From the grand master of the historical novel comes a dazzling, epic portrait of the City of Light Internationally bestselling author Edward Rutherfurd has enchanted millions of readers with his sweeping, multigenerational dramas that illuminate the great achievements and travails throughout history. In this breathtaking saga of love, war, art, and intrigue, Rutherfurd has set his sights on the most magnificent city in the world: Paris. Moving back and forth in time across centuries, the story unfolds through intimate and vivid tales of self-discovery, divided loyalties , passion, and long-kept secrets of characters both fictional and real, all set against the backdrop of the glorious city—from the building of Notre Dame to the dangerous machinations of Cardinal Richlieu; from the glittering court of Versailles to the violence of the French Revolution and the Paris Commune; from the hedonism of the Belle Époque, the heyday of the impressionists, to the tragedy of the First World War; from the 1920s when the writers of the Lost Generation could be found drinking at Les Deux Magots to the Nazi occupation, the heroic efforts of the French Resistance, and the 1968 student revolt. With his unrivaled blend of impeccable research and narrative verve, Rutherfurd weaves an extraordinary narrative tapestry that captures all the glory of Paris. More richly detailed, more thrilling, and more romantic then anything Rutherfurd has written before, Paris: The Novel wonderfully illuminates hundreds of years in the City of Light and Love and brings the sights, scents, and tastes of Paris to sumptuous life. Views: 5
One quiet spring day in 1989, Constance Tepper arrives from Philadelphia to watch over her mother's Brooklyn apartment and her orange cat. Con's mother, Gert, has left town to visit her old friend Marlene Silverman in Rochester. Marlene has always seemed alluring and powerful to Con, and ever since Con was a little girl, the long-standing bond between Gert and Marlene has piqued her curiosity. Now she finds herself wondering again what keeps them together. Con's week in Brooklyn will take a surprising turn when she wakes to find that someone has entered her mother's apartment and her own purse is missing. Stranded, with no money, she begins to phone family and friends. By the end of that week, she will experience a series of troubling discoveries about her marriage, her job, and her family's history, and much of her life will be changed forever. In the fall of 2003, now living in Brooklyn and working as a lawyer, Con has almost forgotten that strange and shattering week. But a series of unsettling reminders and surprising discoveries - including traces of a lost elevated train line through Brooklyn - will lead to grief, love, and more questions. At last, a confrontation between Marlene and Con's daughter will unravel some of the mysteries of the past. Views: 5
With the meteoric success of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, Allan Gurganus placed himself among America’s most original and emotionally engaged storytellers. If his first comic novel mapped the late nineteenth-century South, Local Souls brings the twisted hilarity of Flannery O’Connor kicking into our new century.Through memorable language and bawdy humor, Gurganus returns to his mythological Falls, North Carolina, home of Widow. This first work in a decade offers three novellas mirroring today’s face-lifted South, a zone revolutionized around freer sexuality, looser family ties, and superior telecommunications, yet it celebrates those locals who have chosen to stay local. In doing so, Local Souls uncovers certain old habits—adultery, incest, obsession—still very much alive in our New South, a "Winesburg, Ohio" with high-speed Internet. Wells Tower says of Gurganus, "No living writer knows more about how humans matter to each other." Such ties of love produce hilarious, if wrenching, complications: "Fear Not" gives us a banker's daughter seeking the child she was forced to surrender when barely fifteen, only to find an adult rescuer she might have invented. In "Saints Have Mothers," a beloved high school valedictorian disappears during a trip to Africa, granting her ambitious mother a postponed fame that turns against her. And in a dramatic "Decoy," the doctor-patient friendship between two married men breaks toward desire just as a biblical flood shatters their neighborhood and rearranges their fates. Gurganus finds fresh pathos in ancient tensions: between marriage and Eros, parenthood and personal fulfillment. He writes about erotic hunger and social embarrassment with Twain's knife-edged glee. By loving Falls, Gurganus dramatizes the passing of Hawthorne’s small-town nation into those Twitter-nourished lives we now expect and relish. Four decades ago, John Cheever pronounced Allan Gurganus "the most technically gifted and morally responsive writer of his generation." Local Souls confirms Cheever’s prescient faith. It deepens the luster of Gurganus’s reputation for compassion and laughter. His black comedy leaves us with lasting affection for his characters and the aching aftermath of human consequences. Here is a universal work about a village. Views: 5
Award-winning author Alice Mattison's new novel explores the hard choices a young woman and her friends made decades earlier at the height of the Vietnam War.Decades ago in Brooklyn, three girls demonstrated against the Vietnam War, and each followed a distinct path into adulthood. Helen became a violent revolutionary and was killed in a protest in 1970. Val wrote a controversial book, Bright Morning of Pain, which was essentially a novelization of Helen's all-too-short but vibrant life. And Olive became an editor and writer, now comfortably settled with her husband, Griff, in modern-day New Haven.When Olive is asked to write an essay about Val's book, a work that attracts and repulses her in equal measure, doing so brings back to the forefront Olive and Griff's tangled histories and their complicated reflections on that tumultuous time in their young lives. Things only become more fraught when Griff borrows Olive's treasured first edition of the... Views: 5
From one of Canada's brightest new literary stars -- a startling and beautiful novel about abandonment, poverty, and violence, as well as loyalty, love, and hope, as seen through the eyes of a young homeless boy. It is 1993 and Bombay is on the verge of being torn apart by racial violence. Ten-year-old Chamdi has rarely ventured outside his orphanage, and entertains an idyllic fantasy of what the city is like beyond its garden walls -- a paradise he calls Kahunsha, "the city of no sadness." But when he runs away to search for his long-lost father, he finds himself thrust into the chaos of the streets, alone, possessing only the blood-stained cloth he was left in as a baby. There Chamdi meets Sumdi and Guddi, brother and sister who beg in order to provide for their sick mother, and the three become fast friends.Fueled only by a desire to find his father and the dream that Bombay will someday become Kahunsha, Chamdi struggles for survival on its brutal streets.... Views: 5
Lauren Ramsey is a teacher whose mantra is to never let a child fall through the cracks. But Lauren is so concerned about the welfare of a little boy in her kindy class she doesn't realise her own daughter, Skye, needs help.At fourteen, Skye Ramsey is dealing with the usual pressures faced by teenage girls, from the pitfalls of social media to coping with fickle friends and the attention of boys. The only person who seems to listen to Skye is Tamara Thompson, the manager of her favourite clothes shop.Tamara knows what it's like to be a troubled teen because as an adolescent she felt unloved and overlooked. She now has a successful career and a partner who adores her, but her sense of worthlessness and fear of rejection are threatening to overwhelm her.All three women are searching for a happier future, but finding it may lie in resolving secrets from their pasts . . .From the bestselling author of Red Dust and Crimson Dawn comes a moving and intriguing... Views: 5
Endymion, Pelops, Daedalus, Pygmalion – what are the stories behind these and the hundreds of other familiar names from Greek mythology – names that recur throughout the history of European culture?In a two-volume work that has become a classic reference book for both the serious scholar and the casual inquirer, Robert Graves retells the adventures of the important gods and heroes worshipped by the ancient Greeks.Drawing on an enormous range of sources, he has brought together all the elements of every myth in simple narrative form, supplying detailed cross-references and indexes. Each entry has a full commentary which examines problems of interpretation in both historical and anthropological terms, and in the light of contemporary research. Views: 5
Take one food writer named Cranky Agnes, add a hitman named Shane, mix them together with a Southern mob wedding, a missing necklace, two annoyed flamingos, and a dog named Rhett and you've got a recipe for a sexy, hilarious novel about the disastrous side of true love...Agnes Crandall's life goes awry when a dognapper invades her kitchen one night, seriously hampering her attempts to put on a wedding that she's staked her entire net worth on. Then a hero climbs through her bedroom window. His name is Shane, no last name, just Shane, and he has his own problems: he's got a big hit scheduled, a rival trying to take him out, and an ex-mobster uncle asking him to protect some little kid named Agnes. When he finds out that Agnes isn't so little, his uncle has forgotten to mention a missing five million bucks he might have lost in Agnes's house, and his last hit was a miss, Shane's life isn't looking so good, either. Then a bunch of lowlifes come looking for the... Views: 5
CLOSE TO HOME Montana sheriff Mike Cruise never pictured himself as a father. But with temporary custody of a toddler, he has to learn the ropes fast. Thankfully, his sweet new nanny, Malory Smythe, fits right in, and Mike begins to believe he can make this family thing work. Although he knows it can't last forever... After her cheating ex left her pregnant and alone, Malory could easily fall for a strong, protective man. But she can't risk repeating past mistakes with men, especially with a child on the way. When their makeshift family is threatened, will it drive Malory and Mike apart...or will it bring them together for good? Enjoy a special bonus short story from New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber, MY FUNNY VALENTINE Views: 5
A shy young lady courts danger, intrigue, and a notorious rake in this mysterious regency romance from the USA Today–bestselling author. Emmalyn Hathaway's quiet life is spent in pleasant companionship with her artist uncle and her beautiful, if somewhat flighty, cousin Marisol. So when this tranquility is upset by a disgruntled suitor of Marisol's, Emma decides to take matters into her own hands. Her quest for protection leads her to Restell Gardner, a notorious rake with a reputation for sleuthing out secrets. Even though Restell is exactly the kind of man Emma would rather avoid, and she the kind of lady he would never pursue, the two find more than just a common cause in their hours spent together. But as their attraction grows, so does the danger. Because there is something sinister going on in Emma's household—and Restell may be the only one who can save her . . . "Authentic characters and a... Views: 5
In this short story from the thrilling anthology FaceOff, bestselling authors Ian Rankin and Peter James—along with their most famous characters, John Rebus and Roy Grace—team up for the first time ever.Detectives John Rebus and Roy Grace could not be more different. Different generations, different backgrounds, and not to mention, they work 500 miles apart.The case that eventually brings them together centers on a crime that happened when Rebus was just a teenager in the 1960s—but it took place in Roy Grace’s stomping grounds in Brighton, England, at a time when violence erupted between rival gangs known as Mods and Rockers.Now, a deathbed confession in in Edinburgh brings Rebus and Grace together to investigate a cold case with a shocking twist.For more exciting pairs, check out all eleven stories in FaceOff! Views: 5
Knitting together many of the major characters and stories in Michael Moorcock's unparalleled creation of the Eternal Champion, this new novel depicts Elric, the White Wolf, at the end of his thousand-year dream quest, where he will be caught in a breathtaking chase across eras, worlds, and realities...One summer day in Yorkshire, young Oonagh von Bek finds herself on an extraordinary and perilous adventure. The earth outside her family home breaks open, and she is chased into the subterranean realms of the Middle March by a pair of dangerous men.Her grandmother and grandfather - Oona, the Dreamthief's Daughter, and Elric, the last sorcerer of Melnibone - follow, encountering other important avatars of the Eternal Champion and seeking Elric's son. Fanning out across the infinite realms of existence and time, they hope to stop Oonagh's would-be kidnappers, Gaynor the Damned and his allies. All paths will converge in the dark empire of Granbretan, a land of cruel tyranny and wicked magic, where defilers and murderers plan the ultimate arrogance: to re-create the entire Multiverse - and replace the Cosmic Balance with themselves as eternal overlords. Views: 5
The Bibliomysteries series includes short tales by Anne Perry, Jeffery Deaver, Ken Bruen, and C. J. BoxAn ancient scroll draws a bookseller into a chilling mysteryMonty Danforth finds the tin buried beneath a shipment of leather-bound classics. Inside is a millennia-old vellum manuscript written in an unfamiliar but unmistakably ancient language. Danforth tries to photocopy and photograph it, but he ends up with blank images, as though the ink were made of something impervious to modern technology. As the scroll’s mystery enchants him, this hapless bookseller falls into a cutthroat conspiracy that he may never escape.Soon a dead-eyed old man and his granddaughter come calling for the scroll. Danforth refuses to sell them the manuscript, but they will not be the last to demand it. Powerful forces crave the secrets locked within this ancient document, and Danforth will survive only if he can master its power. Views: 5
