Collected in this volume are spine-tingling tales showing us that below the ground and at the top of mountain peaks lurk nameless gods and ghouls, powerful and horrific. In cemeteries and desert wastes and swampy bogs, the evidence of past civilizations remains waiting to be uncovered, ominously portending mankind s own inglorious future conclusion. Even more disconcerting in H. P. Lovecraft s fictional world is that one need not even leave home to come face-to-face with the cataclysmic revelation of man s insignificance. Monsters not only skulk in underground crypts and exotic foreign lands, but swarm all around us, just out of sight.Among the creepy tales included in this volume are He, The Moon-Bog, The Other Gods, Polaris. " Views: 907
W.W. Jacobs was an early 20th century horror writer whose most famous work remains the story "The Monkey\'s Paw," a story about a man who suffers unexpected consequences as a result of being granted three wishes. Views: 907
Nada is no stranger to protest. She is five years old when her French mother takes her to visit her Egyptian father, a political activist with a passing resemblance to President Nasser, in prison. When he returns home five years later, a changed man, their little family begins to fracture and eventually Nada’s mother moves back to Paris. Through her teenage years Nada is surrounded by the language of protest – ‘anarchism’, ‘Trotskyism’, ‘communism’ – and, one summer in Paris, she discovers the ’68 movement and her first love. And how to slam doors in anger.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Through student sit-ins, imprisonments, passionate arguments, accidental alliances, fallen friends, joys and regrets, Nada’s story grows into the story of Egypt’s many celebrated activists such as Arwa and Siham. Moving, uplifting and deeply human, Radwa Ashour’s masterpiece is the story of Egypt in the second half of the twentieth century and a paean to all those who choose a life of activism and quiet defiance. Views: 904
Three hard-boiled stories that hark back to the days of pulp fiction.Meet private dick Jay Dafoe. He’s in a dirty business, and cold hard cash has always made up for twinges his conscience might occasionally feel.Ben Andropov is a cop. The bosses are management, and the beat is the moon. Management wants order and doesn’t care how it’s kept.Cold Pulp Trio is hard-boiled American noir.Three hard-boiled stories that hark back to the days of Black Mask and Astounding Science Fiction. The first tale is a novella that introduces private dick Jay Dafoe. He’s in a dirty business, and cold hard cash has always made up for twinges his conscience might occasionally feel, or so he thought until he’s hired to find a missing daughter. How does the amoral Dafoe handle the horror he unwittingly becomes entwined with? The second story finds Dafoe doing what he thought was routine work for a lawyer. What he doesn’t know is that he is the final pawn in a tragedy that was thirty years in the making. Some sins, Dafoe finds out, can’t be forgiven.The third story is a study of a thug with a badge. Ben Andropov is a cop. The bosses are management, and the beat is the moon. Management wants order and doesn’t care how it’s kept. Andropov is a low-level enforcer of the status quo, having used his natural brutality to escape the drudgery and poverty of the everyday citizen. Seventeen years he’s been a cop, and it’s starting to take its toll. Solving a simple murder winds up inflicting more damage to what’s left of his crippled soul and there’s no way out.Cold Pulp Trio is hard-boiled noir. American as hollow point bullets. Views: 903
First published in 1956, this is a powerful portrayal of a middle-class Egyptian family confronted by material, moral, and spiritual problems during World War II. Views: 902
The breakout book from "the funniest writer in America"—not to mention an official Genius—a trade paperback original and his first nonfiction collection ever.
George Saunders's first foray into nonfiction is composed of essays on literature, travel, and politics. At the core of this unique collection are Saunders's travel essays based on his trips to seek out the mysteries of the "Buddha Boy" of Nepal; to attempt to indulge in the extravagant pleasures of Dubai; and to join the exploits of the minutemen at the Mexican border. Saunders expertly navigates the works of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, and Esther Forbes, and leads the reader across the rocky political landscape of modern America. Emblazoned with his trademark wit and singular vision, Saunders's endeavor into the art of the essay is testament to his exceptional range and ability as a writer and thinker. Views: 901
He woke in a field knowing nothing but the echo of a past. ‘Born out of the mouth of an Angel’ a phrase he knew when there were no other certainties. Except one, that she was waiting.A serialized fantasy suspense, Born in the Mouth of an Angel brings together mystery, mythology and the worlds of two recluses.The beginning and end of love, Sands and Jade are pulled apart by circumstance, to be united again only when it's too late.Written while dealing with her father's illness, this first book reflects Ophelia's struggles faced with her father's disease and the threat of his death through her childhood and teen years. Views: 900
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature and author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, explores the loneliness of power in Autumn of the Patriarch.
'Over the weekend the vultures got into the presidential palace by pecking through the screens on the balcony windows and the flapping of their wings stirred up the stagnant time inside'
As the citizens of an unnamed Caribbean nation creep through dusty corridors in search of their tyrannical leader, they cannot comprehend that the frail and withered man lying dead on the floor can be the self-styled General of the Universe. Their arrogant, manically violent leader, known for serving up traitors to dinner guests and drowning young children at sea, can surely not die the humiliating death of a mere mortal?
Tracing the demands of a man whose egocentric excesses mask the loneliness of isolation and whose lies have become so ingrained that they are indistinguishable from truth, Marquez has created a fantastical portrait of despotism that rings with an air of reality.
'Delights with its quirky humanity and black humour and impresses by its total originality' Vogue
'Captures perfectly the moral squalor and political paralysis that enshrouds a society awaiting the death of a long-term dictator' Guardian
'Marquez writes in this lyrical, magical language that no-one else can do' Salman Rushdie Views: 899
Summary: A 1000-word dragon-themed mini poetry collection by author/artist/non-conformist, Jess C Scott. "Piety" is the prototype for Jess’s London Underground Trilogy (forthcoming dragon-themed urban fantasy series; 2012). * * * Genre: Poetry | 1,000 words * * * By author/artist/non-conformist, Jess C Scott.Summary: A 1000-word dragon-themed mini poetry collection by author/artist/non-conformist, Jess C Scott. "Piety" is the prototype for Jess’s London Underground Trilogy (forthcoming dragon-themed urban fantasy series; 2012).Genre: Poetry | 1,000 wordsReview: "Ever since I came across Jess C Scott's teenage blog novel, EyeLeash, I’ve known that some very talented writers will emerge from the epublishing revolution." -- Joseph Grinton / October 2011===* Jess owns the website, Dragonsinn--these poems are in tribute to The Dragon (a symbol of excellence, and so much more).===Excerpt:[Ravenous Appetite]A dragon, unfed,Thrashing about in a rotIron cage. Unleashed.Author Bio:Jess is an author/artist/non-conformist who’s dedicated to writing original stories that are both meaningful and entertaining. She focuses on style and substance over short-term success with current fads and marketing hype. Jess writes in a diverse range of other genres, such as poetry, YA fiction, and urban fantasy. Visit her website for free samples and more! Views: 898
A storm rages round the towers of the big house near Geneva. Behind the locked doors of the library, the Baron, the Baroness and their handsome young secretary are not to be disturbed. In the attic, the Baron's lunatic brother howls and hurls plates at his keeper.
But in the staff quarters, all is under control. Under the personal supervision of Lister, the Baron's incomparable butler, the servants make their own, highly lucrative preparations for the tragedy.
The night is long, but morning will bring a crime passionnel of outstanding attraction and endless possibilities.
Muriel Spark has created a world in her own idiom - bizarre, gruesome and brilliantly funny. Views: 897
Borges became famous as a writer of short stories that contained new realities: elaborately conceived, ingenious and gamesome précis of impossible worlds or imaginary books. In these five stories there is danger on the high seas, an ungracious teacher of etiquette and an encyclopedia of an unknown planet - and Borges's unique imagination and intellect play throughout. Views: 896
Tess Brady is forced to participate in an old pack ritual: the Chase. Unmated male wolves will pursue her and the one who catches her gets the ultimate prize: her as a mate. After seeing what type of matings result from such a ritual, Tess is determined not to be caught, but can she escape such strong and smart wolves? Or will she end up with a male worse than her abusive father?Tess is from an extremely traditional pack. Returning to her pack after four years away at college, as an unmated female, she must participate in an old pack ritual: the Chase.Unmated wolves from her pack pursue her and the one who catches her gets the ultimate prize: her as a mate.However, Tess knows how males treat their mates and wants no part of it, determined to evade capture during the chase… but can she outrun and outsmart such strong males? Or will she be forced into mating with a male as bad, or perhaps worse, than her abusive father?~*~“The Chase” is a werewolf romance short story (just under 10,000 words). It is part of a series, but no other books need to be read in order to understand the events in “The Chase.” Other books in the “Wolves Among Us” series include “Broken,” a novelette, and a sequel to "The Chase" is coming soon! Views: 895
Folks in the Texas panhandle do not like hog farms. But Bob Dollar is determined to see his new job as hog site scout for Global Pork Rind through to the end. However he is forced to face the idiosyncratic inhabitants of Woolybucket and to question his own notions of loyalty and home.
A brilliant novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain. That Old Ace in the Hole is a richly textured story of one man's struggle to make good in the inhospitable ranch country of the Texas panhandle, told with razor-sharp wit and a masterly sense of place. Views: 894
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
In her luminous and long-awaited novel, bestselling author Elizabeth Strout welcomes readers back to the archetypal, lovely landscape of northern New England, where the events of her first novel, Amy and Isabelle, unfolded. In the late 1950s, in the small town of West Annett, Maine, a minister struggles to regain his calling, his family, and his happiness in the wake of profound loss. At the same time, the community he has served so charismatically must come to terms with its own strengths and failings—faith and hypocrisy, loyalty and abandonment—when a dark secret is revealed.
Tyler Caskey has come to love West Annett, “just up the road” from where he was born. The short, brilliant summers and the sharp, piercing winters fill him with awe—as does his congregation, full of good people who seek his guidance and listen earnestly as he preaches. But after suffering a terrible loss, Tyler finds it hard to return to himself as he once was. He hasn’t had The Feeling—that God is all around him, in the beauty of the world—for quite some time. He struggles to find the right words in his sermons and in his conversations with those facing crises of their own, and to bring his five-year-old daughter, Katherine, out of the silence she has observed in the wake of the family’s tragedy.
A congregation that had once been patient and kind during Tyler’s grief now questions his leadership and propriety. In the kitchens, classrooms, offices, and stores of the village, anger and gossip have started to swirl. And in Tyler’s darkest hour, a startling discovery will test his congregation’ s humanity—and his own will to endure the kinds of trials that sooner or later test us all.
In prose incandescent and artful, Elizabeth Strout draws readers into the details of ordinary life in a way that makes it extraordinary. All is considered—life, love, God, and community—within these pages, and all is made new by this writer’s boundless compassion and graceful prose.
BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Elizabeth Strout’s *The Burgess Boys.
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Praise for Abide with Me
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“Strout’s greatly anticipated second novel . . . is an answered prayer.”—Vanity Fair
“Superb . . . a shimmering tale of loss, faith, and human fallibility . . . You feel yourself in the hands of a master storyteller.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“Deeply moving . . . In one beautiful page after another, Strout captures the mysterious combinations of hope and sorrow. She sees all these wounded people with heartbreaking clarity, but she has managed to write a story that cradles them in understanding and that, somehow, seems like a foretaste of salvation.”—The Washington Post
“This lovely second novel confirms Strout as the possessor of an irresistibly companionable, peculiarly American voice: folksy, poetic, but always as precise as a shadow on a brilliant winter day.”—The Atlantic Monthly
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“Graceful and moving . . . The pacing of Strout’s deeply felt fiction about the distance between parents and children gives her work an addictive quality.”—People (four stars)** Views: 892
Cited by the Nobel Prize committee as the “crown” of Heinrich Böll’s work, the gripping story of Group Portrait With Lady unspools like a suspenseful documentary. Via a series of tense interviews, an unnamed narrator uncovers the story—past and present—of one of Böll’s most intriguing characters, the enigmatic Leni Pfeiffer, a struggling war widow.
At the center of her struggle is her effort to prevent the demolition of her Cologne apartment building, a fight in which she is joined by a motley group of neighbors. Along with her illegitimate son, Lev, she becomes the nexus of a countercultural group rebelling against Germany’s dehumanizing past under the Nazis ... and what looks to be an equally dehumanizing future under capitalism.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 888
