“Docemente, ao voltar para casa, comecei a recompor o rosto febril de monsieur Reynaud ao mesmo tempo que meditava sobre o soluço do desconhecido monsieur Vallejo. Imagem recorrente, refleti; nos últimos meses era difícil para mim não associar a doença e até a beleza à lembrança de monsieur Reynaud. Era quase meia-noite e eu havia passado o resto da noitada num café do bairro de Passy em companhia de um velho conhecido, alfaiate aposentado que consagrava grande parte do seu tempo ao estudo do mesmerismo. Já não chovia. De alguma maneira, pensei, as pessoas que nos servem de ponte até os pacientes revelam o estado mais profundo destes. Os intermediários como radiografias.”
Franz Mesmer, um médico do século XVIII, desenvolveu um método de tratamento de doenças humanas servindo-se do magnetismo animal - uma técnica precursora da hipnose que ficou mais conhecida pelo conto Revelação mesmérica, de Edgar Allan Poe. Um dos discípulos do mesmerismo, Pierre Pain, é o protagonista deste romance de Roberto Bolaño, escrito no início dos anos 1980.
Na Paris do entreguerras, Pain é contratado por madame Reynaud para ajudar um sul-americano chamado Vallejo, que sofre de um soluço incurável. Outros médicos avaliaram o homem e nada descobriram.
No entanto, logo o protagonista se encontra envolvido em uma conspiração muito maior do que imaginava. Perseguido por dois homens misteriosos que ele julga serem espanhóis, o mesmerista embarca em uma viagem alucinante pelas ruas de Paris, deparando com artistas de vanguarda, filmes raros de ficção científica e complexos labirintos dignos da imaginação de Jorge Luis Borges.
Monsieur Pain, um dos primeiros romances escritos por Bolaño, é uma peça rara em sua obra: um livro atmosférico, repleto de temas caros à literatura de gênero, como o ocultismo, a busca detetivesca e a confusão entre sonho e realidade. Enquanto Pain se deixa levar pelo mistério, as fronteiras entre o que é real e o que é imaginação se dissolvem.
A revelação final, óbvia para os leitores familiarizados com poesia latino-americana, de que o paciente com soluço se trata do famoso poeta peruano César Vallejo, adiciona ainda mais camadas interpretativas a esta estranha história. As circunstâncias da morte de Vallejo, por sinal, continuam enigmáticas até hoje. Por fim, o epílogo adianta uma técnica narrativa que seria depois consagrada por Bolaño: muitas vozes buscando documentar a vida de pessoas, algumas reais, outras fictícias. Views: 758
Short stories and pieces of writing from the Winter 2014 YPSShort work from contributing members of the Swansea Young People's Writing Squad, run by Jo Furber with the support of Literature Wales at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea. Views: 757
Single mother Queenie Hayes struggles to support her two young children and tells them stories of a world filled with sunlight instead of concrete, a world called the Veldt where magical creatures abound and her family roams free. As a social worker threatens to break Queenie's family apart, the Veldt offers her family a chance to escape if she can find the courage to reach for it.Single mother Queenie Hayes struggles to support her two young children and tells them stories of a world filled with sunlight instead of concrete, a world called the Veldt where magical creatures abound and her family roams, free from the trials of the real world. As a social worker threatens to break apart Queenie's family, the Veldt offers her family a chance to escape if she can find the courage, and imagination, to reach for it.The Scent of Sunlight is a fantasy short story by Annie Bellet. Views: 757
Upon its initial publication in 1975, 'Salem’s Lot' was recognized as a landmark work. The novel has sold millions of copies in various editions, but it wasn’t until Centipede Press published a special limited edition in 2004 that King’s masterpiece was brought to brilliant and eerie life.
With the addition of fifty pages of material deleted from the 1975 manuscript as well as material that has since been modified by King, an introduction by him, and two short stories related to the events of the novel, this edition represents the text as the author envisioned it.
Centipede’s deluxe edition, of which only 900 copies were printed, features lavishly creepy photographs by acclaimed photographer Jerry Uelsmann, printed interior endpapers, and a stunning page design.
Doubleday is proud to make this volume, printed from the original design of the Centipede Press edition, available to the general reader. No King aficionado’s library will be complete without owning this definitive illustrated edition of the great 'Salem’s Lot'. Views: 757
A sweeping drama about the madness of war and the power of love that marks acclaimed novelist Sebastian Faulks's return, after twenty years, to the fictional territory of his #1 international bestseller *Birdsong*
London, 1980. Robert Hendricks, an established psychiatrist and author, has so bottled up memories of his own wartime past that he is nearly sunk into a life of aloneness and depression. Out of the blue, a baffling letter arrives from one Dr. Alexander Pereira, a neurologist and a World War I veteran who claims to be an admirer of Robert's published work. The letter brings Robert to the older man's home on a rocky, secluded island off the south of France, and into tempests of memories--his childhood as a fatherless English boy, the carnage he witnessed and the wound he can't remember receiving as a young officer in World War II, and, above all, the great, devastating love of his life, an Italian woman, "L," whom he met during the war. As Robert's recollections pour forth, he's unsure whether they will lead to psychosis--or redemption. But Dr. Pereira knows. Profoundly affecting and masterfully told, Where My Heart Used to Beat sweeps through the 20th century, brilliantly interrogating the darkest corners of the human mind and bearing tender witness to the abiding strength of love. Views: 757
A much-loved wizard takes a vacation to rural, fantastical Indiana, where he finds getting away from his work is harder than he thinks.This book includes five short stories of travel into the unknown. Based on current thinking and science theory on the edge of science fact, step into the realm science future. Adventure into the science, danger and mystery of dimensional travel with realistic characters and believable situations that lead to mysterious and perhaps startling conclusions.In The Catcher a local animal control worker is confronted with a dangerous animal killing in the neighborhood. His investigation brings our main character face to face with a beast from the past and the time traveling animal handler that lost him in his time frame. The Romeo Project tells the story of a university science lab experiment that goes wrong. As the dust settles, government agencies want the research to continue and paves the way for further experimentation into dimensional travel. Real characters, conflicts and emotions revolve around cutting edge science fiction.The One That Got Away is a lighter, humorous look at a couple country friends that experience a failed inter-dimensional abduction.Stealing Time lets the reader challenge their personal ethics as our main characters are confronted with situations that challenge theirs. Financially struggling, after creating a machine that opens a tunnel to the past, opportunities arise that could solve all there problems. What would you do?In Bloodline a time traveler is taken into his own past and given a chance to relive his life. What changes and paths would one travel differently if given the opportunity? Views: 756
Steven Galloway's first novel, an incredible coming of age story, now revised and available in trade paperback from Vintage Canada.
Finnie Walsh is a captivating, Irving-esque story of family, friendship, redemption, and legend.
Paul Woodward lives in Portsmouth, a quiet northern mill-town. Born the day Paul Henderson planted the puck between the pipes against the Soviet Union to win the 1972 Super Series, Paul has no choice about playing hockey. His best friend Finnie Walsh is stinking rich. He is also fellow hockey fanatic and the only good kid in a long line of delinquent brothers. Paul's father works the nightshift at the local mill, owned by Finnie's father. One fateful day the boys noisily prepare for their first season of hockey in the Woodward driveway, keeping Paul's father awake when he should be sleeping. This triggers a chain of world-altering events. Galloway proves that childhood innocence, while not exactly bliss, can be amusing and more than mildly instructional. This is the book John Irving would have written if he understood hockey as well as wrestling. Finnie Walsh, like the fabled games before NHL expansion, is a story about greatness and legend. But it's also a heartsong to family, friendship, and atonement.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 756
Gombrowicz's strange, bracing final novel probes the divide between young and old while providing a grotesque evocation of obsession. While recuperating from wartime Warsaw in the Polish countryside, the unnamed narrator and his friend, Fryderyk, attempt to force amour between two local youths, Karol and Henia, as a kind of a lewd entertainment. They become increasingly frustrated as they discover that the two have no interest in one another, and the games are momentarily stopped by a local murder and a directive to assassinate a rogue member of the Polish resistance. Gombrowicz connects these threads magnificently in a tense climax that imbues his novel with a deep sense of the absurd and multiplies its complexity. Gombrowicz is a relentless psychoanalyzer and a consummate stylist; his prose is precise and forceful, and the narrator's strained attempts to elucidate why he takes such pleasure at soiling youth creepily evoke authentic pride and disgust. Borchardt's translation (the first into English from the original Polish) is a model of consistency, maintaining a manic tone as it navigates between lengthy, comma-spliced sentences and sharp, declarative thrusts. - Publishers Weekly Views: 756
Chosen as one of the New York Times’s ten best books in the year of its original publication, this collection immediately won a cherished place among lovers of the tale and vaulted Calvino into the ranks of the great folklorists. Introduction by the Author; illustrations. Translated by George Martin. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book Views: 756
For Jack Ryan, Jr., and his comrades at the covert organization known as The Campus, the fight against America’s enemies is never over. But the danger has just hit home in a way they never expected…
The Campus has been discovered. And whoever knows they exist knows they can be destroyed. Meanwhile, President Jack Ryan has been swept back into the Oval Office—and his wisdom and courage are needed more desperately than ever.
Internal political and economic strife has pushed the leadership of China to the edge of disaster. And those who wish to consolidate their power are using the opportunity to strike at long-desired Taiwan, as well as the Americans who have protected the tiny nation.
Now, as two of the world’s superpowers move ever closer to a final confrontation, President Ryan must use the only wild card he has left—The Campus. But with their existence about to be revealed, they might not even have a chance to enter the battle before the world is consumed by war. Views: 756
A huge snow storm brings suspense and drama to airport and airline personnel responsible for the safe landing of one impaired aircraft. Book available.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Views: 756
In the aftermath of the 2003 Academy Awards, Max and Elena- he's an Oscar-winning writer/director-open their Holywood Hills home to a group of friends and neighbors, industy insiders and hangers-on, eager to escape the outside world and dissect the latest news, gossip, and secrets of the business. Over the next ten days, old lovers collide, new relationships form, and sparks fly, all with Smiley's signature sparkling wit and characterization.
With its breathtaking passion and sexy irreverence, Ten Days in the Hills is a glowing addition to the work of one of our most beloved novelists.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 756
Charmaine LeDeux, who owns not one but two beauty salons on the Louisiana bayou, has a loan shark on her tail. As if that's not bad enough, Raoul Lanier, who she thought she divorced years ago, tells her that they're still married! Plus, they've inherited his father's rundown cattle ranch together. Raoul promises to give her an honest-to-god real divorce this time if she'll sell him her half of the ranch. But she decides that the ranch is the perfect place for her after all; i.e., the perfect hideout for a woman who needs to lie low for a while.
The last thing Raoul wants is for Charmaine to live with him, but Charmaine has always been stubborn. Soon she's taken over the house, adding feminine touches everywhere and having his three ranch hands eating out of her hand. When her belly-dancing great-aunt and the rest of the LeDeux clan come over for Thanksgiving dinner, Raoul knows he's lost the fight. He might as well give in to the temptation she still rouses in him. Now if he can only keep her safe from the Dixie mafia looking for her and convince her that he's worth a second chance at love. Views: 755
Three boys, three talismans, one destiny. In this page-turning trilogy, Cinda Williams Chima explores what it means to be different, what's worth fighting for, and what's worth dying for
**THE WARRIOR HEIR
* Jack lives an unremarkable life in Trinity, Ohio. Only his daily medicine and the thick scar above his heart set him apart from other teenagers at his high school. Until one day, Jack skips his medicine and finds himself stronger, fiercer, and more confident than ever before. He feels incredible until he nearly kills another player on the soccer field.
Soon, Jack learns the startling truth: he is Weirlind, part of a magical underground society of wizards, warriors, and enchantors. Weir's mighty, feuding houses of the Red Rose and the White Rose determine power through The Game, a modern-day gladiator battle in which warriors from each house fight to the death. The winning house rules the Weir. But Jack finds out that he's not just another member of Weirlind-he's one of the last warriors-and both houses are scouting for a player.
**THE WIZARD HEIR
Sixteen-year-old Seph McCauley has spent the past three years getting kicked out of one exclusive private school after another. Unfortunately it's not his attitude that's the problem. It's the trail of magical accidents-lately, disasters-that follow in his wake. Seph is a wizard, orphaned and untrained--and now that the only person who could protect him has died, his powers are escalating out of control.
At the Havens, a secluded boys' school in Maine, Seph meets headmaster Gregory Leicester, who promises to initiate him into his order of wizards. But Seph soon learns that training comes at a steep cost, and that Leicester plans to use his students' powers to serve his own malicious agenda. This wizard war is one that Seph may not have the strength to survive.
THE DRAGON HEIR
The covenant that was meant to keep the wizard wars at bay has been stolen, and Trinity must prepare for attack. Jason Haley finds himself excluded from the action until he finds the Dragonheart. The opal stone seems to sing to his very soul, but Trinity's guardians seize it after they realize its powers. Madison Moss feels the beating heart of the opal, too. The desire for it surges through her, but Maddie also has a secret. Ever since absorbing the magical blow that was meant to kill Seph, she's been leaking dark powers. Trinity's enemies believe they can use her to get to the Dragonheart and they'll use anyone she cares about to make her steal the stone for them.
Moral compasses spin out of control as a final battle storms through what was once a sanctuary for the gifted. With so much to lose, what will Jason and Maddie be willing to fight for -- and what will they sacrifice? Views: 755
Six people are meeting in the lounge of an airport terminal. The meeting is ultra-secretive where membership is by invitation only. Unbeknownst to the other members one person is there with an ulterior and deadly motive. A SHORT STORY.AA is also available in the collection: TEN TYPEWRITER TALES.Mark's Mad Phonic Series is a set of graded readers helping children learn to read. The series starts from your child's first words and continues to reading fluency. This is Level 4 Book 3. This book is all about a group of children (and a sheep) going to sea! Reviewing long E sounds. Views: 755
