed his dying wife on the cheek and ran.We've been running for nineteen years because of me.My brother hasn't had a normal life, because of me.My father took his last breath of air five days ago because of me.Because we've been running for nineteen years.No more. Views: 140
