The World and All That It Holds—in all its hilarious, heartbreaking, erotic, philosophical glory—showcases Aleksandar Hemon's celebrated talent at its pinnacle. It is a grand, tender, sweeping story that spans decades and continents. It cements Hemon as one of the boldest voices in fiction.As the Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrives in Sarajevo one June day in 1914, Rafael Pinto is busy crushing herbs and grinding tablets behind the counter at the pharmacy he inherited from his estimable father. It's not quite the life he had expected during his poetry-filled student days in libertine Vienna, but it's nothing a dash of laudanum from the high shelf, a summer stroll, and idle fantasies about passersby can't put in perspective.And then the world explodes. In the trenches in Galicia, fantasies fall flat. Heroism gets a man killed quickly. War devours all that they have known, and the only thing Pinto has to live for are the attentions of Osman, a... Views: 96
The Sun King is a dazzling double portrait of Louis XIV and Versailles, the opulent court from which he ruled. With characteristic élan, Nancy Mitford reconstructs the daily life of king and courtiers during France's golden age, offering vivid sketches of the architects, artists, and gardeners responsible for the creation of the most magnificent palace Europe had yet seen. Mitford lays bare the complex and deadly intrigues in the stateroom and the no less high-stakes power struggles in the bedroom. At the center of it all is Louis XIV himself, the demanding, mercurial, but remarkably resilient sovereign who guided France through nearly three quarters of the Grand Siècle.Brimming with sumptuous detail and delicious bons mots, and written in a witty, conversational style, The Sun King restores a distant glittering century to vibrant life. Views: 96
The second novel in award-winning, bestselling author Alan Sillitoe's William Posters Trilogyis an existential investigation of protest and revolution in 1960s North Africa and England Jewish dilettante Myra Bassingfield returns to England from Gibraltar with her four-week-old son. Frank Dawley, the child's father and the anarchist antihero of The Death of William Posters, has disappeared into the African desert, where he is fighting with the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) for Algerian independence against French troops. Greeting Myra quayside as she disembarks from the ship is Frank's friend, Albert Handley, an idealistic painter living in a chaotic house in Linconshire with seven kids, a bulldog, six cats, and two au pair girls. Albert's brother, John, is determined to break from the family and he sets off for Algeria to track Frank down—but not before burning the Handley house to the ground. The Handley... Views: 96
In 1999, master storyteller Joe R. Lansdale introduced one of the wildest, insane tales ever to fall into the steampunk genre, and it is now available in digital format. In “The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down,” follow the Traveler from H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine as he makes one too many trips that transforms him into a ghoulish creature. Only a group of adventurers inside a giant tin man can hope to stop him from destroying the world.Got a dose of laughs, action, blood-craving horror, and time-traveling robots? You’ve just been STEAMPUNKED!As a bonus, this eBook also includes Lansdale’s alternate-history story featuring Wild Bill Hickock and Buffalo Bill titled “Trains Not Taken.” Views: 96
The Sharp sisters are bold, bright, sassy, stylin', and fierce. As the daughters of mayoral candidate Stanley Sharp, all eyes are on them as they attend high school. Every choice they make can make or break their father's campaign—and make or break their own chances for success.Shelby aims to be the next great fashion designer, but while working with her design mentor, she discovers some ugly secrets that fashion can't hide: domestic violence. She doesn't understand why the victims would allow the abuse. Can Shelby convince them to take a stand, or should she keep her mouth shut? Views: 96
A hijacked train whisks an imaginative young boy on an unforgettable adventure, in which he makes discoveries about his own family's past and a wild woman who rescued his Israeli policeman father from a vat of chocolate. 'An affecting tale of the triumph of hope over desperate circumstances ... Napoleon's upbeat, colloquial style is extremely readable and the relationship between ZigZag and Singer is treated with as much depth of perception and sensitivity as that of John Steinbeck's Lenny and George. Against a backdrop of the dregs of American society and the impotence of social welfare ZigZag is a modern day Of Mice and Men' -The Times Views: 96
Man Booker Prize shortlisted Deborah Levy whips up a storm of romance and slapstick, of heavenly and earthly delights, in this dystopian philosophical poem about individual freedom and the search for the good life. Views: 96
Yellow light filled the attic. The light locked with the dust--tons of dust up here--and the atmosphere of the place stuffed his head like a fever. It seemed that he perceived this light with every nerve of his body.The attic was mostly empty but toward the south wall was a queer arrangment of chains; the ends dangled about seven feet from the floor and had broad iron bands attached. The bands were hinged on one side so they could open and shut. The chains looked red in the yellow light.He held one of the bands and stroked his finger along the inside and it came away reddish. Rust, he thought; but it didn't flake; it wasn't gritty like rust. It was old, caked blood. . .Slowly, Peter is mesmerized and begins a journey into madness where a bloodstained god waits to claim the mind and soul of the last of the Lelands. Views: 96
Savage, a former Navy SEAL and American state-of-the-art security specialist. Akira, Japan's most brilliant executive protector and a master of the samurai arts. Their mission: the retrieval of Rachel Stone, a beautiful American woman whose ruthless billionaire husband is out to destroy her. But quickly Savage and Akira realize they are trapped in a mission more far-reaching than the protection of one person. For they are bound together in a common nightmare, a set of horrifying memories, a terrifying past that never happened, but is somehow inexplicably real. Only together can they confront the mystery. Yet when they do, an even more chilling scenario awaits them - one with the power to shatter not only their world but ours as well. Views: 95
A Schoolboy's Diary brings together more than seventy of Robert Walser's strange and wonderful stories, most never before available in English. Opening with a sequence from Walser's first book, "Fritz Kocher's Essays," the complete classroom assignments of a fictional boy who has met a tragically early death, this selection ranges from sketches of uncomprehending editors, overly passionate readers, and dreamy artists to tales of devilish adultery, sexual encounters on a train, and Walser's service in World War I. Throughout, Walser's careening, confounding, delicious voice holds the reader transfixed. Views: 95
It’s one thing to Qualify… But do you have what it takes to Compete? With Earth about to be destroyed by an asteroid, teenage nerd, geek, and awkward smart girl Gwen Lark, and her friends compete for privilege, position, love, and survival onboard great starship arks, as they journey to the ancient colony planet Atlantis. Meanwhile, the fate of Earth and their families hangs in the balance. Views: 95
