"Memorable...A book profound in its vision of humanity, of religion, and of art."
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Here is the original, deeply moving story of Asher Lev, the religious boy with an overwhelming need to draw, to paint, to render the world he knows and the pain he feels, on canvas for everyone to see. A loner, Asher has an extroardinary God-given gift that possesses a spirit all its own. It is this force that must learn to master without shaming his people or relinquishing any part of his deeply felt Judaism. It will not be easy for him, but he knows, too, that even if it is impossible, it must be done....
"A novel of finely articulated tragic power...Little short of a work of genius."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW Views: 2 788
After a violent storm in the South Pacific in the year 1643, Roberto della Griva finds himself shipwrecked-on a ship. Swept from the Amaryllis, he has managed to pull himself aboard the Daphne, anchored in the bay of a beautiful island. The ship is fully provisioned, he discovers, but the crew is missing.
As Roberto explores the different cabinets in the hold, he remembers chapters from his youth: Ferrante, his imaginary evil brother; the siege of Casale, that meaningless chess move in the Thirty Years' War in which he lost his father and his illusions; and the lessons given him on Reasons of State, fencing, the writing of love letters, and blasphemy.
In this fascinating, lyrical tale, Umberto Eco tells of a young dreamer searching for love and meaning; and of a most amazing old Jesuit who, with his clocks and maps, has plumbed the secrets of longitudes, the four moons of Jupiter, and the Flood. Views: 2 416
Der mit allen Wassern der Fabulierkunst gewaschene Schelm Baudolino erzählt uns seine Lebensgeschichte.
Informationen über die historischen Hintergründe zu »Baudolino« finden Sie im Special des Carl Hanser Verlags ...
Konstantinopel brennt! Die prachtvolle Hauptstadt des Byzantinischen Reiches – erobert, geplündert und in Brand gesetzt von den Rittern des Vierten Kreuzzuges. Einer von ihnen ist ein gewisser Baudolino aus dem Piemont. Den Kopf voller Flausen, Phantasien und Lügen, führt er uns durch ein historisches Panorama von überwältigender Breite.
Er erzählt, wie er als 13jähriger Bauernsohn den im Nebel herumirrenden Kaiser Barbarossa aufgabelt, der Gefallen an dem naseweisen Jungen findet und ihn daraufhin adoptiert; wie er den Kaiser auf seinen Italienzügen gegen die aufmüpfigen oberitalienischen Städte begleitet und auf den großen Kreuzzug ins Heilige Land, immer auf der Suche nach dem mythischen Reich des Priesterkönigs Johannes im fernen Orient. Und natürlich wie er, Baudolino, mit seinen aberwitzigen Ideen ganz nebenbei den Lauf der Weltgeschichte lenkt, ob nun bei der Heiligsprechung Karls des Großen 1165 oder bei der Erfindung der Legende der Heiligen Drei Könige, um dem Erzbischof von Köln, Rainald von Dassel, einen überwältigenden Einzug in seine Domkirche zu sichern.
Alles hat Baudolino miterlebt, doch ein Geheimnis kennt nur er ganz allein: Barbarossa, der angeblich im Fluß ertrank, ist mysteriöserweise bereits in der Nacht zuvor ums Leben gekommen. Unfall? Herzversagen? Nein, Mord! Baudolino ahnt, wer der Mörder sein könnte … Views: 2 258
A posthumous collection of essays about the modern world from one of Europe’s greatest, and best-selling, literary figures
Umberto Eco was an international cultural superstar. In this, his last collection, the celebrated essayist and novelist observes the changing world around him with irrepressible curiosity and profound wisdom. He sees with fresh eyes the upheaval in ideological values, the crises in politics, and the unbridled individualism that have become the backdrop of our lives—a “liquid” society in which it’s not easy to find a polestar, though stars and starlets abound.
In these pieces, written for his regular column in L’Espresso magazine, Eco brings his dazzling erudition and keen sense of the everyday to bear on topics such as popular culture and politics, being seen, conspiracies, the old and the young, new technologies, mass media, racism, and good manners. It is a final gift to his reader—astute, witty, and illuminating. Views: 1 233
As it was in Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Othello, so it is in life. Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies. Acts of adultery and other personal betrayals, financial fraud, government corruption—even murder and genocide—generally require an additional moral defect: a willingness to lie. Views: 1 205
The Complete Stories brings together all of Kafka’s stories, from the classic tales such as “The Metamorphosis,” “In the Penal Colony,” and “A Hunger Artist” to shorter pieces and fragments that Max Brod, Kafka’s literary executor, released after Kafka’s death. With the exception of his three novels, the whole of Kafka’s narrative work is included in this volume.
--penguinrandomhouse.com
Two Introductory parables: Before the law --
Imperial message --
Longer stories: Description of a struggle --
Wedding preparations in the country --
Judgment --
Metamorphosis --
In the penal colony --
Village schoolmaster (The giant mole) --
Blumfeld, and elderly bachelor --
Warden of the tomb --
Country doctor --
Hunter Gracchus --
Hunter Gracchus: A fragment --
Great Wall of China --
News of the building of the wall: A fragment --
Report to an academy --
Report to an academy: Two fragments --
Refusal --
Hunger artist --
Investigations of a dog --
Little woman --
The burrow --
Josephine the singer, or the mouse folk --
Children on a country road --
The trees --
Clothes --
Excursion into the mountains --
Rejection --
The street window --
The tradesman --
Absent-minded window-gazing --
The way home --
Passers-by --
On the tram --
Reflections for gentlemen-jockeys --
The wish to be a red Indian --
Unhappiness --
Bachelor's ill luck --
Unmasking a confidence trickster --
The sudden walk --
Resolutions --
A dream --
Up in the gallery --
A fratricide --
The next village --
A visit to a mine --
Jackals and Arabs --
The bridge --
The bucket rider --
The new advocate --
An old manuscript --
The knock at the manor gate --
Eleven sons --
My neighbor --
A crossbreed (A sport) --
The cares of a family man --
A common confusion --
The truth about Sancho Panza --
The silence of the sirens --
Prometheus --
The city coat of arms --
Poseidon --
Fellowship --
At night --
The problem of our laws --
The conscripton of troops --
The test --
The vulture --
The helmsman --
The top --
A little fable --
Home-coming --
First sorrow --
The departure --
Advocates --
The married couple --
Give it up! --
On parables. Views: 1 204
The works of Friedrich Nietzsche have fascinated readers around the world ever since the publication of his first book more than a hundred years ago. As Walter Kaufmann, one of the world's leading authorities on Nietzsche, notes in his introduction, "Few writers in any age were so full of ideas," and few writers have been so consistently misinterpreted. The Portable Nietzsche includes Kaufmann's definitive translations of the complete and unabridged texts of Nietzsche's four major works: Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, Nietzsche Contra Wagner and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In addition, Kaufmann brings together selections from his other books, notes, and letters, to give a full picture of Nietzsche's development, versatility, and inexhaustibility. "In this volume, one may very conveniently have a rich review of one of the most sensitive, passionate, and misunderstood writers in Western, or any, literature." --Newsweek Views: 1 198
"The Cossacks" is one of Tolstoy's greatest works. In this semi-autobiographical work we meet the central character of Olenin, a young man of twenty-four who has yet to make anything of himself in life. Olenin joins the Russian army and is assigned to a remote post. There he falls in love with a beautiful young Cossack woman who has already been promised to another man, a Cossack warrior. What will become of Olenin? Will he fight for the love that he has found? Read this gripping narrative set in pre-revolutionary Russia and find out for yourself.
** Views: 1 196
As macabre as a Jacobean tragedy, as frivolous as a Restoration comedy, Iris Murdoch's fifth novel takes sombre themes - adultery, incest, castration, violence and suicide - and yet succeeds in making of them a book that is brilliantly enjoyable. Views: 1 183
"REMARKABLE . . . A WONDERFUL STORY."
--The Boston Globe
The father is a high-ranking Communist officer, a Jew who survived Stalin's purges. The son is a "refusenik," who risked his life and happiness to protest everything his father held dear. Now, Chaim Potok, beloved author of the award-winning novels The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev, unfolds the gripping true story of a father, a son, and a conflict that spans Soviet history. Drawing on taped interviews and his harrowing visits to Russia, Potok traces the public and privates lives of the Slepak family: Their passions and ideologies, their struggles to reconcile their identities as Russians and as Jews, their willingness to fight--and die--for diametrically opposed political beliefs.
"[A] vivid account . . . [Potok] brings a novelist's passion and eye for detail to a gripping story that possesses many of the elements of fiction--except that it's all too true."
--San Francisco Chronicle
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 1 180
Librarian note: This book shares its ASIN with a newer format: B01HEB7NWK.
With information he obtains from spying on Sophia's every move, Ethan puts himself in a position to steal her away from Alistair at a time when she's distraught and desperately trying to find out who she really is and who she wants to be.
Now that Sophia has decided that she's not good enough for Alistair, and he's not quite right for her, she goes home to Brazil where all her troubles started where she hopes to right the wrongs and make some kind of peace with her past.
Alistair's world is shattered yet again when he discovers that Sophia has left him—for good. And even worse, he knows it's entirely his fault despite what she claimed in her letter. But he's not going to give up. Not this time. He'll do whatever it takes to find her and make her his.
Untamed Passion is the fifth installment of the TRUST series, a romance made of pain, loss, desire, redemption, forgiveness, and love. Don’t miss the sequels:
Dangerous Illusions
Pandora’s Box
Eternal Hope Views: 1 178
Before hearing my death sentence I was aware that my lungs breathed, that my heart beat, and that my body lived in the community of other men; now, I plainly saw that a barrier had sprung up between them and me. Nothing was the same as before. The imprisoned narrator of this profoundly moving novel awaits executionOCoand waits, and waits. Although his guilt is undeniable, his essential humanity emerges as he struggles with the certainty of impending death.
Victor Hugo's impassioned early work carries the same power and universality as "Les ""Mis(r)rables." A vocal opponent to the barbarity of the guillotine, Hugo attempted to arouse compassion in the service of justice. This tale distills his beliefs and offers a highly significant contribution to the ongoing debate over the death penalty. A new Foreword by activist David Dow examines the message and relevance of Hugo's story to modern society." Views: 1 174
The Story of Civilization, with its tenth volume, Rousseau and Revolution. Around the towering and perplexing personality of Rousseau who set spinning the whirlpool of ideology, both Left and Right, the authors recreate in vivid narrative style the growth of eighteenth century intellectual, moral and political dissent, the summit and decline of autocratic rule, religious disenchantment and democratic stirrings, ""the role of genius in history, of man versus the mass and the state""--in short, that great and continuing debate of which we are now the troubled heirs. The gallery swells with figures as important as the star performer himself: Goethe, Johnson, Voltaire, Catherine and Frederick, Mozart, Kant, Reynolds. The military exploits, the elegance and corruption of court life, the diversity of cultural, economic, and social events, the prejudices and mores of the entire European scene--surely it is a measure of the Durants' comprehensive mastery that so vast a panorama has been handled with so many splendidly interwoven episodes, judicious portraits, and contemporary ramifications.
From: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re... Views: 1 173
Translated by Rhys Roberts and Ingram Bywater, Introduction by Edward P.J. Corbett Views: 1 172
