Get to know the colorful cast of characters at the Granite State Trailerpark, where Flora in number 11 keeps more than a hundred guinea pigs andscreams at people to stay away from her babies, Claudel in number 5 thinks he is lucky until his wife burns down their trailer and runs off with Howie Leeke, and Noni in number 7 has telephone conversations with Jesus and tells the police about them. In this series of related short stories, Russell Banks offers gripping, realistic portrayals of individual Americans and paints a portrait of New England life that is at once dark, witty, and revealing.Review"Mesmerizing .... There are times when Banks's prose fairly dazzles." -- -- Publishers WeeklyAbout the AuthorRussell Banks was raised in New Hampshire and eastern Massachusetts.The eldest of four children, he grew up in a working-class environment, which has played a major role in his writing.Mr. Banks (who was the first in his family to go to college) attended Colgate University for less than a semester, and later graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Before he could support himself as a writer, he tried his hand at plumbing, and as a shoe salesman and window trimmer.More recently, he has taught at a number of colleges and universities, including Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence, University of New Hampshire, New England College, New York University and Princeton University.A prolific writer of fiction, his titles include Searching for Survivors, Family Life, Hamilton Stark, The New World, The Book of Jamaica, Trailerpark, The Relation of My Imprisonment, Continental Drift, Success Stories, Affliction, The Sweet Hereafter, Rule of the Bone, and Cloudsplitter.He has also contributed poems, stories and essays to The Boston Globe Magazine, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Book Review, Esquire, Harper's, and many other publications.His works have been widely translated and published in Europe and Asia.Two of his novels have been adapted for feature-length films, The Sweet Hereafter (directed by Atom Goyan, winner of the Grand Prix and International Critics Prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival) and Affliction (directed by Paul Schrader, starring Nick Nolte, Willem Dafoe, Sissy Spacek, and James Coburn). He is the screenwriter of a film adaptation of Continental Drift. Mr. Banks has won numerous awards and prizes for his work, among them a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships, Ingram Merrill Award, The St. Lawrence Award for Short Fiction, O. Henry and Best American Short Story Award, The John Dos Passos Award, and the Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.Continental Drift and Cloudsplitter were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 and 1998 respectively.Affliction was short listed for both the PEN/Faulkner Fiction Prize and the Irish International Prize.He has lived in a variety of places, from New England to Jamaica, which have contributed to the richness of his writing. He is currently living in upstate New York.The Angel On The Roof is his first collection of short stories in fifteen years.Russell Banks is married to the poet Chase Twichell, and is the father of four grown daughters. Views: 53
Having a crush on her drop-dead-gorgeous boss could get Hopewell General intern Jasmine Campbell fired...especially with the prestigious Virginia hospital reeling from a shocking scandal. But head resident Lucien De Winter is impossible to resist. And he's arousing a healthy dose of desire as the good doctor wages an all-out war to make the sheltered Southern belle his own...Head over heels for Jasmine, Lucien vows to keep their relationship a secret. He knows they're playing a dangerous game, but he can't live without the sensual sister. Even if it means putting his hard-fought career on the line, the seduced surgeon is ready to risk it all. Because Lucien knows that the only thing to cure his acute condition is a lifetime of love... Views: 53
A busload of captives on an express ride to terror!It's the summer of 1995, and the passengers of the Sunday bus into town have realized that something is very, very wrong with their driver. They don't know that she began her day planning to kill herself. But they know that she's threatening to kill them. They began the ride as her passengers, but now they're her captives. She's already shown she won't hesitate to use that gun in her hand, and no one wants to be the next to die. They have no idea where she's taking them, who will be left alive when they get there, or what's in store for the survivors. With a madwoman at the wheel, the bus has gone far off its route, deep into insanity. And for most of the passengers, the next stop will be their last. Views: 53
Blessed and cursed by their hidden abilities, the Sentinels have no choice but to live, and love, on the edge of humanity...The Sentinel assassin, Bas, is facing the greatest challenge of his outcast existence. His young daughter, Molly, has been kidnapped. But her disappearance has brought the return of her mother, Myst, whom Bas has never forgotten--or forgiven. Haunted by a vision that she's destined to create a weapon that will destroy thousands, Myst was never impulsive--until she met the irresistibly handsome Bas. But with the Brotherhood, the enemy of the high-bloods hunting for her, Myst had to stay on the run, to keep her child, and the world, safe. Now, with the most important thing in both their lives at stake, she and Bas must embark on a treacherous journey to save Molly, to confront the truth of Myst's fate--and to face their fierce desire for one another. Praise for Blood Assassin "Ivy knocks it out of the park...A... Views: 53
This is the story of two unlikely dreamers: Sam, a man who wakes up one day to find himself growing wings, and Lilah, a woman who has lost her brother to the streets of Vancouver. Sam finds himself falling away from the world as he grows feathers from his back, while Lilah makes her own subtle and terrifying transformation as she seeks sexual penance under the harsh hand of her boss. Sam and Lilah fall deeper into their separate spiritual paths, and the two hurtle closer and closer to a dark, unknown destiny, one that changes all that they know about life and pain, love and God, and how to find light in the most unforeseen places. Re-examining the traditional roles of priest and prophet, damned and divine, and creating something monstrous and exquisite, this well-crafted novel investigates the so-called truths behind religion and explores the intersection of pleasure and pain.Review"An utterly original and equally unsettling debut novel. . . . Amanda Leduc possesses a confident and mature voice, her sentences sparkling with intellect and wisdom. She has earned a place among my favourite magic realists: Marquez, Findley, Martel. This is a brave book." —Angie Abdou, author, The Bone Cage and The Canterbury Trail"A novel of infinite heart." —Bill Gaston, author, The Order of Good Cheer and The World"Amanda Leduc's writing is both divine and earthy. Humor and grace illuminate this smart novel about the complexities of human and not-so-human nature. It shines." —Emily Schultz, author, The Blondes"Amanda Leduc's daring debut tackles big questions about family, God, and the intersection between suffering and spirituality. In her search for answers, she looks unflinchingly toward the darkness as well as the light." —Trevor Cole, author, Practical Jean"Amanda Leduc has written a dark and ambitious novel, a story of tortured magic and transformation." —Deborah Willis, author, Vanishing and Other Stories"Sometimes, pain really does make us feel better. I think the idea of penance is one that Leduc handles incredibly deftly and intelligently, especially considering how complicated the idea is." —www.OpenBookToronto.com"Leduc has a knack for writing in the mode of lyrical realism (it's not an exaggeration to compare her abilities to those of Alice Munro or Douglas Glover)." —Quill & Quire (March 2013)"Amanda Leduc's The Miracles of Ordinary Men is fantastic realism, if there is such a thing - well, there is now. Like a waking dream, it has the capacity to seduce and surprise, and it exercises its option on both." —Andrew Pyper, author, The DemonologistAbout the AuthorAmanda Leduc is a writer who has been published throughout Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdon. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario. Views: 53
Buchan knew that you can’t buck the consequences of your actions, and that your life is what you make of it. Perhaps his peculiarly Scottish combination of Romanticism and Calvinism daring living and high thinking is due to return to fashion.’ The Independent Magazine In 1925, John Buchan published his second most famous novel, "John MacNab"; three high-flying men - a barrister, a cabinet minister and a banker - are suffering from boredom. They concoct a plan to cure it. They inform three Scottish estates that they will poach from each two stags and a salmon in a given time. They sign collectively as 'John McNab' and await the responses. This novel is a light interlude within the "Leithen Stories" series - an evocative look at the hunting, shooting and fishing lifestyle in Highland Scotland. Introduction by Andrew Greig. Views: 53
Aphrodite Station, circling Venus, crosses behind the Sun every 584 days. Only then could the longest of con jobs be executed. In 2144, a young group of buncos who call themselves 'Coffey's Conners' are out to show their con-artist parents that they are mature enough to form their own crew. But the game the parents have in mind, 'The Wire', has not been pulled off in at least a century. With Aphrodite Station on the far side of the Sun, Coffey’s Conners are beyond help, beyond hope if things go wrong. If they get caught, the consequences are no further than the nearest airlock. Views: 53
When Crawford Sloane's wife, son and elderly father are mysteriously kidnapped, his life turns upside down. As CBA-TV's most celebrated and popular newscaster, he has become a prime target for terrorists.While the TV network is held to ransom, Sloane decides to launch his own rescue mission, and asks Harry Partridge, his colleague and competitor since the days they covered the war in Vietnam together, to head the operation.This is the most perilous assignment either has ever undertaken, and in an uneasy partnership, it will require all their professional and emotional strength.For Jessica, Crawford's wife, is the only woman Harry has ever loved... Views: 53
Will Elliott is out of a job. The lighthouse he’s been manning on Prince Albert Rock, off the wild Cornish coast, is about to become automated. So Will decides to fulfil his lifelong ambition – to sail round the coastline of Britain. Determined to continue his solitary existence, Will begins his preparations for his epic voyage. But before he has time to so much as paint his hull, he meets Amy Finn – a beautiful artist and fellow loner. And as if that isn’t distraction enough, suddenly his sleepy Cornish village is rocked by the biggest scandal to hit Cornwall since Guenevere ran off with Launcelot. It seems as if Will will never get away, and even if he does will his journey be solo or is there hope that he and Amy could be embarking on a two-man voyage of discovery? Views: 53
"These stories will last," said Raymond Carver of Shiloh and Other Stories when it was first published, and almost two decades later this stunning fiction debut and winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award has become a modern American classic. In Shiloh, Bobbie Ann Mason introduces us to her western Kentucky people and the lives they forge for themselves amid the ups and downs of contemporary American life, and she poignantly captures the growing pains of the New South in the lives of her characters as they come to terms with feminism, R-rated movies, and video games. "Bobbie Ann Mason is one of those rare writers who, by concentrating their attention on a few square miles of native turf, are able to open up new and surprisingly wide worlds for the delighted reader," said Robert Towers in The New York Review of Books.From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 53
