Bulgakov začal na knize pracovat v roce 1928. První verze nesly názvy Černý mág (Черный маг), Inženýrovo kopyto (Копыто инженера), Žonglér s kopytem (Жонглер с копытом) či Veliarův syn (Сын Велиара). Rukopis byl připravován pro vydavatelství Nědra a jeho první verze byla (po zákazu hry Kabala pobožnůstkářů — Кабала святош) autorem spálena 18. března 1930. Dochoval se autorův dopis, datovaný 28. dubna 1930 a adresovaný vládě, v němž autor doslovně píše „… osobně, vlastníma rukama jsem v kamnech spálil všechny koncepty románu o ďáblovi.“ (Motiv pálení díla se objevuje i v knize samotné.)

Práci nad románem Bulgakov obnovil již v roce 1931. Ve druhé verzi se objevuje postava Markéty a Mistra a román získává definitivní název Mistr a Markétka (Мастер и Маргарита). V pořadí druhá verze byla dokončena v roce 1936. Dílo v této podobě již obsahovalo větší část zápletky i všechny důležité pasáže. V roce 1937 Bulgakov román ještě jednou zredigoval a do názvu doplnil podtitul Fantastický román. Začišťováním a slohovým pilováním textu (za pomoci své ženy) se zabýval téměř až do své smrti — poslední úpravy rukopisu jsou datovány 13. února 1940 (necelý měsíc před Bulgakovovou smrtí). Román je tak fabulačně završen. Bulgakovova žena však pokračovala v redikci románu až do roku 1941. Některé ze zbývajících a Bulgakovem i jeho ženou nepostřehnutých rozporů jsou přesto předmětem kvízových otázek znalců autorova díla (Mistr je např. v Kapitole třinácté hladce oholen, zato v Kapitole čtyřiadvacáté — dějově následující za několik hodin — má dlouhou bradku).

Cenzurovaná verze (12 % textu vynecháno, ještě větší část pozměněna) byla poprvé publikována až v roce 1966 v časopise Moskva (ročník 1966, č. 11 a ročník 1967, č. 1). Text odstraněných a upravených částí vyšel samizdatově a byl doplněn o údaje nezbytné ke kompletnímu nahrazení originální verze. V roce 1967 nakladatelství Posev (ve Frankfurtu) vydalo kompletní verzi (právě díky samizdatovým doplňkům). Rusko se prvního necenzurovaného znění dočkalo až v roce 1973, kdy v nakladatelství Chudožestvenaja Litěratura (Художественая Литература) vyšla verze opírající se o rukopisy sepsané do začátku roku 1940. Toto znění bylo považováno za kanonické až do roku 1989, kdy byla za pomoci redaktorky Lydie Janovské vydána verze respektující veškeré existující rukopisy.

Kurzbeschreibung

Schnäppchen – Schnuller – Shoppingtüten!

Becky Brandon, geborene Bloomwood, hatte sich ihr Dasein als Mutter leichter vorgestellt. Die zweijährige Minnie ist tatsächlich ein sehr lebhaftes, willensstarkes Kind – man könnte sie auch als Teufelsbraten bezeichnen. Ihr Lieblingswort ist »Meins!«, und eine Vorliebe für Markenartikel ist nicht zu übersehen. Woher sie das nur hat? Becky jedenfalls kauft angesichts der Krise nur noch das Notwendigste – Handtaschen, Schuhe, Spielsachen für Minnie ... auch die Firma ihres Mannes leidet unter der Wirtschaftslage, und um Luke aufzuheitern, plant Becky heimlich eine Party zu dessen Geburtstag. Inzwischen soll die aus dem Fernsehen bekannte »Nanny Sue« aus Minnie einen Gemüse liebenden Wonneproppen machen. Kann das alles gutgehen?

Pressestimmen

„Unterhaltung in wunderbarer Vollendung: eine liebenswerte Heldin, seitenweise Spaß und die enorm wohltuende Gewissheit, dass wir hemmungslosen Shopaholics nicht allein auf der Welt sind.“ (Sunday Independent )

»Sophie Kinsella ist die Königin der romantischen Komödie! Ihre Figuren haben genau die richtige Dosis liebenswerter Schrullen.« (New York Post )

DŽEKS LONDONS

MĀRTIŅŠ ĪDENS

KOPOTI RAKSTI-6

izdevniecība Liesma" RĪGA 1976

SASTĀDĪJUSI TAMĀRA ZĀLĪTE NO ANGĻU VALODAS TULKOJUSI LŪCĪJA RAMBEKA MĀKSLINIEKS ĀDOLFS LIELAIS

MIHAILS BULGAKOVS

MEISTARS UN MARGARITA

GADSIMTA ROMĀNS

No krievu valodas tulkojis  Ojārs Vācietis

APGĀDS pateicas par atbalstu grāmatu izdošanā:

a/s «LATVIJAS BALZAMS» c «TURĪBA» LATVIJAS KRĀJ BANKAI LATVIJAS UNIVERSĀLAJAI BANKAI

Vāka noformējumam izmantota Maijas Tabakas glezna «Margaritas mantojums» Ināras Zāberes grafiskais noformējums

 -Jumava-, 1996

"MANUSKRIPTI NEDEG" - RAKSTĪJA MIHAILS BULGAKOVS, AR VISU SAVU DAIĻRADI APSTIPRINĀDAMS ŠO AKSIOMU. "MANUSKRIPTI NEDEG" - LAI KVĒLO MŪSU SIRDIS UN SMADZENĒS, LAI IR MŪSU BAUSLIS, SĒŽOTIES PIE PAPĪRA LAPAS. KLAVIERĒM, ŅEMOT ROKĀ OTU, KĀPJOT UZ SKATUVES

VAI STĀJOTIES KINOKAMERAS PRIEKŠĀ. OJĀRS VĀCIETIS (NO KRĀJUMA "AR PŪCES SPALVU")

Šī GRĀMATA MĀKSLĀ UN KINO BIEŽI TIEK UZTVERTA UN PASNIEGTA KĀ PARUPJA GROTESKA. SAVĀ GLEZNĀ CENTOS PARĀDĪT "MEISTARA UN MARGARITAS" IEKŠĒJO SMALKUMU UN NOTIEKOŠĀ MŪŽĪGUMU. VOLANDS VIDUSLAIKU ALĶĪMIĶA TĒRPĀ - NOGAIDOŠS UN MAZLIET NEVARĪGS, BET VIŅA POZA LIECINA PAR SLĒPTIEM DRAUDIEM… UN MARGARITA - MŪS­DIENU SIEVIETE, KAS LABI APZINĀS ŠO DRAUDU NOZĪMĪGUMU…

MAIJA TABAKA

BULGAKOVS ĻOTI MĪLĒJA JOKUS, IZDOMU UN DAŽĀDAS MISTIFIKĀCIJAS. TAS VISS VIŅAM PADEVĀS VIEGLI UN BRĪVI, UN IEROSMEI NODERĒJA JEBKURŠ IEGANSTS. TĀ IZPAUDĀS IZŠĶĒRDĪGĀ APDĀVINĀTĪBA, IZTĒLES SPĒKS, IMPROVIZĀCIJA, TALANTS. TAČU ŠAJĀS BULGAKOVA ĪPATNĪBĀS NEBIJA NEKĀ, KAS ATTĀLINĀTU VIŅU NO REĀLĀS DZĪVES. TAISNI OTRĀDI, KLAUSOTIES BULGAKOVU, KĻUVA SKAIDRS, KA VIŅA SPOŽĀ IZDOMA, BRĪVĀ DZĪVES INTERPRETĀCIJA IR VIENA NO Šī PAŠA DZĪVES SPĒKA, REALITĀTES IZPAUSMĒM.

KONSTANTĪNS PAUSTOVSKIS (NO KRĀJUMA "VIENATNĒ AR RUDENI")

NIKOLAJS GOGOLIS

IZLASE

MIRUŠĀS DVĒSELES

POĒMA

LATVIJAS VALSTS IZDEVNIECĪBA  1948

Pirmais sējums. Tulk. M. Šūmane

Otrais sējums. Tulk. A. Miķelsons

Mirušo dveseļu otra sējuma varianti. Tulk. M. Šūmane

Piezīmes. Tulk. M. Šūmane

Noskannējis grāmatu un FB2 failu izveidojis Imants Ločmelis

In the winter of 1981, trapped by unpassable roads, midwife Sibyl Danforth makes a life-altering decision when she performs an emergency cesarean section on a woman she fears has died of a stroke.

Las mujeres de Rosas ha sido el pretexto para reconstruir algunas biografías femeninas del siglo XIX sobre la base del material relativamente abundante que existe en lo que se refiere a la época de Rosas. Como era habitual en ese tiempo, estas señoras escribieron muchas cartas -parte de las cuales permanece inédita- y como eran personas estrechamente vinculadas con el dictador, sus historias interesaron a mucha gente. Por otra parte, en los archivos de sucesiones, se guardan algunos de sus secretos. Todo esto permite recuperar a través de la historia de un hombre prominente y de su círculo el peso de las mujeres en la historia social del poder.

Sería presuntuoso pretender que Agustina, Encarnación, Manuela, Eugenia y Josefa, las protagonistas de los cinco capítulos de este libro, puedan servir de prototipos femeninos. Fueron solamente seres particulares y únicos, pero además condicionadas por el medio en que nacieron y se educaron. Ricas o pobres, luchadoras, ganadoras o sometidas, sus vidas merecen ser reconstruidas con el respeto que se debe a quienes amaron, sufrieron y murieron antes que nosotros, pero con algo del humor y de la ironía que forma parte inseparable de la narración histórica.

La biografía tiene un encanto indudable, especialmente cuando se ocupa de esa parte olvidada de la gran historia, las mujeres, en este caso las más próximas a Juan Manuel de Rosas. Ellas han sido mi compañía intelectual en el curso de un año en el que las realidades políticas y económicas azotaron de manera implacable al país que en otro tiempo fue el suyo, esta tierra nuestra en la que entonces y ahora se viven desventuras y esperanzas.

Debo agradecer a los muchos amigos que colaboraron con estas páginas, especialmente a los que dieron generosamente documentos o pistas historiográficas logradas con años de trabajo y de búsqueda: Juan Isidro Quesada, Juan M. Méndez Avellaneda y Enrique Mayochi. A José M. Massini Ezcurra, descendiente de esas familias patricias. A María Esther de Miguel y a Juan Ruibal, que leyeron los originales. A Marta Pérez Extrach, que aportó su valiosa biblioteca. Al director del Archivo de Tribunales. Y a los infatigables empleados del Archivo General de la Nación que, escaleras mediante, superaron con buena voluntad las deficiencias técnicas.

Hija ilegítima de un rico hombre de negocios, Mariam se cría con su madre en una modesta vivienda a las afueras de Herat. A los quince años, su vida cambia drásticamente cuando su padre la envía a Kabul a casarse con Rashid, un hosco zapatero treinta años mayor que ella. Casi dos décadas más tarde, Rashid encuentra en las calles de Kabul a Laila, una joven de quince años sin hogar. Cuando el zapatero le ofrece cobijo en su casa, que deberá compartir con Mariam, entre las dos mujeres se inicia una relación que acabará siendo tan profunda como la de dos hermanas, tan fuerte como la de madre e hija. Pese a la diferencia de edad y las distintas experiencias que la vida les ha deparado, la necesidad de afrontar las terribles circunstancias que las rodean -tanto de puertas adentro como en la calle, donde la violencia política asola el país-, hará que Mariam y Laila vayan forjando un vínculo indestructible que les otorgará la fuerza necesaria para superar el miedo y dar cabida a la esperanza.

When the casket reached the front of the sanctuary, there was a loud cracking sound as the bottom fell out. And with a thump, down came Father Iggy. From shoot-outs at funerals to dead men screaming and runaway corpses, undertakers have plenty of unusual stories to tell--and a special way of telling them. In this macabre and moving compilation, funeral directors across the country share their most embarrassing, jaw-dropping, irreverent, and deeply poignant stories about life at death's door. Discover what scares them and what moves them to tears. Learn about rookie mistakes and why death sometimes calls for duct tape. Enjoy tales of the dearly departed spending eternity naked from the waist down and getting bottled and corked--in a wine bottle. And then meet their families--the weepers, the punchers, the stolidly dignified, and the ones who deliver their dead mother in a pickup truck. If there's one thing undertakers know, it's that death drives people crazy. These are the best "bodies of work" from America's darkest profession.

"Sick, funny, and brilliant! I love this book." --Jonathan Maberry, multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author of They Bite! and Rot & Ruin

"As unpredictable and lively as a bunch of drunks at a New Orleans funeral."-- Joe R. Lansdale

In the chaos of the combat zone, there are the living, the dead, and the Ghost.

In the ongoing Iraq conflict, there are no battle lines, no direct offensives, no ground won or lost—just the daily fight against an enemy who hits and runs, hides and sneaks. If the enemy shows himself, it’s only for a moment. But for a Marine Sniper, that is all that is needed.

Readers now have the opportunity, from these warriors’ perspective, to peer into the killing zone through a telescopic lens, down the barrel of a high-powered rifle, and into the very heart of the enemy. The training, the techniques, and the steel will necessary to survive as a sniper are all described in vivid detail.

Charles Henderson also delves into the core of the enemy—the maniacal ideology, and the tactics that have sown so much violence in Iraq—and how they are all vulnerable to a single bullet from a Ghost.

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (commonly known as simply "Moll Flanders") is a novel written by Daniel Defoe in 1722.

Defoe wrote this after his work as a journalist and pamphleteer. By 1722, Defoe had become recognized as a novelist, with the success of Robinson Crusoe in 1719. His political work was tapering off at this point, due to the fall of both Whig and Tory party leaders with whom he had been associated; Robert Walpole was beginning his rise, and Defoe was never fully at home with the Walpole group. Defoe's Whig views are nevertheless evident in the story of Moll, and the novel's full title gives some insight into this and the outline of the plot:

"The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, Etc. Who Was Born In Newgate, and During a Life of Continu'd Variety For Threescore Years, Besides Her Childhood, Was Twelve Year a Whore, Five Times a Wife [Whereof Once To Her Own Brother], Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon In Virginia, At Last Grew Rich, Liv'd Honest, and Died a Penitent. Written from her own Memorandums."

В 1936 году Селин побывал в Советском Союзе, прожив два месяца в Ленинграде. В результате был написан памфлет «Меа culpa» (1937) в котором он с присущей ему резкостью подверг сомнению возможность социального переустройства общества по причине, которая кроется в самом человеке: «сволочизм» присущ человеку и он спонтанно прёт из его "инфернальной натуры".

Jasper Gwyn, scrittore dal discreto successo, decide da un giorno all’altro che non ha più intenzione di scrivere. O perlomeno di scrivere romanzi. Il gesto dello scrivere però gli manca, sente il bisogno di continuare a mettere in fila le parole come aveva fatto per la maggior parte della sua vita. Diventare “copista” gli appare dunque la soluzione ideale: non di cifre o parole, bensì di persone. Inizia così a fare ritratti per, come dice lui, “riportare a casa le persone”. Adibisce un ex garage a studio di posa, lo illumina con lampadine dalla luce “infantile” e ciò che ne scaturisce è un qualcosa che solo un personaggio complesso e surreale come Jasper Gwyin poteva concepire. Non mancheranno gli imprevisti e più di una volta il fragile sogno su cui tutto è costruito rischierà di infrangersi. Il finale non può che sorprendere.

Gore Vidal's satirical fantasy, with a new introduction by the author. From his long-time hiding-place in provincial Egypt, Eugene Luther tells the story of John Cave, a former Californian undertaker, his rise to power and the subsequent global impact of his new religion.

Este libro de memorias está escrito a los cincuneta años, punto de inflexión de la existencia. Y es también el testimonio de varias décadas fundamentales en la historia de las mujeres. El sentido del humor y el ingenio con que Erica Jong levanta acta de los logros obtenidos por las mujeres desde la eclosión del feminismo a finales de los sesenta y principios de los setenta han convertido esta inusitada autobiografía en un verdadero éxito mundial. Miedo a los cincuenta encierra la vida de una generación de mujeres educadas para ser como Doris Day cuando fueran mayores y que ahora tienen que educar a sus hijas en los tiempos de Madonna y las Spice Girls.

Me llamo Rojo nos introduce en el esplendor y la decadencia del Imperio Turco, una potencia que llegó hasta las puertas de Viena. Viajamos hasta el siglo XVI, el sultán desea inmortalizar su figura en un lienzo, pero la ley islámica lo prohíbe. La tentación vence y cuatro artistas trabajarán en secreto, elaborando un libro lleno de imágenes nunca antes pintadas. Hasta que uno de ellos desaparece.

From one of the most important and acclaimed writers at work today, a thrilling new novel-part murder mystery, part love story-set amid the perils of religious repression in sixteenth-century Istanbul.

When the Sultan commissions a great book to celebrate his royal self and his extensive dominion, he directs Enishte Effendi to assemble a cadre of the most acclaimed artists in the land. Their task: to illuminate the work in the European style. But because figurative art can be deemed an affront to Islam, this commission is a dangerous proposition indeed, and no one in the elite circle can know the full scope or nature of the project.

Panic erupts when one of the chosen miniaturists disappears, and the Sultan demands answers within three days. The only clue to the mystery-or crime?-lies in the half-finished illuminations themselves. Has an avenging angel discovered the blasphemous work? Or is a jealous contender for the hand of Enishte’s ravishing daughter, the incomparable Shekure, somehow to blame?

Orhan Pamuk’s My Name Is Red is at once a fantasy and a philosophical puzzle, a kaleidoscopic journey to the intersection of art, religion, love, sex, and power.

"Pamuk is a novelist and a great one…My Name is Red is by far the grandest and most astonishing contest in his internal East-West war…It is chock-full of sublimity and sin…The story is told by each of a dozen characters, and now and then by a dog, a tree, a gold coin, several querulous corpses and the color crimson ('My Name is Red')…[Readers will] be lofted by the paradoxical lightness and gaiety of the writing, by the wonderfully winding talk perpetually about to turn a corner, and by the stubborn humanity in the characters' maneuvers to survive. It is a humanity whose lies and silences emerge as endearing and oddly bracing individual truths."- Richard Eder, New York Times Book Review

"A murder mystery set in sixteenth-century Istanbul [that] uses the art of miniature illumination, much as Mann's 'Doctor Faustus' did music, to explore a nation's soul… Erdag Goknar deserves praise for the cool, smooth English in which he has rendered Pamuk's finespun sentences, passionate art appreciations, sly pedantic debates, [and] eerie urban scenes."- John Updike, The New Yorker

"The interweaving of human and philosophical intrigue is very much as I remember it in The Name of the Rose, as is the slow, dense beginning and the relentless gathering of pace… But, in my view, his book is by far the better of the two. I would go so far as to say that Pamuk achieves the very thing his book implies is impossible… More than any other book I can think of, it captures not just Istanbul's past and present contradictions, but also its terrible, timeless beauty. It's almost perfect, in other words. All it needs is the Nobel Prize."-Maureen Freely, New Statesman (UK)

"A perfect example of Pamuk's method as a novelist, which is to combine literary trickery with page-turning readability… As a meditation on art, in particular, My Name is Red is exquisitely subtle, demanding and repaying the closest attention.. We in the West can only feel grateful that such a novelist as Pamuk exists, to act as a bridge between our culture and that of a heritage quite as rich as our own."-Tom Holland, Daily Telegraph (UK)

"Readers… will find themselves lured into a richly described and remarkable world… Reading the novel is like being in a magically exotic dream…Splendidly enjoyable and rewarding… A book in which you can thoroughly immerse yourself." -Allan Massie, The Scotsman (UK)

"A wonderful novel, dreamy, passionate and august, exotic in the most original and exciting way. Orhan Pamuk is indisputably a major novelist."-Philip Hensher, The Spectator (UK)

"[In this] magnificent new novel… Pamuk takes the reader into the strange and beautiful world of Islamic art,in which Western notions no longer make sense… In this world of forgeries, where some might be in danger of losing their faith in literature, Pamuk is the real thing, and this book might well be one of the few recent works of fiction that will be remembered at the end of this century."-Avkar Altinel, The Observer (UK)

Martes con mi viejo profesor refleja todos los valores humanos a la perfección, encerrando en él una lección de vida para todos, ya que nos narra el testimonio de las repetidas visitas durante cada martes, entre Mitch Albom y su viejo profesor, Morrie Schwartz, al cual le han diagnosticado una terrible enfermedad terminal, la ELA. A través de estos encuentros llenos de conexión y complicidad ambos, alumno y maestro, intercambian ideas y reflexionan sobre la muerte, la familia, el perdón o el amor entre otros temas de la vida cotidiana, encerrando así una enseñanza subliminar fruto de un extraordinario testamento espiritual que nos ayudará a encontrarnos a nosotros mismos a la vez que nos instará a reflexionar sobre nuestra vida de la mano de un hombre que depende por completo de los demás, pero que luchará hasta el final con el mayor optimismo. Esta fabulosa obra está llena de sencillez, pero a la vez, cargada de emoción y vitalidad, es uno de esos relatos que hacen que te plantees la vida, de los que dejan huella, y de los que dificilmente se olvidan.

La última novedad de Paulo Coelho es una selección de sus mejores artículos publicados entre 1993 y 1994 en la Folha de Sao Paulo.

Maktub, según palabras del propio autor, `no es un libro de consejos, sino un intercambio de experiencias`, una excelente ocasión para reflexionar y para reencontrarse con uno mismo.

Paulo Coelho, con más de 35 millones de libros vendidos, no es sólo uno de los autores más leídos del mundo, sino también uno de los escritores con mayor influencia ideológica de hoy en día. Lectores de más de 150 países, sin distinción de credos ni culturas, le han convertido en uno de los autores de referencia de nuestro tiempo. Durante varios años Paulo Coelho ha colaborado con el periódico brasileño Folha de S.Paulo escribiendo una columna diaria. Maktub surge como fruto de esta colaboración, ya que se trata de una selección que el autor ha hecho de los artículos que realizó para esta publicación entre junio de 1993 y junio de 1994. En palabras del propio Paulo Coelho, «Maktub no es un libro de consejos, sino un intercambio de experiencias», una excelente ocasión para reflexionar y para reencontrarse con uno mismo.

Mal de amores es la historia de una pasión entretejida a la historia de un país, de una guerra, de una familia, de varias vocaciones desmesuradas. Emilia Sauri, la protagonista de esta inquietante novela, nace en una familia liberal y tiene la fortuna de aprender el mundo de quienes lo viven con ingenio, avidez y entereza. Cobijada por la certidumbre de que el valor no es tal sin la paciencia, busca su destino enfrentando las limitaciones impuestas a su género y los peligros de su amor a dos hombres: desde su infancia por Daniel Cuenca, inasible aventurero y revolucionario, y en su madurez por Antonio Zavalza, un médico cuya audacia primera está en buscar la paz en mitad de la guerra civil. Regida por la mejor tradición de las novelas costumbristas, Mal de amores es una novela cuya prosa nítida y rápida consigue arrobarnos con su maestría, mientras nos regala los delirios de una invocación amorosa cuya desmesura nos contagia de futuro y esperanza.

Персонажей романа «Memento mori» известной английской писательницы Мюриэл Спарк преследуют по телефону – неизвестный голос повторяет одну и ту же фразу: «Помните, что вас ждет смерть». Полиция бессильна...

Este archivo es una copia de seguridad, para compartirlo con un grupo reducido de amigos, por medios privados. Si llega a tus manos debes saber que no deberás colgarlo en webs o redes públicas, ni hacer uso comercial del mismo. Que una vez leído se considera caducado el préstamo y deberá ser destruido.

En caso de incumplimiento de dicha advertencia, derivamos cualquier responsabilidad o acción legal a quienes la incumplieran.

Queremos dejar bien claro que nuestra intención es favorecer a aquellas personas, de entre nuestros compañeros, que por diversos motivos: económicos, de situación geográfica o discapacidades físicas, no tienen acceso a la literatura, o a bibliotecas públicas. Pagamos religiosamente todos los cánones impuestos por derechos de autor de diferentes soportes. Por ello, no consideramos que nuestro acto sea de piratería, ni la apoyamos en ningún caso. Además, realizamos la siguiente…

Fannie Flagg, autora y guionista de la inolvidable Tomates verdes fritos, nos vuelve a llevar a los cálidos paisajes de Misuri para deleitarnos con las sorprendentes y prodigiosas experiencias de una octogenaria llena de vida, que hacen que una ciudad entera cavile sobre la vieja cuestión: ¿Por qué estamos aquí?

Elner Shimfissle sabe que no debe hacerlo, pero ha vuelto a subirse a la escalera para coger higos de su árbol. Esta vez es atacada por un enjambre de avispas y cae al suelo, y la siguiente cosa que sabe es que ha emprendido una aventura que jamás habría imaginado, en la que vivirá los encuentros más extraordinarios. Pero las mayores sorpresas las vivirán sus parientes, vecinos y amigos, una panda de personajes tan variopintos como entrañables. A medida que va desplegando esta comedia de enredo, cada una de las personas cercanas a Elner va descubriendo algo maravilloso, y lo mismo le sucede al lector.

Перед вами самая что ни на есть беспонтовая книга, поэтому людям без понтов она обязательно понравится. Для ее героев — двух форменных раздолбаев, изо всех сил сопротивляющихся естественному взрослению, — не существует ни авторитетов, ни чужих мнений, ни навязанных извне правил. Их любимая фишка — смеяться. Над случайными коллегами, над собой и над окружающей реальностью. В чем, собственно, и состоит их прелесть.

En 1974, un niño sufre el salvaje ataque del dóberman de su madre; en 1997, otro chiquillo desaparece del patio trasero de su abuela en una soleada mañana de verano; en 1966, una adolescente embarazada ingresa en una residencia de maternidad con el propósito de entregar a su hijo en adopción; en 1991, un joven diverge hacia una carrera como narcotraficante, aunque abriga esperanzas de algo mejor. En el proceso se examinan cuestiones relativas a la identidad, el destino y las circunstancias: ¿por qué nos convertimos en las personas que somos? ¿Cómo acabamos atrapados en una vida que nunca habíamos deseado? Y, ¿podemos cambiar el curso de lo que se nos antoja inevitable?

Mazurca para dos muertos toma su título de un asesinato y una venganza, sucesos que no son sino dos puntos de referencia en el vasto hilo conductor de la obra, que se erige en un extenso retablo de unas vidas señaladas por la sexualidad, la barbarie y la violencia física, bajo la recurrencia cíclica de temas que, como la lluvia o el eje de carro, aluden a la continuidad inmutable del tiempo. El soporte principal de la novela es el finísimo e infalible oído de C. J. C., su sentido de la sonoridad (en lo armonioso tanto como en lo estridente y terrible) y de la rotunda música verbal, que impone cada pasaje como una realidad irrefutable en virtud de su contundencia expresiva. La guerra civil, irrumpiendo en primer plano en el centro del libro, sitúa en una perspectiva histórica este recitativo de una maestría técnica y expresiva indeclinable, que llega al máximo refinamiento y a la magia tribal desde una estética que no elude enfrentarse a lo fatal o bárbaro. Mazurca para dos muertos, que obtuvo el Premio Nacional de Literatura, es una de las obras maestras de su autor y ya actualmente un clásico mayor de la literatura de todos los tiempos en nuestra lengua.

The year is 1988.

Eighteen-year-old Thomas Green, weed smoker and would-be artist, has been plucked from his comfortable, suburban existence in apartheid South Africa and thrown onto the frontline of his country’s war against what it sees as terrorism.

As a conscript in the South African Defence Force, it’s Thomas’s job to watch the hot, sandy border for signs of the mysterious ‘red menace’.

There are no bars nearby, no art galleries, no cinemas and no air-conditioned shopping malls. Worst of all, there are no lithe young ladies willing to pose nude for an eager painter-in-training. What Thomas has found in plentiful supply are sand dunes, barbwire fences and landmines. He may as well have landed in hell.

When a man approaches on foot from Angola, the place where the terrorists are said to come from, Thomas discovers that life can still get a whole lot worse.

MiG-23 Broke my Heart is a war novel, a tale of action and adventure, a fictional road trip and—deep in its dark heart—a certain kind of love story.

Please be advised that the novel contains violence, hard-biting humour and sensitive subject matter that some readers may find disturbing.

This is a full-length novel, which in paperback form would be about two hundred and fifty pages.

Malinche sirve a Laura Esquivel para construir una ventana en la que el lector se asoma a la forma de ver el mundo de los pueblos indígenas, ``a un pasado que debemos reintegrar en nuestras vidas, porque los mexicanos preferimos regodearnos en la idea de que somos producto de un abuso, y este concepto de que somos abusables, conquistables o de que no hay salida, nos hace caer una y otra vez en manos de gente que no nos gobierna como merecemos, que no nos procura un bienestar. La prueba es que no han sido capaces de respetar los Acuerdos de San Andrés`, afirma la narradora en entrevista con La Jornada.

En su nueva novela, añade, intenta ``comprender mucho mejor el proceso de la conquista y por qué no hemos podido superarlo. Y es que, como nación, tenemos un nudo atorado que tiene que ver con la integración de esa visión del mundo que acepta un orden cósmico. Una parte de la profunda espiritualidad de los pueblos indígenas se basa en ello, en presencias y deidades, donde el agua, el fuego y el aire hablan, nos dicen cosas.

«Моя вина» – сборник «малой прозы» о наших современниках. Её жанр автор определяет как «сентиментальные повести и рассказы, написанные для людей, не утративших сердца в наше бессердечное время».

Gabriela y Juana, madre e hija, viven los años de la guerra civil en una ciudad castellana cuyo ambiente les resulta incómodo y asfixiante. Gabriela se ha quedado viuda, su marido ha sido fusilado por sus ideas republicanas y subsiste dando clases en la escuela privada, ya que no tiene acceso a la pública debido a sus ideas políticas, hasta que decide aceptar la proposición de matrimonio que le hace Octavio, un misterioso millonario mexicano que se llevará a madre e hija a su hacienda de Puebla. Allí, lejos del núcleo de exiliados españoles, va transcurriendo la vida de ambas mujeres. Sobre un fondo de sucesos históricos, evocados a la luz nostálgica de la memoria y del desgarro del exilio, asistimos a la intensa relación de Gabriela y Juana, al amor de la hija por su madre, oscilante entre la dependencia y la rebeldía. Juana evoluciona hacia un mundo de deseos y proyectos que choca con la hermética personalidad de la madre, austera y enlutada, marcada por la mística del deber y un puritanismo laico de raíces castellanas. Juana, que rechaza por instinto el pesimismo vital de las mujeres de negro que han habitado su vida, después de varios años de exilio decide regresar al Madrid de la posguerra y se integra a una universidad que ensaya sus primeros conatos de rebeldía

Michael Cunningham, Francine Prose, Aimee Bender, Kelly Link, Jim Shepard, and more than thirty other extraordinary writers celebrate fairy tales in this thrilling new volume. Inspire by everything from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" and "The Little Match Girl" to Charles Perrault's "Bluebeard" and "Cinderella" to the Brothers Grimm's "Hansel and Gretel" and "Rumpelstiltskin" to fairy tales by Goethe and Calvino and from China, Japan, Vietnam, Russia, Norway, and Mexico, here are stories that soar into boundless realms, filled with mischief and mystery and magic, and renewed by the lifeblood of invention. Although rooted in hundreds of years of tradition, they chart the imaginative frontiers of the twenty-first century as powerfully as they evoke our earliest encounters with literature.

MAUKI

Džeks Londons, VII sēj.

Dienvidjūras stāsti

IZDEVNIECĪBA LIESMA 1977

SASTĀDĪJUSI TAMĀRA ZĀLĪTE NO ANGĻU VALODAS TULKOJUSI VALIJA BRUTĀNE, ROTA EZERIŅA UN OJĀRS SARMA MĀKSLINIEKS ĀDOLFS LIELAIS

MARKUSA O'BRAIENA PAZUŠANA

DŽEKS LONDONS

KOPOTI RAKSTI 5.SĒJUMS

APKAUNOTAIS

sastādījusi Tamara Zālīte

NO ANGĻU VALODAS TULKOJUSI ANNA BAUGA, ILGA MELNBARDE un OJĀRS SARMA MĀKSLINIEKS ĀDOLFS LIELAIS

Tulkojums latviešu valodā, «Liesma», 1975

Alexandria — die Stadt des Sonnenlichts, von Himmelswasser rein gewaschen, das Herz von Erinnerungen, voll der Süße des Honigs und der Bitternis von Tränen… Die Pension Miramar hat ihre besten Zeiten hinter sich, sie ist zum Zufluchtsort einer zusammengewürfelten Gästeschar geworden.

Hier logieren die Generationen des Landes: Der Grandseigneur vergangener Revolutionen, dessen Namen kaum einer mehr kennt. Der Playboy, der mit seinem Ford über die Wüstenstraße braust und durch die Bordelle streift. Der enteignete Ex-Großgrundbesitzer, dem nur erbärmliche hundert Feddan Land geblieben sind. Der junge Radiosprecher, der aus der Bahn geworfen wird, weil er sich von den verfolgten Kommunisten absetzt. Der Chefbuchhalter der Textilfabrik, der sich als Musterkind der neuen Ordnung gibt und in den Schwarzhandel einsteigt. Jeder versucht, sich auf seine Weise mit den neuen Verhältnissen zu arrangieren: resigniert, skeptisch, zynisch, ehrgeizig.

Und alle umwerben sie die Magd Zuchra, die schöne, energische Fellachin, die vor einer Zwangsheirat aus ihren Dorf geflohen ist und als einzige eine Zukunft hat. Verstrickungen ergeben sich, Intrigen, ein mysteriöser Todesfall.

Die arabische Originalausgabe erschien 1967 unter dem Titel Miramar

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Der Autor

Nagib Machfus, 1911 in Kairo geboren, gehört zu den bedeutendsten arabischen Autoren der Gegenwart. Schon früh hat er sich vom Gängelband europäischer Literatur gelöst und eine eigene, aus dem ägyptischen Leben schöpfende Erzählhaltung und Form gefunden. 1988 erhielt er als erster arabischer Autor den Nobelpreis für Literatur.

Im Unionsverlag sind »Die Midaq-Gasse«, »Die Moschee in der Gasse«, »Die Kinder unseres Viertels«, »Die Spur«, »Der Dieb und die Hunde«, »Zwischen den Palästen«, »Palast der Sehnsucht« sowie »Die segensreiche Nacht« lieferbar.

«Майстер корабля» — один з найоригінальніших творів періоду Розстріляного Відродження — сьогодні повертається до читача. Це романтичний пригодницький роман, у якому яскраво втілено тему подвигу, кохання, відданості дитячій мрії.

Don DeLillo's follow-up to Libra, his brilliant fictionalization of the Kennedy assassination, Mao II is a series of elusive set-pieces built around the themes of mass psychology, individualism vs. the mob, the power of imagery and the search for meaning in a blasted, post-modern world. Bill Gray, the world's most famous reclusive novelist, has been working for many years on a stalled masterpiece when he gets the chance to aid a hostage trapped in a basement in war-torn Beirut. Gray sets out on a doomed, quixotic journey, and his disappearance disrupts the cloistered lives of his obsessed assistant and the assistant's companion, a former Moonie who has also become Bill's lover. This haunting, masterful novel won the PEN/Faulkner Award.

This tale of a reclusive novelist drawn back into the world by acts of terrorism reconfirms DeLillo's status as a modern master and literary provocateur.

Роман «Морис» был создан в 1912 (тогда же была написана новелла Томаса Манна «Смерть в Венеции»), но, согласно воле писателя, был опубликован лишь спустя год после его кончины — в 1971 году. Книга рассказывает о любовных взаимоотношениях двух друзей, студентов Кембриджского университета, принадлежащих к английской аристократии и среднему классу. В ней описывается пуританская атмосфера викторианской Англии, классовое расслоение современного Форстеру общества. Всемирную известность роману принесла его экранизация режиссером Джеймсом Айвори в 1987 году.

Memoria de mis putas tristes es una novela que el premio Nobel colombiano Gabriel García Márquez publicó en 2004. La novela narra historia de un anciano y sus enamoramiento con una adolescente. Es, a la fecha, el último libro de este escritor.

Esta novela relata el enamoramiento de un anciano nonagenario y una joven de 14 años. El día de su nonagésimo cumpleaños, el anciano decide regalarse una noche de sexo con una virgen. Para eso recurre a su vieja amiga y vieja prostituta, Rosa Cabarcas, quien hace las veces de celestina entre él y una joven durmiente, a quien el anciano bautiza como Delgadina. En el transcurso del relato, éste describe sus vivencias con otras mujeres y cómo encuentra significado a la vejez por medio del amor.

También se percibe en el libro el ansia de García Márquez de morir desacompañado. El autor tenía 76 años de edad cuando escribió el mismo. En la novela el nonagenario que nunca formó familia, se encuentra por azar con una vieja prostituta, de la cual había sido un cliente asiduo desde que era una adolescente altiva. Ella, todavía en plena forma, le expresa que siempre le había querido y que hubiera sido su pareja ideal. El viejo, todo emocionado, empieza llorar y le dice: – Es que me estoy volviendo viejo. Le cuenta la historia de la Delgadina y ella le dice: – Haz lo que quieras, pero no pierdas a esa criatura. No hay peor desgracia que morir solo.

En este libro García Márquez muestra nuevamente su gran poder en la narrativa, pero ahora no con ese trasfondo político sino con un toque de buena nostalgia y un poco más de su propia filosofía. Basada en la novela La Casa de las Bellas Durmientes del escritor japonés Yasunari Kawabata, en la que los ancianos pagaban por yacer junto a muchachitas desnudas narcotizadas para observarlas durante el sueño.

Un antecedente de este relato lo podemos encontrar en "El avión de la bella durmiente", integrante de la colección "Doce Cuentos Peregrinos".

«El encaje alzado de las fachadas venecianas es el mejor rastro que el tiempo, alias agua, haya dejado nunca sobre tierra firme. […] Es como si el espacio, más consciente aquí que en ningún otro lugar de su inferioridad frente al tiempo, le respondiera con la única propiedad que éste no posee, con la belleza. Y es por esta razón por lo que el agua toma esta respuesta, la retuerce, la golpea y la rompe en pedazos, aunque al final la recoja y la lleve consigo hasta depositarla, intacta, en el Adriático.» Joseph Brodsky En Marca de agua, un mosaico de 51 breves secuencias, Joseph Brodsky se sirve de sus visitas anuales a Venecia para meditar sobre la relación entre el agua y la tierra, la luz y la oscuridad, el tiempo presente y el pasado, el deseo y su satisfacción, la vida y la muerte. Estampas poéticas, estampas venecianas, estas reflexiones acerca de la ciudad abren brechas en la memoria del escritor, que entrelaza recuerdos personales con hechos acaecidos en la propia Venecia. Para el lector esa percepción y ese contrapunto entre imágenes y pensamientos se asociarán para siempre con el nombre de Venecia.

New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness.

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate — a life and a role that she has never challenged...until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister — and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart, or let others lead you? Once again, in My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.

The Richard and Judy Best Read of the Year (nominee)

Sainsbury's Popular Fiction Award (nominee)

Ta książka jest dla mnie niesamowita. Wokół słyszymy wciąż: narkomani, nie, narkotyki, nie, to niezdrowe, nie, to szkodliwe, nie, trucizna, nie, narkotyki, nie, złe towarzystwo, nie, nie i nie… A (może nie mnie, ale wielu) to wcale nie odstrasza, wręcz zaciekawia. Ta książka mówi o psychice młodej narkomanki, o skutkach nałogu, o tym, że nie mogła spełnić swych marzeń, o miłości w narkotykach, o tym, kim się staje człowiek, gdy zaczyna brać narkotyki.

Książka opowiada o narkomance z Berlina Zachodniego. Przedstawia problem wciąż aktualny, lecz nie mówiąc medycznie o chorobach, tylko o psychice narkomana. I to jest niezwykle ciekawe. Można niezwykle płakać nad tą książką. Ja sama czułam bezsilność, jakbym była w nałogu, czułam ten wstręt. Do czego? Do siebie samej. Bo czułam się, jakbym to JA była tą narkomanką. Nie Christiane. Nie. JA.

Niezwykle wciągająca książka.

A New McCullough Classic

In the tradition of her epic bestseller, The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough offers up a saga of love found, love lost, and agony endured in Morgan's Run. McCullough brings history to life through the eyes of Richard Morgan, an Englishman swept up in the bitter vicissitudes of fate. McCullough's trademark flair for detail is like a ride in a time machine, transporting readers to the late 18th century. From the shores of Bristol, England, to the dungeons of a British prison, from the bowels of a slave ship to a penal colony on an island off the coast of New South Wales, McCullough brilliantly recreates the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells of Morgan's life and times. The Revolutionary War is raging in America, and England is struggling with economic and social chaos. In the town of Bristol, Richard Morgan keeps to himself and tends to his family, making a decent living as a gunsmith and barkeep. But then Richard's quiet life begins to fall apart. His young daughter dies of smallpox, his wife becomes obsessively concerned about their son, and he loses his savings and his bar to a sophisticated con man. Then Richard's wife dies suddenly of a stroke, and his son is later lost and presumed dead after disappearing in a nearby river. The crowning blow comes when Richard reports illegal activities being carried out by the owner of the rum distillery where he works, and he ends up on the wrong end of a frame-up. Tried and convicted for thievery and blackmail in a justice system designed to presume guilt, Richard is deported on a slave ship of the "First Fleet" with a hundred or so other convicts bound for New South Wales, where they will be used to establish a colony. But the onboard conditions during the yearlong voyage are so awful that many of the convicts die. Richard, oddly calm, dignified, and withdrawn, not only survives but manages to thrive. His intelligence, manners, and skills earn him respect in the new colony, where he eventually earns a pardon and begins his life again. Based on McCullough's own family history, Morgan's Run has all the marks of a classic. In the novel's afterword, McCullough mentions that she hopes to continue this tale – a hope that will no doubt be shared by millions of readers.

– Beth Amos

Virgina Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway (1925) presents a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class English woman. Clarissa Dalloway is the wife of Richard Dalloway, a Conservative Member of Parliament.

The story takes place in London on a day in June 1923, a day when Clarissa is giving a dinner party. She walks to the florist shop to buy flowers for the party.

Septimus Warren Smith and his wife Lucrezia happen to be walking on the street. Septimus Warren Smith never meets Mrs. Dalloway, but their lives are connected by external events, such as the sight of an airplane overhead, and by the fact that they are both sensitive people who feel empty.

Richard Dalloway is invited to lunch at the home of Lady Millicent Bruton, a fashionable aristocrat. Lady Bruton dabbles in charities and social reform, and is sponsoring a plan to have young men and women travel to Canada.

Peter Walsh, an old and close friend of Clarissa’s, has returned to England after five years in India, and comes to visit her. Peter Walsh once loved Clarissa, but she had refused to marry him. Clarissa introduces Peter to her daughter Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is 17 years old, and has an older friend and tutor named Doris Kilman. Elizabeth goes to lunch with Miss Kilman. Miss Kilman is poor and physically unattractive, and resents the upper-class Mrs.Dalloway. Miss Kilman is a desperate and fanatically religious woman, who wants to take Elizabeth away from her mother, but conceals her feeling under the guise of religiosity and strident charity.

Septimus Warren Smith commits suicide the same day that Mrs. Dalloway is giving her dinner party.

Sally Seton, a good friend of Clarissa’s whom she has not seen for years, unexpectedly appears at Clarissa’s dinner party. Sally Seton is now Lady Rosseter, and has five sons.

Peter and Sally talk at the party, and Sally wonders if Clarissa is happy. Peter admits that he could never love anyone else as he had loved Clarissa, and as the novel ends he realizes that he feels an extraordinary excitement at seeing her.

Clarissa Dalloway as a character in the novel is upper-class and conventional. She knows her life is shallow; her former lover Peter Walsh had called her the perfect hostess. She feels that her only gift is in knowing people by instinct.

Clarissa is unsure about her daughter’s love for her. She is also unsure about her own feelings toward her husband Richard, and toward her former fiancé Peter Walsh. Her feelings toward Peter are ambivalent; she had loved him, but he had not offered her stability or social standing. She regards Peter as a failure, and it is because he knows this that he bursts into tears when he meets her. She kisses him, and comforts him. Clarissa had refused to marry Peter because of his self-centered unconventionality. She had married Richard, because he was dependable and represented security and stability.

Clarissa loves success, hates discomfort, and has a need to be liked. She is attracted to both men and women (she had fallen in love with her former friend Sally Seton).

Clarissa has had a recent illness, and takes an hour’s rest after luncheon. She thinks about death.

A theme of the novel is the conflict between conventionality and unconventionality. Clarissa chooses conventionality, rather than following her true feelings, and is left empty and unsure of herself. Peter Walsh chooses unconventionality, and is left feeling aimless and unsuccessful. Septimus Warren Smith commits suicide to escape being crushed by the forces of conventionality. The novel is in part a critique of the shallowness and superficial conventionality of upper-class English society.

Another theme of the novel is that the thoughts of individuals are connected in a way that transcends their separation or alienation. Woolf uses a stream-of-consciousness technique to connect the thoughts of her characters. The novel is a continuous narrative, not divided into chapters or sections, although Woolf noted some of the shifts in time or scene by a short blank space in her manuscript. The thoughts of characters such as Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith are connected by external events in the world, such as the sound of a motorcar, or the sight of an airplane in the sky, or the sound of the Big Ben clock as it strikes the hour. Woolf shows that the thoughts of individuals can be connected in a way that reveals a unity in human existence, an exciting world of possibility.

La nouvelle qui donne son titre au recueil, est une des plus connues de Maupassant. Le château d'Uville est occupé par cinq officiers prussiens. Parmi eux, «un tout petit blondin fier et brutal», surnommé Mademoiselle Fifi à cause de son allure féminine. Le saccage du luxueux château ne parvenant pas à tromper l'ennui, on décide d'organiser une petite fête avec des dames de Rouen. Elles arrivent, ces cinq «filles à plaisir», dont Rachel, «une brune toute jeune, à l'œil noir comme une tache d'encre». Elle échoit en partage à Mademoiselle Fifi, qui la brutalise, «saisi d'une férocité rageuse, travaillé par son besoin de ravage». Au moment des toasts, les Allemands insultent les Français vaincus, et surtout les Françaises, qu'ils déclarent toutes leur propriété. Rachel se révolte alors…

Deep in the heart of seventh-century Arabia, a new prophet named Muhammad has arisen. As his message of enlightenment sweeps through Arabia and unifies the warring tribes, his young wife Aisha recounts Muhammad's astonishing transformation from prophet to warrior to statesman. But just after the moment of her husband's greatest triumph – the conquest of the holy city of Mecca – Muhammad falls ill and dies in Aisha's arms. A young widow, Aisha finds herself at the center of the new Muslim empire and becomes by turns a teacher, political leader, and warrior.

Written in beautiful prose and meticulously researched, Mother of the Believer is the story of an extraordinary woman who was destined to help usher Islam into the world.

Considered by many to be Mahfouz's best novel,  Midaq Alley centers around the  residents of one of the hustling, teeming back alleys of Cairo. No other novel so vividly evokes the  sights and sounds of the city. The universality and  timelessness of this book cannot be denied.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Martin Eden, Jack London's semiautobiographical novel about a struggling young writer, is considered by many to be the author's most mature work. Personifying London's own dreams of education and literary fame as a young man in San Francisco, Martin Eden's impassioned but ultimately ineffective battle to overcome his bleak circumstances makes him one of the most memorable and poignant characters Jack London ever created. "In Martin, (London) created one of the great twisted heroes of American literature . . . a hero doomed from the outset because his own passions are bigger and more complicated than any man could bear."

SYNOPSIS

The semiautobiographical Martin Eden is the most vital and original character Jack London ever created.

Set in San Francisco, this is the story of Martin Eden, and impoverished seaman who pursues, obsessively and aggressively, dreams of education and literary fame. London, dissatisfied with the rewards of his own success, intended Martin Eden as an attack on individualism and a criticism of ambition; however, much of its status as a classic has been conferred by admirers of its ambitious protagonist.

Wśród pisarek literatury popularnej, takiej jak Grochola, Szwaja czy Sowa, pojawił się nowy głos, Beata Wawryniuk i jej "Motyl na szpilce"…

"Motyl na szpilce" to pełna dowcipu i ciepła powieść, świetnie wpisująca się w wiodący na polskim rynku czytelniczym nurt literatury kobiecej. Losy bohaterki, nieco zagubionej, młodej kobiety z prowincji, szukającej szczęścia w wielkim mieście, zainteresowały już szerokie grono czytelników.

Już po tygodniu od premiery handlowej "Motyl na szpilce" pojawił się na listach bestsellerów!

Jak poradzić sobie w wielkim mieście, kiedy się nie ma pracy, forsy, faceta i perspektyw? Trzeba przy tym wykarmić siebie i kota, zdławić depresję i udowodnić rodzicom, że wychowali geniusza. Szczególnie, gdy jest się trochę naiwną, romantyczną dziewczyną z prowincji, z ambicjami, ale i górą kompleksów. No cóż. Przydadzą się poradniki pozytywnego myślenia, otwartość na najbardziej dziwaczne sposoby zarobkowania, solidna dawka poczucia humoru i wiara, że tuż za rogiem czeka wymarzony mężczyzna. Za tym lub następnym. Bo przecież podobno każdy ma swoja pulę szczęścia… "Motyl na szpilce" to pełen dowcipu i ciepła portret Ewy Bielskiej, młodej kobiety z małego miasteczka, szukającej szczęścia w stolicy. Szereg zabawnych sytuacji, wpadek życiowych i niepowodzeń staje się pretekstem do konfrontacji małomiasteczkowych wyobrażeń o świecie z twardą rzeczywistością metropolii. Zimny prysznic bohaterka przyjmuje z wrodzoną sobie mieszanką tragizmu i pogody ducha. Szczególnie, że w jej życiu zaczynają pojawiać się mężczyźni. Czy któryś z nich okaże się tym jedynym?

Como insinúa el propio título, Modelos de mujer, estos siete relatos están todos protagonizados por mujeres que, en distintas edades y circunstancias, se enfrentan todas ellas, en algún momento, a hechos extraordinarios. Todos, menos el que da título al libro, están de un modo u otro ligados a la infancia, a la capacidad de desear como motor de la voluntad, de los actos de voluntad que las protagonistas deberán asumir para impedir que la vida las avasalle. En los tres primeros cuentos -«Los ojos rotos», «Malena, una vida hervida» y «Bárbara contra la muerte»-, los personajes femeninos vencen, cada uno a su manera, a la muerte: la pequeña Miguela, la mujer mongólica que se enamora de un fantasma, Malena, que se pasa la vida haciendo régimen por amor, y Bárbara, que acompaña a su abuelo a pescar. En los cuatro últimos -«El vocabulario de los balcones», «Amor de madre», «Modelos de mujer» y «La buena hija»-, las protagonistas tuercen el destino a su favor recurriendo unas al poder de seducción y otras a la fuerza de la razón, y todas con la voluntad que les otorga el firme deseo de no tolerar que la vida se les escape de las manos.

Талантливому специалисту по пиару, «медийщику», в принципе всё равно, на кого работать, – он фанатик самой медиа, то есть СМИ. Поэтому он переметнулся из одного лагеря в другой, разрабатывая изощрённые схемы PR-ходов, вплоть до «информационного теракта».

В конце концов он сам становится жертвой PR-акции, где люди гибнут уже всерьёз…

«Когда из стеклянных дверей метро выплеснулась на улицу первая порция людей, готовящихся начать трудовой день, где-то слева бухнул взрыв. То есть сначала никто и не понял, что это был взрыв. Просто какой-то достаточно громкий хлопок и все. Затем, когда пространство затянуло едким дымом, и раздались первые женские визги „человека гранатой убили“, началась всеобщая паника. Толпа бросилась в разные стороны, гонимая общим страхом».

Специалист по пиару, медийщик, играет на одной из борющихся сторон. Он придумывает военный конфликт, но сам попадает под огонь. В результате у него возникают проблемы, которые он пытается решить странным образом…

Продолжение книги «Media Sapiens. Повесть о третьем сроке».

Napomena uz prijevod Roman Majstor i Margarita pojavio se u hrvatskom prijevodu 1969. godine u «Naprijedovu» izdanju. Bio je to prijevod teksta objavljenog u časopisu «Moskva» godine 1966, u kojemu su, kako je ustanovljeno, izvršena neka kraćenja autorove posljednje redakcije rukopisa. Ovaj je prijevod romana priređen i dopunjen prema izvorniku koji je objavljen u knjizi: Mihail Bulgakov, Romanv. Hudožestvennaja literatura, Moskva 1973, jamačno najpouzdanijoj redakciji Bulgakovljeva rukopisa.

V. F.

Радек Йон (род. в 1954) — молодой чешский писатель, серьезно заявивший о себе в 80-е годы первым же романом о современной молодежи — «Джинсовый мир».

В новом романе «Memento» автор затронул одну из острейших проблем современности, не миновавшую, к сожалению, и страны социалистического лагеря, — проблему наркомании.

Роман построен на достоверном жизненном материале и рассказывает о трудном периоде взросления неплохого чешского парня Михала Отавы и его сверстников, затянутых в сети наркомании и не нашедших сил вырваться из них. Но «Memento» — не просто роман о губительной власти наркотиков, это роман-предостережение, книга, внушающая молодым людям необходимость воспитывать в себе волю, мужественно переносить невзгоды, твердо противостоять злу. В этом ее огромная нравственная сила.

Перевод с чешского Т. Чеботаревой

Художник В. Тихомиров

Предисловие О. Малевича

Rafał A. Ziemkiewicz po Viagrze mać, Frajerach i Polactwie proponuje polskiemu czytelnikowi kolejną dawkę kontrowersyjnej publicystyki w swojej najnowszej książce pt. Michnikowszczyzna, zapis choroby, gdzie wnikliwie analizuje działalność Adama Michnika i bezpardonowo rozprawia się z wizerunkiem redaktora naczelnego "Gazety Wyborczej" jako głównego ideologa postkomunizmu. Nie oszczędza również ludzi z nim związanych.

Ziemkiewicz odpowiada na pytania:

– jaki rzeczywisty wpływ miał Adam Michnik na kształtowanie "nowej" Polski po 1989 roku?

– w jaki sposób wykorzystywał potencjał "Gazety Wyborczej", jednego z najpoczytniejszych dzienników, do kreacji sposobu myślenia jej odbiorców?

– dlaczego tylu ludzi z jego otoczenia bezwzględnie uległo jego wpływowi i bezkrytycznie przyjmowało jego słowa, uznając je za prawdziwe i niepodważalne?

Michnikowszczyzna – to nie tylko zespół głoszonych przez Michnika tez i postulowanych przez niego zachowań. To grono ludzi, współtworzących jego propagandową linię w "Wyborczej" i w innych, poddających się jej wpływowi mediach. To przede wszystkim liczne grono adresatów tej propagandy, związanych z Michnikiem emocjonalnie w stopniu nie mniejszym, niż wykpiwane na salonach moherowe babcie przepojone podziwem dla księdza Rydzyka. To rzesza polskich inteligentów i jeszcze liczniejsza – półinteligentów, którzy ulegli graniczącemu z amokiem uwielbieniu dla redaktora naczelnego "Wyborczej" jako wyroczni etycznej, politycznej i intelektualnej”.

MB is for Masters in Business

Which is what Kimmy, Russ, Jamie, and Layla are supposed to be studying for at the University of Connecticut. Jamie at least has serious academic intent. Well, until the first day of preterm when he develops a not-so-secret crush.

MB is for Marriage Bait

Layla's goal is perfection: perfect marks, perfect six-figure salary, perfect (I.e. rich, gorgeous, sexy) New York banker husband…candidate already identified as Bradley Green. The trouble is, seducing him could get her expelled.

MB is for Multiple Bed-hopping

Definitely Kimmy's favorite homework-starting with Jamie but moving swiftly on to Russ, until she discovers the small matter of his girlfriend back home. Hopefully Business Studies includes a minor in boyfriend embezzlement-a skill Kimmy will need if she's to keep hold of Russ.

MB is for Misbehaving Boyfriend

Russ didn't intend to be unfaithful-to either girlfriend! He never thought he'd find one woman who wanted him, let alone two. But since he can't even pick a major, how can he choose one true soul mate?

When Master Drachton Below unleashed a plague of sleep, which ironically claims him as well as his targets, Cley realizes that he will have to journey into his former master's memory to find a solution.

MARATA DĒLS

Aleksandrs Dimā (tēvs)

Kopoti raksti piecpadsmit sējumos

septītais sējums

Rīga, «Aeroekspresis» 1993

Izdevumu sagatavojusi informācijas un izdevējdarbības aģentūra „AĒROEKSPRESIS"

Tulkojis:  Arv. Mihelsons („Marata dēls") Redaktors A.Mukāns Mākslinieks Sastādītāji A.Katričs, S.Smoļskis, G.Špakovs

Ofseta papīrs. Formāts 60x90 '/i6. Tirāža 10 000 eks. Līgumcena. Izdevējdarbības licence Nr.2-0116

MIHAILS BULGAKOVS

STĀSTI

MORFiJS

KAUDZĪTES REINIS UN KAUDZĪTES MATĪSS

MĒRNIEKU LAIKI

STĀSTS

Rakstot savu darbu “Mērnieku laiki”, brāļi Kaudzītes to nosauca par stāstu, taču mūsdienās to dēvē par pirmo latviešu romānu, par kultūrvēsturisku romānu. Vēl šodien tas savu aktualitāti nav zaudējis.

Gan 19. gadsimta otrajā pusē, gan mūsdienās ir cilvēki, kuri ir aprēķinātāji. Šie egoisti dara tā, lai pašiem būtu labāk. Savu mērķu panākšanai viņi izmantos jebkurus līdzekļus: uzpirks amatpersonas, melos, lai panāktu uzticēšanos sev, krāpsies. Šādi cilvēki, lai kā viņi rīkotos, vienmēr izliksies par eņģeļiem, kaut gan patiesībā ir pavisam citādāk. Romānā “Mērnieku laiki” vienu no šādām personām nav grūti pamanīt – tā ir Oļiņiete. Viņa vēlējās, lai Liena apprecas ar Prātnieku, taču jaunā meitene bija pret to, tomēr neskatoties un šo nostāju, Oļiņiete neatkāpās no sava mērķa un neņēma galvā nedz Lienas vēlmes, nedz viedokli. Arī mūsdienās šādas situācijas ir, tikai biežāk sastopamas citādā kontekstā. Domāju, ka ne tikai mūsu valdībā, bet arī citās sēž ne viens vien aprēķinātāj, kurš melos, krāpsies, savtīgu mērķu vadīts.

Mīlestība – mūžsena tēma, kas nav saglabājusies no 19. gadsimta, bet gan no krietni senākiem laikiem, kas romānā “Mērnieku laiki” ir cieši saistīta ar aprēķinātājiem. Oļiņiete centās panākt, lai Liena iemīl Prātnieku, bet, kā jau tas ir zināms, piespiest mīlēt nav iespējams. Liena neparko nevēlējās padoties savai audžumātei, jo viņas sirds piederēja Kasparam. Iespējams, ka tieši tādēļ šis romāns beidzas traģiski. Arī mūsdienās var sastapt šādu parādību, kad starp divu cilvēku mīlestību cenšas iejauktie trešais liekais. Pēc manām domām, šādi gadījumi būs vēl ilgi sastopami nākotnē. Parasti šādi notikumi beidzas ar kādas sirds salaušanu vai pat vēl sliktāk.

Pētīdami sava laika ikdienas dzīvi, brāli Kaudzītes savā darbā iesaistīja kārklu vāciešus. Tas parāda tikai to, ka jau 19. gadu simtenī latviešu valodā ienāk citu valodu vārdi, kuri tika “iepīti” ikdienas sarunās. Šajā gadījumā to pārspīlēti darīja Švauksts. Viņš, kur vien iespējams, ierunājās vācu valodā, gribēdams parādīt, ka ir mūsdienīgs. Šodien šādu valodu ir grūti atpazīt, jo daudzi citu valodu vārdi ir iesakņojušies tik dziļi mūsu valodā, ka rodas jautājums: “Vai šis vārds ir latviešu?” Tādējādi, manuprāt, tiek pazudināta oriģinālā valoda, tās skanējums tiek sabojāts ar citu tautu valodām.

Laikabiedru acīs romāns ”Mērnieku laiki” izpelnījās gan uzslavas, gan kritiku. Taču neviens tajā laikā nevarēja iedomāties, ka brāļi Kaudzītes aprakstīja ne vien Latvijas, bet arī citu valstu sociālo, politisko un ekonomisko dzīvi.

MELNĀ TULPE

ALEKSANDRS DIMĀ

apgāds "vide" 1992

Māksliniece Daina Eglīte Datorsalikums Māris Reinholds

ALEKSANDRS DIMĀ "MELNĀ TULPE"

Izdevējs: apgāds "VIDE". Izdevējdarbības reģistrācijas apliecības Nr. 2-0629. Datorsalikums.

Iespiests Madonas tipogrāfijā. Pas. Nr.80l

Metiens 20 000 eks. Līgumcena.

Pēc apgāda "GRĀMATU DRAUGS" izdevuma.

Montesumas meita

Henrijs Raiders Hegards

A (Angļu) He 140

Tulkojusi A. Feldhune Mākslinieks G. Elers

Pavisam Hegards publicējis pāris desmitu grā­matu. Nozīmīgākā no tām neapšaubāmi ir piedzīvo­jumu romāns «Montesumas meita» (1893.), ko latvieša lasītājs saņem pirmoreiz. Romāns veltīts vienam no pašiem dramatiskākajiem momentiem Meksikas vēs­turē — tās seno iedzīvotāju acteku cīņai ar spāņu iekarotājiem — konkistadoriem Ernando Kortesa vadībā. Uz bagāta dokumentāla, vēsturiska un etno­grāfiska materiāla pamata rakstniekam izdevies parā­dīt acteku sadzīvi un kultūru, viņu pilsētas un zemi.

In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school in Grosse Pointe, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blond classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, Cal has inherited a rare genetic mutation.

The biological trace of a guilty secret, this gene has followed her grandparents from the crumbling Ottoman Empire to Detroit and has outlasted the glory days of the Motor City, the race riots of 1967, and the family's second migration, into the foreign country known as suburbia. Thanks to the gene, Cal is part girl, part boy. And even though the gene's epic travels have ended, her own odyssey has only begun.

Sprawling across eight decades - and one unusually awkward adolescence - Jeffrey Eugenides' long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire. It marks the fulfilment of a huge talent, named one of America's best young novelists by both Granta and the New Yorker.

Заманчиво быть членом команды олигарха, чувствовать за своей спиной мощь гигантской машины, способной не только делать огромные деньги, но и возносить на вершину власти. А быть может лучше руководить собственной небольшой компанией, быть хозяином самому себе?

Перед героем книги известного писателя и бизнесмена Азария Лапидуса встает непростой выбор: стать частью целого или остаться непокоренной вершиной, сохранить себя…

Интриг и занимательных коллизий в «большом бизнесе» куда больше, чем в гламурных романах. Борьба с конкурирующими фирмами – задача для старшего партнера компании «Стромен» Якова Рубинина отнюдь не выдуманная, и оттого так интересна схватка с противником, которому не занимать ума и ловкости.

В личной жизни Якова сплошная неразбериха – он мечется среди своих многочисленных женщин, не решаясь сделать окончательный выбор. И действительно, возможно ли любить сразу троих? Только чудо поможет решить личные и производственные проблемы. Но жизни всегда есть место чуду, и, кто знает, вдруг на этот раз ему повезет.

Estamos en los territorios de la frontera entre México y Estados Unidos a mitad del siglo XIX. Las autoridades mexicanas y del estado de Texas organizan una expedición paramilitar para acabar con el mayor número posible de indios. Es el llamado Grupo Glanton, que tiene como lider espiritual al llamado juez Holden, un ser violento y cruel, un hombre calvo, albino, sin pestañas ni cejas. Nunca duerme, le gusta tocar el violín y bailar. Viola y asesina niños de ambos sexos y afirma que nunca morirá. Todo cambia cuando los carniceros de Glanton pasan de asesinar indios y arrancarles la cabellera a exterminar a los mexicanos que les pagan. Se instaura así la ley de la selva, el terreno moral donde la figura del juez se convierte en una especie de dios arbitrario.

Trzecia część "Trylogii rzymskiej", którą otwierają powieści "Tajemnica Królestwa" oraz "Rzymianin Minutus", dalszy ciąg opowieści obejmującej kolejne lata panowania Nerona i następnych cesarzy, aż do śmierci Wespazjana, krótkich rządów Tytusa i okrutnych Domicjana.

Historia angielskich jeńców wojennych i budowanego przez nich w 1943 roku mostu w środku birmańskiej dżungli. Japoński pułkownik Saito, nadzorujący pracę jeńców musi szybko wybudować most. Gardzi żołnierzami, którzy wbrew zasadom kodeksu honorowego samurajów po klęsce oddali się do niewoli, zamiast popełnić samobójstwo. Angielski pułkownik Nicholson przesiąknięty duchem imperialnego ładu próbuje przeciwstawić się Saito. Brytyjskie dowództwo zrobi wszystko by zburzyć ważny, strategiczny obiekt… Dzieło to, nieprawdopodobnie prawdziwe, stało się klasyką naszych czasów. Zainspirowało powstanie jednego z hitów współczesnego kina. Film Davida Leana zdobył siedem Oskarów i ogromną popularność.

Recopilación que es una recreación de las experiencias literarias, filosóficas y aun teológicas, de textos históricos y sagrados chinos e hindúes o incluso europeos medievales, que recogen mitos y concepciones fantásticas.

La historia satírica del ascenso y caída de un dictador sudamericano sirve a Francisco Ayala para analizar distintos problemas morales. El autor, con un lenguaje preciso, convierte su preocupación por la degradación humana en una interesante novela para un lector adulto y comprometido.

Dos disparatados adolescentes, Christopher y su amigo Toni, se dedican a observar, con agudo ojo cínico, los diversos grados de chifladura o imbecilidad de la gente que les rodea: aburridos padres y fastidiosos hermanos; futbolistas de tercera y visitantes de la National Gallery; futuros oficinistas y bancarios empedernidos; y, sobre todo, esa fauna que viaja cada día en la Metropolitan Line del metro de Londres.

Es la comedia del despertar sexual de la generación inglesa de los sesenta.

La primera novela del autor (1980) merece la lectura, y no solamente por interés de documentarse.

Premio Nadal 2007

Una parodia sutil, aunque hilarante y demoledora, de las novelas de intrigas esotéricas.

Corina y Jacob han vivido siempre de la organización de robos de obras de arte. Cuando se dan por retirados de la profesión a causa de su edad avanzada y de la falta de ofertas, reciben un encargo imprevisto por parte de un mexicano libertino y de tendencias místicas que sueña con construir un prisma para ver el rostro de Dios. El encargo consiste en llevar a cabo el robo de las presuntas reliquias de los Reyes Magos que se conservan en la catedral alemana de Colonia.

A partir de ahí, Benítez Reyes traza una parodia sutil, aunque hilarante y demoledora, de las novelas de intrigas esotéricas, de su truculencia y de sus peculiaridades descabelladas. Pero Mercado de espejismos trasciende la mera parodia para ofrecernos un diagnóstico de la fragilidad de nuestro pensamiento, de las trampas de la imaginación, de la necesidad de inventarnos la vida para que la vida adquiera realidad. Y es en ese ámbito psicológico donde adquiere un sentido inquietante esta historia repleta de giros sorprendentes y de final insospechado.

A través de una prosa envolvente y de una deslumbrante inventiva, Benítez Reyes nos conduce a un territorio de fascinaciones y apariencias, plagado de personajes insólitos y de situaciones inesperadas.

Premio Eugenio Nadal 1962

El viejo Merlín de las historias de Bretaña hace posada en Galicia. Allí llegan las gentes en procura de sus saberes mágicos. Un conjunto de historias y presencias que surgen de las crónicas del medievo, de las leyendas gallegas y bretonas, creando un retablo de gentes hermanadas en el gozo vital con la carga de humor que conviene el hecho de vivir.

Premio Planeta 2000

Es una novela sobre mujeres de varias generaciones, sobre sus pasiones y sus dudas, sobre su forma de vivir y su lugar en el mundo. Premio Planeta 2000.

Es una gran historia de admiración y celos, de mentira y verdad, de odio y amor, de pérdidas y encuentros. Judit tiene veinte años y quiere ser como Regina Dalmau, novelista consagrada y próxima a la cincuentena, por la que siente una obsesión casi enfermiza. El día de Todos los Santos se dirige a su encuentro, convencida de que la escritora sabrá ver su talento para la literatura y la ayudará a abandonar el barrio proletario en el que ha crecido y del que reniega. Judit ignora que Regina, sumida en una grave crisis creativa, y víctima de un profundo desasosiego moral, no puede ni siquiera ayudarse a sí misma. La irrupción de la joven en la casa de la famosa novelista hará que ésta se enfrente a las verdaderas raíces de su doble crisis, y a su relación con Teresa, la mujer nunca olvidada que iluminó su pasado. La última lección de Teresa se prolongará más allá de su muerte, porque esta gran novela trata de la herencia que se transmiten las mujeres cuando se eligen unas a otras para tejer entre sí un vínculo más fuerte que la sangre.

"Era martes, las ocho y veinte de la mañana del día de su muerte. Tadeo se debatía entre un ánimo ambiguo que lo llevaba de una nostalgia prematura a un entusiasmo juvenil. No era alegría, más bien se sentía triste, pero al menos lo alentaba saber que sería un día distinto, con un propósito que lo conduciría a algo, y le daría un estatus definitivo por el cual ya no tendría que pelear más, ni probarse, ni medirse, ni temer otras codicias."

"Sería un muerto a partir de las diez de la noche y lo sería para siempre. Pensar en eso le produciría una cierta paz, como la vecindad de unas vacaciones largamente añoradas. Tadeo sólo quería descansar".

Pascua de 1977. En las bodegas del antiguo castillo de Malevil, Emanuel embotella su vino mientras sus amigos de infancia discuten con pasión sobre las elecciones municipales. Ése es también el día de una guerra atómica que se abate sobre el mundo por sorpresa y lo destruye. En un instante, alrededor de Malevil, cuya roca milenaria resiste a la hoguera, todo ha quedado aniquilado.

Desde los momentos iniciales, en el planeta carbonizado, los compañeros de Emanuel se encuentran con sus primeros enemigos: otros hombres, salvados también por milagro como ellos, pero que codician la fortaleza y sus reservas de vida.

¿Escenario retrospectivo de lo que pudieron haber sido los primeros pasos del hombre sobre el planeta? ¿Estudio futurológico de un núcleo humano?

Más singular aún -más cruel también- es la historia de unos pocos hombres encarnizados en mantener sobre la tierra los últimos vestigios de la especie humana, narración que corta el aliento, en donde abundan la pasión, los anhelos, las peripecias de la vida en un medio increíblemente primitivo, actual, y por eso mismo, infinito.

An ambitious and far reaching allegorical voyage which, though not exactly a success, was Melville's first attempt at a book on the scale of Moby-Dick. Here is a passage which is reflective of the style, and outlook, of Mardi:

So, if after all these fearful, fainting traces, the verdict be, the golden haven was not gained;-yet in bold quest thereof, better to sink in boundless deeps, than float on vulgar shoals: and give me, ye gods, an utter wreck, if wreck I do.-Herman Melville

Un relato de viajes, investigación histórica, aprendizaje y desafíos morales para crear una obra en la tradición de la mejor novela picaresca. Dos historias paralelas que se cruzan. Un joven peruano que busca triunfar como escritor en Madrid y una mujer de la alta sociedad caribeña venida a menos en París. Diana Minetti necesita escribir sus memorias y él necesita que le paguen por escribir.

Un thriller literario que repasa las atrocidades cometidas durante las dictaduras de Trujillo en Santo Domingo, Fulgencio Batista en Cuba y las mafias económicas dominantes de Latinoamérica y que pone de relieve las complicidades del poder económico y el poder político durante estos periodos.

From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America -and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of events worthy of the most exciting cloak-and-dagger fiction, he defected to the United States, where he quickly became known as one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. This is his story, told in his own inimitable voice.

Era todavía una niña cuando decidió desobedecer a su madre y liberarse de las vendas que iban a convertir sus pies en muñones, haciendo de ella una mujer deseable. Éste fue el primer acto de rebelión de la hija de una concubina, que acabaría siendo la última esposa de Mao Zedong.

Todos recuerdan a Madame Mao como la tirana cruel y ambiciosa que gobernó China después de la muerte de su marido, pero pocos saben qué tuvo que hacer para escalar los peldaños del poder y cuáles fueron sus armas de seducción. Actriz experta y siempre en busca del éxito, la mujer que encandiló a Mao y se encerró con él en la cueva de las colinas de Yenan se había propuesto desde muy joven entender la vida como una gran obra de teatro, donde ella estaba destinada a brillar como prima donna hasta el final del espectáculo. Cuando en mayo de 1991 Madame Mao decidió ella misma bajar el telón, quizá no hubo aplauso, pero una sensación extraña de reverencia y miedo recorrió el escenario…

Después de tres años de búsqueda y recopilación de datos, Anchee Min ha sido capaz de atar los cabos sueltos de este drama fascinante, y nos propone la biografía novelada de una de las mucheres más temidas y admiradas de la historia del siglo XX.

La «Préface», oeuvre à part entière, fait date dans l'histoire littéraire. Sur un ton enlevé, perfide et caustique, l'auteur attaque les bien-pensants, représentants de la tartufferie et de la censure, et ceux qui voudraient voir un côté «utile» dans une oeuvre littéraire, alors que l'art, par définition non assujetti à la morale ou à l'utilité, échappe à la notion de progrès pour ne s'allier qu'à celle du plaisir.

Le roman lui-même, en grande partie épistolaire, nous parle avant tout de l'Amour, du Sexe, de la Femme, de l'Homme, éternels sujets…

A superb new novel by the author of Dreams of My Russian Summersand Requiem for a Lost Empire,set in the period just before, and two decades after, World War II.

“Makine is without doubt one of the greatest living writers. Music of a Life proves it.” -Le Figaro( France)

A brief but extraordinarily powerful novel by the author of Dreams of My Russian Summersand Requiem for a Lost Empire, Music of a Lifeis set in the period just before, and two decades after, World War II.

Alexeï Berg’s father is a well-known dramatist, his mother a famous opera singer. But during Stalin’s reign of terror in the 1930s they, like millions of other Russians, come under attack for their presumed lack of political purity. Harassed and proscribed, they have nonetheless, on the eve of Hitler’s war, not yet been arrested. And young Alexeï himself, a budding classical pianist, has been allowed to continue his musical studies. His first solo concert is scheduled for May 24, 1941.

Two days before the concert, on his way home from his final rehearsal, he espies his parents being arrested, taken from their Moscow apartment. Knowing his own arrest will not be far behind, Alexeï flees to the country house of his fiancée, where again betrayal awaits him. He flees, one step ahead of the dreaded secret police until, taking on the identity of a dead soldier, he enlists in the Soviet army. Thus begins his seemingly endless journey, through war and peace, until he lands, two decades later, in a snowbound train station in the Urals, where he relates his harrowing saga to the novel’s narrator.

Music of a Lifehas been Andreï Makine’s biggest bestselling novel internationally since Dreams of My Russian Summers.It is, in the words of France’s most distinguished daily newspaper Le Monde,“extremely powerful… a gem.”

"Métaphysique des tubes" est une autobiographie écrite par Amélie Nothomb. Dans ce livre l'auteur nous décrit sa vie de l'age de 0 à 3 ans avec un style simple et drôle. Même si le début du texte paraît à première vue compliqué, il ne faut surtout pas s'arrêter à cet obstacle car la suite est vraiment passionnante.

Au début, l'auteur nous expose une théorie selon laquelle Dieu serait un tube et nous explique alors le titre de son œuvre: l'auteur veut rechercher au delà des apparences des réponses sur son existence, la vie, Dieu…

A sa naissance l'auteur définit sa vie comme celle d'un Dieu ou plutôt d'un tube: elle existe, mais ne ressent aucun manque et est le centre de l'univers. L'enfant (ou le tube) ne bouge pas, ne crie pas, ses parents l'appellent donc " la plante " en référence au légume qu'il était. Cet état presque léthargique va être suivi d'un état très différent où le bébé cri, hurle, tape pour exprimer son mécontentement, sa frustration. En effet, il s'aperçoit qu'il n'est plus le centre du monde, qu'il n'a plus le pouvoir absolu d'exister car il ne peut pas parler, il a beau crier aucune personne n'a l'air de le comprendre, il n'impose pas son pouvoir.

Puis un jour, l'enfant renaît par la grâce d'un bout de chocolat blanc tendu par sa grand-mère. En réalité, l'enfant revit car il a découvert qu'il a de l'emprise, du pouvoir sur ce bâton de chocolat, car en le mangeant celui-ci devient du plaisir. A partir de cette renaissance l'enfant retrouve une vie " normale " mais ne cesse pas d'être un Dieu car au Japon un enfant de moins de 3 ans est considéré comme tel.

C'est à partir de ce moment, que l'auteur arrête de baser son récit sur des souvenirs évoqués par ses parents et utilise ses propres souvenirs. La partie qu'on appellera vie post-natale [car l'auteur ne considère pas être né avant l'évènement du chocolat], ne prend qu'une courte place dans l'œuvre. Ainsi 2 ans et demi de la vie d'Amélie Nothomb prend moins de place que une demi-année.

Cette autobiographie s'arrête à l'age de 3 ans juste après son " suicide " car l'auteur annonce qu'après " il ne s'est plus rien passé ". En effet, celle-ci pense qu'après 3 ans on ne vit plus, on s'habitue. Ce livre fait beaucoup de références à la mort, ce qui nous renvois à l'étude de l'existence et donc au titre de l'œuvre: l'auteur a bien respecté son pacte annoncé par le titre.

On peut dire que l'auteur termine son livre à 3 ans car c'est vers cet age qu'elle apprend qu'elle ne restera pas éternellement au Japon. Cette nouvelle sera une grande révélation pour elle et ce livre met bien en valeur l'importance de son pays natal et explique la trace que le Japon a eut et a toujours sur l'auteur. Une trace qui reste dans ses souvenirs et dans son écriture.

On remarque aussi que le récit s'arrête lorsque l'enfant, dans les coutumes japonaises, n'est plus considéré comme un Dieu. On peut en déduire que ce roman fait refléter le sentiment d'égocentrisme des enfants avant l'age de 3 ans qui se croient le centre du monde.

Cette autobiographie est attachante car elle raconte les souvenirs du point de vue de l'enfant, on découvre alors ses questions, ses jeux, ses explications. Comme lorsqu'elle s'imagine que " consul " veut dire égoutier et qu'elle laisse son père coincé dans une bouche d'égout car elle pense qu'il est au travail. Ou bien, lorsqu'elle choisit quels seront ses trois premiers mots.

C'est l'histoire d'une infirmière à qui est confiée la mission d'aller soigner une jeune femme qui habite sur une île déserte avec un homme beaucoup plus âgé qu'elle. L'infirmière se lie d'amitié avec la jeune fille ce qui ne fait qu'envenimer les choses qui étaient déjà assez étranges dans la demeure de l'homme…

C'est excellent, un suspense, une intensité d'émotions… tout est merveilleusement lié et décrit. C'est du Nothomb à son meilleur!

«Man and Boy» — это трогательная история, которую Тони Парсонс рассказал нам с удивительной проникновенностью. Искренность чувств, юмор, ироничность повествования, современное отношение к затрагиваемым проблемам взаимоотношений и окружающему миру позволили этой книге известного британского журналиста стать международным бестселлером и книгой года в Великобритании. Критики сравнивают «Man and Boy» с «Дневником Бриджит Джонс». При этом справедливо считают книгу естественным дополнением нарисованной Хелен Филдинг ироничной и универсальной картины жизни современных тридцатилетних.

El deseo de volar. Un huérfano de nueve años. La ciudad de Saint Louis. Los años veinte. Un judío de origen húngaro, mitad místico, mitad prestidigitador. Una granja perdida en las praderas de Kansas. Ritos iniciáticos. Una anciana india que trabajó en el espectáculo de Buffalo Bill. Un joven etíope. El Ku Klux Klan. Las ferias, los circos. El despertar de la sexualidad. La Depresión. Hollywood. Los gángsters de Chicago. Un jugador de béisbol en decadencia. La Segunda Guerra Mundial. El fin de la pubertad… Y un anciano que recuerda.

Ésta es la historia de Walt, el niño al que el Maestro Yehudi enseñó a levitar y a volar. La historia de un adolescente que se convierte en adulto y pierde la magia. La historia de un hombre que trata desesperadamente de reencontrar el sentido de su existencia. La historia de un país. Estados Unidos, desde los «felices años veinte» hasta la dura posguerra. Una vez más Paul Auster, dueño de una prosa admirable y de una poderosa imaginación, logra atrapar y fascinar al lector, con una novela que toma como punto de partida uno de los más ancestrales sueños del ser humano: el deseo de volar.

«Inquietante, sorprendente y emocionante» (J. Melmoth, The Sunday Times).

«Auster sabe dotar de cuerpo, solidez y emoción a aquello que narra. Y lo que narra, como siempre, es en el sentido estricto de la palabra sumamente singular. Es decir, a un tiempo extraño y único. Al diablo con los abominables mensajes y las moralejas. En lugar de eso, se nos propone asistir a las aventuras sorprendentes, trágicas, cómicas, patéticas, sentimentales, policiacas, épicas, místicas, sensuales y acrobáticas del joven Walt» (Frédéric Vitoux, Le Nouvel Observateur).

«Una emocionante parábola sobre el aprendizaje del amor» (Catherine Storey, The Independent).

«Una de las más fascinantes obras de Auster, escrita con una prosa de gran solidez, hermosamente lírica en algunos momentos… La novela es una apasionante quimera que nunca deja de lado el mundo real. Un libro mágico que nos proporciona una visión panorámica de este siglo extraño, violento y paradójico que pronto dejaremos atrás» (Joanna Scott, Los Angeles Times).

«Una novela brillante, escrita con una prosa rebosante de imaginación… Posee la fuerza de un cuento de hadas» (Anne Raver, The New York Times Book Review).

A collection of stories

These superbly crafted stories reveal an astonishing range, with settings that vary from a farm on the Canadian prairies to Bloomsbury in London, from a high-rise apartment to a mine-shaft. Vanderhaeghe has the uncanny ability to show us the world through the eyes of an eleven-year-old boy as convincingly as he reveals it through the eyes of an old man approaching senility. Moving from the hilarious farce of teenage romance all the way to the numbing tragedy of life in a ward for incurables, these twelve stories inspire belief, admiration, and enjoyment, and come together to form a vibrant chronicle of human experience from a gifted observer of life's joys and tribulations. This is Guy Vanderhaeghe's brilliant first book of fiction.

Pintor mediocre, dolorosamente consciente de sus limitaciones, H. recurre a las páginas de un diario como medio para comprender sus debilidades estéticas y para comprenderse a sí mismo, cuando acepta el encargo de retratar a S., administrador de una compañía. Enmarañado en una red de banales relaciones humanas y de casuales y previsibles aventuras, H. siente la necesidad de pintar un segundo retrato de S., comenzando a interrogarse sobre e1 sentido de su arte, de las relaciones con sus amigos y su mante, sobre el sentido de su propia vida sin historia.

Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all.

Molekuły Emocji to pełen refleksji, przenikliwości i intymności zbiór opowiadań o lękach, pragnieniach, tęsknotach i codziennych dramatach… Czasem wydaje nam się, że otaczająca nas rzeczywistość zmusza do podejmowania trudnych decyzji, że ludzie napotykają te same problemy, żyją tym samym „ustabilizowanym” życiem.

Czy właściwie znamy całą prawdę o dzisiejszym człowieku? Czy dokładnie wiemy czego pragnie, czego się boi, o czym myśli i do czego dąży? Trzeba wiele subtelności i empatii by dotrzeć do głębi, do magii, która ukryta jest w każdym z nas, nie poddawać ocenie tego co powierzchowne. Nie lada to wyzwanie nawet dla autora, obserwatora i kronikarza codzienności, który opowiada te historie w „swoim” niepowtarzalnym stylu, z nauką, erotyką i emocjami w tle.

„Martyna” to historia młodych kobiet – nie tylko tytułowej Martyny, które uwikłane w codzienność poszukują własnej drogi do samorealizacji, często dokonując dramatycznych wyborów. Ich losy, a także ich miłości to często tylko pretekst, aby opowiedzieć prawdę o polskiej współczesnej codzienności. Opowiedzieć ją szczerze, otwarcie, bez tematów tabu. Pójść w jej poszukiwaniu z tymi kobietami do kościoła, ale także wejść do ich łóżek.

Tak naprawdę „Martyna” to nic innego jak literacki zapis rozmowy o rzeczach ważnych i najważniejszych. Takich jak miłość, uczciwość, godność, odpowiedzialność lub prawo do szczęścia. To także rozmowa o konieczności wyboru między obietnicą spełnienia „tu i teraz” a strachem przed konsekwencjami odrzucenia w przyszłości.

Como sucede en las últimas novelas de Javier Marías, la primera frase ya dice mucho, quizá demasiado: `Nadie piensa nunca que pueda ir a encontrarse con una muerta entre los brazos y que ya no verá más su rostro cuyo nombre recuerda`.

Esto es lo que le ocurre al narrador de su nueva y extraordinaria novela. Víctor Francés es guionista de televisión y `negro` o `escritor fantasma`, encargado de redactar los discursos de los hombres importantes e ignorantes. Divorciado recientemente, es invitado a cenar a su casa por Márta Téllez, mujer casada cuyo marido está de viaje en Londres y madre de un niño de casi dos años. Tras la cena galante, el hombre y la mujer pasan al dormitorio, donde, `aún medio vestidos y medio desvestidos`, Marta Téllez empieza a sentirse mal hasta que agoniza y muere en una escena sobrecogedora. Esa infidelidad no consumada se convierte así en una especie de `encantamiento`, con problemas bien reales e inmediatos: qué hacer con el cadáver, avisar o no avisar, qué hacer respecto al marido, qué hacer con el niño dormido, qué diferencia hay entre la vida y la muerte. Víctor Francés tomará pronto sus decisiones, o más bien no las tomará y se irá dejando llevar por sus pasos, inofensivos unas veces y otras envenenados. Conocerá a la familia de su muerta, al padre, Téllez, viejo académico y cortesano, al marido, Deán, con su capacidad de comprensión y de inclemencia infinitas, a la hermana menor, Luisa, a quien seguirá sin propósito. Y se irá poniendo en situación de contar su secreto a quienes no debe. En un Madrid invernal y nocturno, dominado por la niebla o por las tormentas como una isla sitiada, el narrador se convertirá en una sombra que no quiere ni busca nada y, sin embargo, va encontrando: al Unico, para quien deberá escribir un discurso, en una hilarante escena palaciega, a su amigo Ruibérriz de Torres, aficionado al hipódromo y que lleva pintada en la cara su esencia de sinvergüenza, a la puta Victoria de otra larga noche de su pasado en la que confundió su rostro con otro nombre. Y entretanto una maldición va resonando: `Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí, y caiga tu espada sin filo: desespera y muere`.

Una vez más, la escritura asombrosa de Javier Marías sume al lector en un hechizo del que no querrá salir. Con aún mayor fuerza que en sus anteriores éxitos, Todas las almas y Corazón tan blanco, el autor logra una intensa narración sobre algunos asuntos que nos atañen a todos: sobre el ocultamiento, sobre los hechos y las intenciones, sobre el actuar sin saber, sobre la voluntad que casi nunca se cumple, sobre la negación de las personas que una vez quisimos, sobre el olvido que hace de todo `viaje hacia su difuminación lentamente`, sobre la indecisión, sobre la despedida y finalmente sobre el engaño, que quizá `es nuestra condición natural, y en realidad no debería dolernos tanto`.

Urocza, przezabawna powiastka gdańskiego prozaika zaczyna się w okolicznościach iście dramatycznych: bohater (noszący wiele znamion, które pozwalają utożsamiać go z autorem), wsiadając w początku lat dziewięćdziesiątych do małego fiata z instruktorką kursu prawa jazdy, nieomal umiera z upokorzenia i wstydu.

Pragnąc opóźnić moment ostatecznej kompromitacji, ucieka się do wypróbowanego sposobu: zaczyna snuć opowieść o samochodach swoich dziadków: citroenie zmiażdżonym przez pociąg relacji Wilno-Baranowicze, mercedesie zarekwirowanym w 1939 przez Sowietów w okolicach Lwowa…

W trakcie opowieści, jak na wytrawnego narratora przystało, uświadamia sobie, że powiela fortel i zarazem literacki chwyt Hrabala, który w opowiadaniu Wieczorna lekcja jazdy w analogiczny sposób próbował obłaskawić i zmylić czujność instruktora usiłującego wprowadzić go w arkana jazdy na motocyklu. Narracja staje się piętrowa i wielowymiarowa: wątki hrabalowskie przeplatają się ze współczesnymi i z nostalgiczną, pełną ciepła i humoru wyprawą w głąb rodzinnych korzeni, w odeszły w przeszłość świat międzywojnia, wypraw na pikniki w sosnowe lasy, zawodów balonowych, spotkań w Automobilklubie i – przede wszystkim – cudownych chromowanych karoserii.

Tej powieści Bułhakow poświęcił 12 lat życia. Zaczął ją pisać w 1928 r. ale po dwóch latach spalił rękopisy, uznając, że nie ma przed nim — jako pisarzem — przyszłości w Związku Sowieckim. Powrócił do pisania w 1931 r. Kończył książkę w strachu przed aresztowaniem, bo napisana przez niego na 60. urodziny Stalina roku sztuka „Batumi” nie spodobała się jubilatowi. Gniew dyktatora sprawił, że pisarz się rozchorował i przestał wychodzić z domu. Jego ostatnie dni opisała żona Jelena. Jej zapiski, po raz pierwszy publikowane w Polsce, dodajemy do tego wydania „Mistrza i Małgorzaty”.

Powieść ukazała się niemal 30 lat po śmierci pisarza — w okrojonej przez cenzurę formie — i stała się sensacją. Pierwsze polskie wydanie zniknęło z księgarń w ciągu jednego dnia. W obecnej, pełnej edycji zaznaczono miejsca w których ingerowała władza.

„Mistrz i Małgorzata” należy do kanonu powieści XX wieku. Trudno sobie bez niej wyobrazić współczesną kulturę. Zaś fraza „rękopisy nie płoną” weszła do języka potocznego — dziś wiemy, że słowo potrafi być nieśmiertelne, a wybitna twórczość przetrwa największe kataklizmy.

Tej powieści Bułhakow poświęcił 12 lat życia. Zaczął ją pisać w 1928 r. ale po dwóch latach spalił rękopisy, uznając, że nie ma przed nim — jako pisarzem — przyszłości w Związku Sowieckim. Powrócił do pisania w 1931 r. Kończył książkę w strachu przed aresztowaniem, bo napisana przez niego na 60. urodziny Stalina roku sztuka „Batumi” nie spodobała się jubilatowi. Gniew dyktatora sprawił, że pisarz się rozchorował i przestał wychodzić z domu. Jego ostatnie dni opisała żona Jelena. Jej zapiski, po raz pierwszy publikowane w Polsce, dodajemy do tego wydania „Mistrza i Małgorzaty”.

Powieść ukazała się niemal 30 lat po śmierci pisarza — w okrojonej przez cenzurę formie — i stała się sensacją. Pierwsze polskie wydanie zniknęło z księgarń w ciągu jednego dnia. W obecnej, pełnej edycji zaznaczono miejsca w których ingerowała władza.

„Mistrz i Małgorzata” należy do kanonu powieści XX wieku. Trudno sobie bez niej wyobrazić współczesną kulturę. Zaś fraza „rękopisy nie płoną” weszła do języka potocznego — dziś wiemy, że słowo potrafi być nieśmiertelne, a wybitna twórczość przetrwa największe kataklizmy.

Powieść jest ironicznym portretem artysty z czasów młodości, dojrzewającego w peerelowskiej rzeczywistości schyłku lat sześćdziesiątych. Narrator opowiada o swoich latach nauki i o fascynacji starszą od niego, piękną, tajemniczą kobietą, która uczyła go francuskiego i dała mu lekcję wolności. Jest to zarazem opowieść o potrzebie marzenia, a także rozrachunek z epoką peerelu. Tradycyjna narracja, nie pozbawiona wątku sensacyjnego, skrzy się humorem, oczarowuje i wzrusza.

W mieście wybucha epidemia ślepoty pogrążając ludzi w mlecznej otchłani. Powstają miejsca zesłania ociemniałych nieszczęśników, ale my obserwujemy tylko jeden szpital. Wkrótce jego społecznością zaczynają rządzić mechanizmy odtwarzające odwieczne schematy: walka o przetrwanie, o władzę, podział ról na ofiary i oprawców. Przekroczone są wszelkie granice upodlenia, jakby ociemniały świat pozbył się nagle hamulców ukształtowanych przez tradycję, wiarę i kulturę.

To historia chłopaka obdarzonego niezwykłymi zdolnościami, rozgrywająca się w scenerii współczesnej Warszawy. Patryk Wojewoda, główny bohater posiada niezwykły dar – "słyszy" cyfry, które wstukują ludzie korzystający z bankomatów. Od jego humoru zależy, co zrobi z czterema cyferkami PIN-u. Raz próbuje poderwać zgrabną blondynkę, innym razem "wymierza grzywnę" pewnemu właścicielowi złotej karty. To specyficzne hobby nie uchodzi uwadze policji… Nie zdradzając za wiele – tak rysuje się główny wątek powieści. Równie atrakcyjne są tu historie innych bohaterów – opowieści o romansach, kochankach, ucieczkach z fantazją – a także groteskowe wymysły uroczej kompaniji dziadka Patryka, Nepomucena. Jeden ze śmieszniejszych to obraz oszałamiającej koniunktury, jaka powstanie w Granatowych Górach (do złudzenia przypominających rodzinną Wisłę Pilcha), kiedy w "absolutnej konspiracji" osiądzie w nich na stałe sam Papież.

Powieść obfituje w liczne dygresje, gry językowe, celne obserwacje, a autor bawi się z czytelnikiem skomplikowanymi zabiegami narracyjnymi, by na końcu i tak go zaskoczyć. Naturalnie miłośnicy prozy Pilcha i tu odnajdą typowo "pilchowskie" (autobiograficzne?) motywy: są kobiety, są miłosne przechwałki, beznadziejne romanse, jest alkohol. Mimo dość ponurych wizji i obrazów, których Pilch nie szczędzi w "Mieście utrapienia", książka jest pełna humoru i błyskotliwych dialogów.

Книга Алексея Иванова, лауреата множества литературных премий, автора знаменитых романов «Золото бунта», «Сердце Пармы», «Географ глобус пропил», знакомит читателей с теми местами, где происходит действие всех этих романов, и прежде всего — с рекой Чусовой.

Чусовая — река легендарная. Возможно в России из всех уральских рек только Чусовую и знают. Так уж сложилось: говорят — «Урал», вспоминают — «Чусовая». И не случайно. Урал без Чусовой — как паруса без мачты, как кони без упряжки, как планета без орбиты. В прошлом «государева дорога», по которой шли «железные караваны», ныне — прекрасный туристический маршрут, по которому скользят байдарки, непревзойденный национальный парк горнозаводской природы, Чусовая тесно вплелась в историю Пермского края, историю Урала, историю России. А с легкой руки Алексея Иванова, одного из лучших отечественных писателей, — еще и в историю современной русской литературы.

Книга впервые публикуется в авторской редакции.

En esta maravillosa novela escuchamos las confesiones de Sayuri, una de las más hermosas geishas del Japón de entreguerras, un país en el que aún resonaban los ecos feudales y donde las tradiciones ancestrales empezaban a convivir con los modos occidentales. De la mano de Sayuri entraremos un mundo secreto dominando por las pasiones y sostenido por las apariencias, donde sensualidad y belleza no pueden separarse de la degradación y el sometimiento: un mundo en el que las jóvenes aspirantes a geishas son duramente adiestradas en el arte de la seducción, en el que su virginidad se venderá al mejor postor y donde tendrán que convencerse de que, para ellas, el amor no es más que un espejismo. Apasionante y sorprendente, Memorias de una geisha ha batido récords de permanencia en las listas de superventas de todo el mundo y conquistado a lectores en más de veintiséis idiomas. Su publicación en Suma coincide con el estreno en España de la superproducción basada en esta novela.

According to Arthur Golden's absorbing first novel, the word "geisha" does not mean "prostitute," as Westerners ignorantly assume-it means "artisan" or "artist." To capture the geisha experience in the art of fiction, Golden trained as long and hard as any geisha who must master the arts of music, dance, clever conversation, crafty battle with rival beauties, and cunning seduction of wealthy patrons. After earning degrees in Japanese art and history from Harvard and Columbia-and an M.A. in English-he met a man in Tokyo who was the illegitimate offspring of a renowned businessman and a geisha. This meeting inspired Golden to spend 10 years researching every detail of geisha culture, chiefly relying on the geisha Mineko Iwasaki, who spent years charming the very rich and famous.

The hottest young voices in urban literature and New York Times bestselling authors of 'The Cartel' series, Ashley JaQuavis now bring you ''Murderville'' – the first book in a highly anticipated new trilogy.

Two children from Sierra Leone, Liberty and A'shai, are brought together by chance, only to be forced apart by the most inevitable and tragic fate. Ashley JaQuavis bring us this classic love story set against modern life's most horrifying realities.

Liberty is dying of a fatal heart condition, though she desperately wants to survive until her twenty-fifth birthday, when her sister has promised to visit her. A'shai blames himself for not protecting Liberty, but all Liberty asks is for A'shai to tell her a story, to help her remember what brought them to this point. He knows that this is the last story he will ever tell-and the last she will ever hear.

As Liberty lies dying, A'shai walks her through their past, reliving their ill-fated journeys through the streets. Their story will take them from an arranged marriage, through Mexico's drug cartel, child brothels, and hustling in Detroit, to escaping the high-powered heads of LA ' underworld. But ultimately, this is a story of love and redemption that will leave you breathless from the unpredictable and mind-blowing ending.

'Marcovaldois an enchanting collection of stories, both melancholy and funny, about an Italian peasant's struggle to reconcile country habits with urban life. Oblivious to the garish attractions of the town, Marcovaldo is the attentive recorder of natural phenomenon. The reader's heart bleeds for Marcovaldo in his tenacious pursuit of lost domains, but the stories are full of mirth and fun. They lie between farce and fantasy, combining comical disasters with a surrealistic view of city life through the eyes of an outsider…Nothing, as always with Calvino, is quite as it seems. Books and Bookmen

In this raucous collection of true-life stories, actress and comedian Chelsea Handler recounts her time spent in the social trenches with that wild, strange, irresistible, and often gratifying beast: the one-night stand.

You’ve either done it or know someone who has: the one-night stand, the familiar outcome of a night spent at a bar, sometimes the sole payoff for your friend’s irritating wedding, or the only relief from a disastrous vacation. Often embarrassing and uncomfortable, occasionally outlandish, but most times just a necessary and irresistible evil, the one-night stand is a social rite as old as sex itself and as common as a bar stool.

Enter Chelsea Handler. Gorgeous, sharp, and anything but shy, Chelsea loves men and lots of them. “My Horizontal Life” chronicles her romp through the different bedrooms of a variety of suitors, a no-holds-barred account of what can happen between a man and a sometimes very intoxicated, outgoing woman during one night of passion. From her short fling with a Vegas stripper to her even shorter dalliance with a well-endowed little person, from her uncomfortable tryst with a cruise ship performer to her misguided rebound with a man who likes to play leather dress-up, Chelsea recalls the highs and lows of her one-night stands with hilarious honesty. Encouraged by her motley collection of friends (aka: her partners in crime) but challenged by her family members (who at times find themselves a surprise part of the encounter), Chelsea hits bottom and bounces back, unafraid to share the gritty details. “My Horizontal Life” is one guilty pleasure you won’t be ashamed to talk about in the morning.

Рассказ вошёл в сборники:

The Illustrated Man (Человек в картинках)

The Stories of Ray Bradbury (И грянул гром: 100 рассказов)

Este gigantesco maratn sexual es un proceso de aprendizaje, de conocimiento, en el que Bukowski no escatima sarcsticas observaciones de s mismo, y en el que el machismo de textos anteriores queda seriamente erosionado; todo ello unido a incontables borracheras.Bukowski parace sugerir que las alternativas – una carrera ms respetable, literaria o la que fuese – son an ms deshumanizadas.

Message in a Bottle has the earmarks of sentimental tongue-wagging at its finest and should please romantics and cynics alike.

It's sure to bring romantics to their knees.

"Hotschnig's stories have the weird, creepy, and ambiguous quality of disturbing dreams… It is, though, very refreshing to be confronted by stories which so firmly refuse to yield to conventional interpretation." Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian "Hotschnig's prose dramatizes the voice of conscience and the psychological mechanisms we use to face reality or, just as often, to avoid it." World Literature Today "Literary precision that has become rare in today's gossipy, discursive fiction." Neue Zuricher Zeitung "He is one of the best writers of his generation." – Suddeutsche Zeitung

‎"Not since Julio Cortazar's game of Hopscotch… has an author so daringly undertaken to challenge the reader." Amanda Hopkinson, The Independent "Hotschnig's stories have the weird, creepy and ambiguous quality of disturbing dreams." Nick Lezard, The Guardian "This award-winning collection by the Austrian writer Alois Hotschnig drew comparisons with Kafka. But Hotschnig's quietly terrifying voice is all his own." – Daily Mail

Anjali Bose is 'Miss New India.' Born into a traditional lower-middle-class family and living in a backwater town with an arranged marriage on the horizon, Anjali's prospects don't look great. But her ambition and fluency in language do not go unnoticed by her expat teacher, Peter Champion. And champion her he does, both to other powerful people who can help her along the way and to Anjali herself, stirring in her a desire to take charge of her own destiny.

So she sets off to Bangalore, India's fastest-growing major metropolis, and quickly falls in with an audacious and ambitious crowd of young people, who have learned how to sound American by watching shows like Seinfeld in order to get jobs as call-center service agents, where they are quickly able to out-earn their parents. And it is in this high-tech city where Anjali – suddenly free from the traditional confines of class, caste, gender, and more – is able to confront her past and reinvent herself. Of course, the seductive pull of modernity does not come without a dark side…

Второй роман Алексея А. Шепелёва, лидера группы «Общество Зрелища», исповедующей искусство «дебилизма» и «радикального радикализма», автора нашумевшего в молодёжной неформальской среде трэш-романа «Echo» (шорт-лист премии «Дебют»-2002).

«Maxximum Exxtremum» — «масимальный экстрим», совпадение противоположностей: любви и ненависти, высшего и низшего пилотажа экзистенциального бытия героев. Книга А. Шепелёва выделяется на фоне продукции издательства «Кислород», здесь нет привычного попсово-молодёжного понимания слова «экстрим». Если использовать метематические термины, две точки крайних значений — экстремума — точка минимума и точка максимума — должны совпасть.

«Почему никто из молодых не напишет сейчас новую версию самого трагического романа о любви — «Это я, Эдичка?» — вопрошал Илья Кормильцев. Очевидно, рукопись нового романа А. Шепелёва он так и не успел прочесть.

Отличительные черты текста автора: глубина художественного восприятия, психологизм, неповторимый юмор и едкая сатира, виртуозное владение языком (в том числе и русским матом, создание слов-неологизмов, собственный диалект маргинального микросоциума героев и т. д.), почти беспрецедентная и довольно удачная попытка порно-эротических сцен на малоприспособленном для этого «великом и могучем», социальная и онтологическая проблематика, богоискательство.

Liberté a 18 ans. Elle refuse ce que la plupart des femmes tolèrent: un amour imparfait, sans folie. Inapte aux compromis, Mademoiselle Liberté ne conçoit pas d'être raisonnable, de se contenter d'une petite part de bonheur. L'infini est sa mesure, l'absolu son oxygène. Animée par un goût prodigieux pour le plaisir, elle bondit vers ses appétits.

Horace, le proviseur de son lycée, sait lui aussi vivre la vie: ce furieux ne se repose que dans l'hyperbole. Marié à une épouse professionnelle, il rêve de foncer dans un destin superlatif.

Liberté décide de chercher avec la perfection: elle ne se contentera pas d'un brouillon de liaison, elle exigera la passion intégrale, portée à son comble, fignolée jusqu'au délire.

Ces deux forcenés tenteront un amour idéal. Ils désirent un chef d'œuvre sinon rien.

Malataverne... C'est la ferme de la mère Vintard, un coin tout au fond du vallon que le soleil ne réchauffe jamais. Avec ses ruines, on dit même que l'endroit porte malheur. Mais pour Christophe, Serge et Robert, trois garçons du village, ce nom résonne plutôt connue une sacrée aubaine: ils ont découvert où la vieille cache son magot et le lui dérober sera un jeu d'enfant. Pour les deux aînés, l'affaire est entendue, niais Robert, le plus jeune, a encore des doutes. Il n'a que quinze ans et, cette fois, il ne s'agit pas comme d'habitude de chaparder quelques fromages: c'est un crime qu'ils organisent. Et puis il a un mauvais pressentiment: rien de bon ne peut sortir de Malataverne...

She Sought Revenge But Discovered Desire.

On a quest to avenge her sister's death, Eleanor Watkins never expected to fall for the man following her through pleasure gardens and into ballrooms. But soon nothing can keep her from the arms of the sinfully attractive scoundrel, not even the dangerous secrets she keeps. Strong, compassionate, and utterly irresistible, James is all she desires. But can she trust him enough to let herself succumb to all the pleasures that midnight allows?

James Swindler has worked hard to atone for his unsavory past. He is now as at home in London's glittering salons as he is in the roughest streets. But when the inspector is tasked with keeping watch on a mysterious lady suspected of nefarious deeds, he is determined to use his skills at seduction to lure Eleanor into revealing her plans. Instead, he is the one seduced, turning away from everything he holds dear in order to protect her – no matter the cost to his heart.

La novela relata la relación de un escritor con su madre, mayor y enferma. Muy realista e impactante. Buena prosa. Además de profundizar en las relaciones paterno-filiales, el autor ofrece numerosos detalles costumbristas de la sociedad marroquí. Dentro de una obra tan cuidada, desentonan desagradablemente dos salidas de tono.

«Malaria» Андрея М. Мелехова — это во многом необычный приключенческий роман о прошлом, настоящем и будущем. Автор попытался взглянуть на сегодняшние события сквозь потускневшую от времени призму раннего христианства и реалий императорского Рима.

Главный герой романа — юный офицер-переводчик, закончивший первый курс Военного института. Честный и пока во многом наивный юноша. Волею судьбы восемнадцатилетний парень становится участником событий, призванных изменить судьбы мира на десятилетия вперёд. Как это ни странно, лишь в малярийном бреду ему открывается загадочная связь между прошлым и будущим. Болезненные видения о гладиаторских боях в Древнем Риме неожиданно оказываются реальностью, а ближайший помощник императора Нерона вдруг начинает говорить по-русски…

«Malaria» Андрея М. Мелехова — это во многом необычный приключенческий роман о прошлом, настоящем и будущем. Автор попытался взглянуть на сегодняшние события сквозь потускневшую от времени призму раннего христианства и реалий императорского Рима.

Главный герой романа — юный офицер-переводчик, закончивший первый курс Военного института. Честный и пока во многом наивный юноша. Волею судьбы восемнадцатилетний парень становится участником событий, призванных изменить судьбы мира на десятилетия вперёд. Как это ни странно, лишь в малярийном бреду ему открывается загадочная связь между прошлым и будущим. Болезненные видения о гладиаторских боях в Древнем Риме неожиданно оказываются реальностью, а ближайший помощник императора Нерона вдруг начинает говорить по-русски…

Dramatyczne okoliczności zmuszają kowala Jurę do porzucenia rodzinnego domu. Z zawiniątkiem na ramieniu wyrusza w świat w poszukiwaniu lepszego miejsca na ziemi. Zmęczony długą wędrówką zasypia i wtedy zostaje obrabowany przez grasującego w okolicy zbója Maramę. Kiedy oddaliwszy się na bezpieczną odległość Marama ogląda swój łup, jego zdumienie nie ma granic: z zawiniątka wpatruje się w niego dwoje zapłakanych dziecięcych oczu – jedno niebieskie, drugie brązowe… Ufny we własną siłę i spryt rzezimieszek nie może wiedzieć, że właśnie spotkał swoje przeznaczenie…

Szóste wydanie debiutu książkowego Andrzeja Stasiuka. Proza więzienna. Jeden z krytyków nazwał te opowiadania epifaniami spod celi.

W książce tej pojawiają się motywy obecne w jej następnych minipowieściach: wielokulturowe środowisko emigrantów w Paryżu, groteska, dygresje ezoteryczne, erotyka. Wątki autobiograficzne i zgoła reporterskie fragmenty łączą się swobodnie z rozważaniami o Marii Magdalenie i bogini miłości Astarte. Obecne tu anegdotyczność, luźna kompozycja, erudycyjne wprawki i komentarze są ironiczną grą z czytelnikiem.

Ágil y sutil pero profunda, brillante y divertida, Muerte entre poetas es un auténtico logro narrativo que encandilará a los lectores. Una historia deliciosa que hace un guiño a las viejas novelas de Agatha Christie y a las guerras literarias de Pío Baroja.

Lo que debía ser un encuentro ritual entre prestigiosos miembros de las letras nacionales se convierte en algo turbador al aparecer asesinado de una puñalada en el corazón uno de los poetas participantes. Nacho Arán, poeta y meteorólogo, llega al congreso poco después de que se haya producido el crimen, por lo que está libre de sospecha y podrá dedicarse a husmear entre el resto de los asistentes. Pronto descubrirá que casi todos ellos tienen algo contra el muerto, y se dará cuenta de que el refinamiento intelectual y la supuesta sofisticación de la cultura no sirven como vacuna contra el mal y las pasiones violentas, contra el odio y el deseo de venganza…

"Kiedy widzicie kobietę i mężczyznę w urzędzie stanu cywilnego, zastanówcie się, które z nich stanie się mordercą". Ta książka to przewrotna, zabawna i pełna zaskakujących zwrotów akcji opowieść o związku dwojga kochających się niegdyś ludzi. Co zostało między nimi po 15 latach małżeństwa? Schmittowi udała się nie lada sztuka: napisał dramat, który czyta się jak najbardziej wciągającą powieść.

Jeden z największych bestsellerów rynku brytyjskiego ostatnich lat, porównywany do Dziennika Bridget Jones, ale pisanego z męskiego punktu widzenia. Powieść pełna błyskotliwych dialogów, dowcipna, wzruszająca, pobudzająca do śmiechu, ale i do łez.

Narrator, Harry Silver, ma doskonałą pracę w telewizji, piękną, kochającą żonę i wspaniałego syna. Przeświadczony iż w dniu trzydziestych urodzin bezpowrotnie skończy się jego młodość, decyduje się na nierozważny krok – seks z koleżanką z pracy. I traci wszystko. Wyrzucony z pracy, opuszczony przez Ginę, która nie umie wybaczyć mu zdrady i jest zdecydowana realizować własne ambicje zawodowe, musi sam zająć się czteroletnim Patem. Stopniowo dojrzewa do roli ojca, odkrywając iż dopiero sprawdziwszy się w niej, staje się w pełni mężczyzną. Pomaga mu to naprawić stosunki z własnym tatą – bohaterem wojennym, człowiekiem twardym, prostolinijnym, przy tym wielkiego serca. W jego życiu pojawia się nowa miłość. Nieoczekiwanie Gina powraca – i pragnie odzyskać swojego syna…

Harry Silver returns to face life in the "blended family." A wonderful new novel about modern times, which can be read as a sequel to the million selling Man and Boy, or completely on its own. Man and Wife is a novel about love and marriage – about why we fall in love and why we marry; about why we stay and why we go. Harry Silver is a man coming to terms with a divorce and a new marriage. He has to juggle with time and relationships, with his wife and his ex-wife, his son and his stepdaughter, his own work and his wife's fast-growing career. Meanwhile his mother, who stood so steadfastly by his father until he died, is not getting any younger or stronger herself. In fact, everything in Harry's life seems complicated. And when he meets a woman in a million, it gets even more so… Man and Wife stands on its own as a brilliant novel about families in the new century, written with all the humour, passion and superb storytelling that have made Tony Parsons a favourite author in over thirty countries.

Marina sagte einmal zu mir, wir erinnerten uns nur an das, was nie geschehen sei. Es sollte eine Ewigkeit dauern, bis ich diese Worte begriff. Doch ich fange besser am Anfang an, und der ist in diesem Fall das Ende.

Im Mai 1980 verschwand ich eine Woche lang vom Erdboden. Sieben Tage und sieben Nächte wusste kein Mensch, wo ich mich befand. Freunde, Kameraden, Lehrer und selbst die Polizei stürzten sich in die Suche nach dem Flüchtigen, den einige schon für tot hielten, während andere dachten, er habe sich in einem Anfall von geistiger Umnachtung in übel beleumdeten Straßen verirrt.

Eine Woche später glaubte ein Zivilpolizist diesen Burschen zu erkennen – die Beschreibung passte. Der Verdächtige irrte im Francia-Bahnhof umher wie eine verlorene Seele in einer aus Eisen und Nebel geschmiedeten Kathedrale. Der Beamte trat mit Detektivmiene zu mir und fragte mich, ob ich Óscar Drai heiße und der spurlos aus seinem Internat verschwundene junge Mann sei. Ich nickte mit zusammengepressten Lippen. Ich erinnere mich noch an die Spiegelung des Bahnhofsgewölbes auf seinen Brillengläsern.

Wir setzten uns auf dem Bahnsteig auf eine Bank. Bedächtig steckte sich der Polizist eine Zigarette an und ließ sie glimmen, ohne sie an die Lippen zu führen. Er sagte, eine Menge Leute brenne darauf, mir viele Fragen zu stellen, für die ich mir besser gute Antworten ausdenke. Wieder nickte ich. Er schaute mir in die Augen und beobachtete mich.»Manchmal ist es keine gute Idee, die Wahrheit zu erzählen, Óscar«, sagte er. Er reichte mir einige Münzen und bat mich, meinen Tutor im Internat anzurufen. Das tat ich. Der Polizist wartete das Ende des Gesprächs ab, gab mir Geld für ein Taxi und wünschte mir Glück. Ich fragte ihn, woher er wisse, dass ich nicht abermals verschwinde. Er schaute mich lange an.»Es verschwinden nur Leute, die auch irgendwo hingehen können«, antwortete er bloß. Er begleitete mich auf die Straße hinaus, wo er sich verabschiedete, ohne mich zu fragen, wo ich gesteckt habe. Ich sah ihn auf dem Paseo de Colón davongehen. Der Qualm seiner noch nicht angerauchten Zigarette folgte ihm wie ein treues Hündchen.

An diesem Tag meißelte Gaudís Geist unmögliche Wolken auf ein Blau, das einen fast erblinden ließ. Mit einem Taxi fuhr ich zum Internat, wo mich vermutlich das Exekutionskommando erwartete.

Vier Wochen lang bearbeiteten mich Lehrer und Schulpsychologen, mein Geheimnis preiszugeben. Ich log und bot jedem das, was er hören wollte oder akzeptieren konnte. Mit der Zeit gaben alle vor, diese Episode vergessen zu haben. Ich folgte ihrem Beispiel. Nie erzählte ich jemandem die Wahrheit.

Damals wusste ich nicht, dass der Ozean der Zeit früher oder später die Erinnerungen anschwemmt, die wir in ihm versenkt haben. Fünfzehn Jahre später ist die Erinnerung an diesen Tag zu mir zurückgekehrt. Ich habe diesen jungen Burschen im Dunst des Francia-Bahnhofs umherirren sehen, und Marinas Name hat sich erneut wie eine frische Wunde entzündet.

Wir alle haben im Dachgeschoss der Seele ein Geheimnis unter Verschluss. Das hier ist das meine.

Destinul lui Bulgakov pare guvernat de acelaşi amestec de satiră, fantastic şi tragism care e amprenta operei sale. Născut la Kiev în 1891, în familia unui profesor de teologie, studiază medicina, pe care o practică vreme de patru ani (1916-l920), pe front şi în spitale de provincie. Devine dependent de morfină, dar, cu ajutorul primei sale soţii, reuşeşte să învingă răul. în 1920 abandonează medicina pentru a se dedica scrisului. Intră în lumea teatrului, iar piesa Zilele Turbinilor, dramatizarea romanului Garda Albă, are mare succes, fiind considerată un Pescăruş al noii generaţii de dramaturgi. Simpatia evidentă pentru ofiţerii Albi face ca piesa să fie interzisă, dar (paradoxal!) e, în acelaşi timp, piesa preferată a lui Stalin. Din 1929 nu i se mai publică nici o carte şi nu i se mai joacă nici o piesă. Trăind la limita supravieţuirii, Bulgakov se vede silit să-i trimită dictatorului o petiţie, apoi, într-o scrisoare adresată guvernului sovietic, să vorbească despre dezechilibrul psihic la care e expus un creator a cărui existenţă este ameninţată. Scrisoarea rămîne celebră atît ca model al disidenţei asumate, cît şi prin efectele ei neaşteptate. Trei săptămîni mai tîrziu primeşte un telefon bizar direct de la Stalin, în urma căruia, deşi Bulgakov crede că a fost victima unei farse, este reangajat la teatru. Scrierile lui rămîn însă nepublicate. în ultimul deceniu al vieţii scrie cu frenezie, temîndu-se că nu va termina romanul Maestrul şi Margareta. Ultimele corecturi le face în 1940, pe patul de moarte, orb, dictînd soţiei sale, Maria Sergheevna, care este, de altminteri, chiar modelul Margaretei.

Savo sandara romanas nevienalypis ir daugiaplanis, jame paraleliai vystomos 2 siužetinės linijos: pirmoji yra apie Šėtono apsilankymą trisdešimtųjų metų Maskvoje, o antrojoje aprašoma Jėzaus Kristaus nukryžiavimo istorija. Šie du siužetai kūrinyje yra išmoningai supinti viską atmiešiant šėtonišku grotesku, biblijine epika ir niūria sovietine satyra. O visoje šioje fantasmagorijoje subtiliai skleidžiasi keistoka, jokiam laikui ir jėgai nepavaldi Meistro ir Margaritos meilė.

Madame Bovary est un roman de Gustave Flaubert paru en 1857. Le titre original était Madame Bovary, mœurs de province. Au début, Flaubert ne voulait qu'on illustre son roman avec un portrait de femme pour laisser libre cours à l'imagination du lecteur.

Flaubert commence le roman en 1851 et y travaille pendant 5 ans, jusqu’en 1856. À partir d’octobre, le texte est publié dans la Revue de Paris sous la forme de feuilleton jusqu’au 15 décembre suivant. En février 1857, le gérant de la revue, Léon Laurent-Pichat, l’imprimeur et Gustave Flaubert sont jugés pour «outrage à la morale publique et religieuse et aux bonnes mœurs». Défendu par l’avocat Maître Jules Sénard, Gustave Flaubert sera finalement acquitté. Le roman connaîtra un important succès en librairie.

Honoré de Balzac avait déjà abordé le même sujet dans la Femme de trente ans en 1831 sous forme de nouvelle-roman qui parut en 1842 dans l’édition Furne de la Comédie humaine, sans toutefois faire scandale.

A young novelist's obsession with proving his manhood is transferred to his fiction and echoed in his tempestuous marriage.

El sueño americano se convierte en pesadilla.

En plena caza de brujas, durante la era McCarthy, Iron Rinn -cavador de zanjas primero, actor radiofónico más tarde- ve cómo tras participar en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, comprometido en la lucha por un mundo mejor, termina en la lista negra, desempleado y perseguido por el fanatismo ideológico.

En este camino tendrá un papel fundamental la exquisita actriz Eve Frame. El matrimonio de ambos se transformará: de idilio fascinante y perfecto pasará a ser un tremendo y cruel culebrón. Y cuando ella revele a la prensa las relaciones de Iron con la URSS, el apogeo de la traición y la venganza se materializarán en el escándalo nacional y la ruina personal. El hermano de Iron, Murray, será quien cuente esta historia años más tarde.

Philip Roth, el autor de Pastoral americana y La mancha humana, vuelve a explorar y a retratar con ironía, sinceridad y vehemencia los conflictos de la sociedad norteamericana del siglo XX.

Les contes de Le Clézio, qui semblent nés du rêve et du recueillement, nous parlent pourtant de notre époque.Venu d'ailleurs, Mondo le petit garçon qui passe, Lullaby la voyageuse, Jon, Juba le sage, Daniel Sindbad qui n'a jamais vu la mer, Alia, Petite Croix, et tant d'autres, nous sont délégués comme autant d'enfants-fées. Ils nous guident. Ils nous forcent à traverser les tristes opacités d'un univers où l'espoir se meurt. Ils nous fascinent par leur volonté tranquille, souveraine, accordée au silence des éléments retrouvés. Ils nous restituent la cadence limpide du souffle, clé de notre âme.

Powiesc rozgrywa sie podczas wojny w Afganistanie, a jej bohaterem jest rosyjski zolnierz. Choc brzmi to realistycznie, wielbiciele fantasy moga spac spokojnie.- W Zmii pojawi sie bardzo duzo magii - zapewnia Sapkowski.

AFGANISTAN - tutaj od wiekow scieraly sie krwawo armie kolejnych wladcow dazacych do wladzy nad swiatem. Tu walczyli i gineli najezdzcy z Macedonii, Wielkiej Brytanii i Rosji. A umierajacych obserwowaly z ukrycia zimne oczy z czarna, pionowa zrenica. Oczy zlotej zmii, ktora jest i ktorej nie ma.

ZMIJA to nowy swiat, to zupelnie nowa formula literacka, zadziwiajace polaczenie fantasy i realistycznej powiesci wojennej...

ZMIJA jest piekna i zlowroga...

AFGANISTAN, SIODMY ROK PANOWANIA Aleksandra Wielkiego. W zapomnianej przez bogow krainie gina najdzielniejsi synowie Macedonii.

ALEKSANDROS HO TRITOS HO MAKEDON

27 LIPCA 1880. W trakcie drugiej wojny angielsko-afganskiej, 66. pulk piechoty traci w bitwie pod Mainwandem 64 procent swego stanu.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

15 LUTEGO 1989.

Kres sowieckiej interwencji w Afganistanie. Zginelo ponad 13 tysiecy zolnierzy ZSRR.

DA ZDRAWSTWUJET SOWIETSKIJ SOJUZ!

ROK 2009.

Znowu tu sa. Nie szurawi i nie Amerykanie. To jacys inni, zeslani przez szatana niewierni

Oby wygubil ich Allah.

LA ILAHA ILL-ALLAH...

Microserfs is not about Microsoft--it's about programmers who are searching for lives. A hilarious but frighteningly real look at geek life in the '90's, Coupland's book manifests a peculiar sense of how technology affects the human race and how it will continue to affect all of us. Microserfs is the hilarious journal of Dan, an ex-Microsoft programmer who, with his coder comrades, is on a quest to find purpose in life. This isn't just fodder for techies. The thoughts and fears of the not-so-stereotypical characters are easy for any of us to relate to, and their witty conversations and quirky view of the world make this a surprisingly thought-provoking book.

" ... just think about the way high-tech cultures purposefully protract out the adolescence of their employees well into their late 20s, if not their early 30s," muses one programmer. "I mean, all those Nerf toys and free beverages! And the way tech firms won't even call work 'the office,' but instead, 'the campus.' It's sick and evil."

The eponymous heroine of Miss Wyoming is one Susan Colgate, a teen beauty queen and low-rent soap actress. Dragooned into show business by her demonically pushy, hillbilly mother, Susan has hit rock bottom by the time Douglas Coupland's seventh book begins. But when she finds herself the sole survivor of an airplane crash, this "low-grade onboard celebrity" takes the opportunity to start all over again:

She felt like a ghost. She tried to find her bodily remains there in the wreckage and was unable to do so.... Then she was lost in a crowd of local onlookers and trucks, parping sirens and ambulances. She picked her way out of the melee and found a newly paved suburban road that she followed away from the wreck into the folds of a housing development. She had survived, and now she needed sanctuary and silence.

She's not, of course, the only Hollywood burnout who'd like to vanish into thin air. Her opposite number, a producer of big-budget, no-brainer action flicks named John Johnson, stages a similar disappearing act. After a near-death experience, in the course of which he is treated to a vision of Susan's face, he roams the western badlands. And even after his return to L.A., Johnson is determined to unravel the mystery of this woman's fate.

Throughout, Coupland displays his usual gift for capturing the absurdities of modern existence. The distinctive minutiae of our age--junk mail and fast food, sitcoms and Singapore slings, and the "shop fronts bigger and brighter and more powerful than they needed to be"--come to vivid, funny life in this author's hands. And while Susan and John occupy center stage, Coupland is just as generous with his peripheral characters. A scriptwriter and his supernaturally intelligent girlfriend, a recluse who spends his evening generating Internet rumours--all manage to be blessed and cursed, numbed by their pointless existences but full of humanity when put to the test. Picture Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut collaborating on a Tinseltown version of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and you come halfway to grasping Coupland's brand of thoughtful, supremely funny storytelling.

Это первый роман Стогоffа после культового «Мачо не плачут». Первое, что он написал за последние три года. И это наилучший роман Cтoгoffa.

Илья Стогоff неутомим в поисках жанра, о чем свидетельствует и книга «mASIAfucker», написанная в форме романа-дороги. Здесь герой отправляется в путешествие и возвращается из него совсем другим человеком.

Это первый роман Стогоffа после культового «Мачо не плачут». Первое, что он написал за последние три года. И это наилучший роман Cтoгoffa. Если книга, которую вы держите в руках, кажется вам мокрой, значит, продавцы в магазине уже прочли ее и разрыдались над судьбой поколения, которого нет…

Antoine y Mathias no han perdido el contacto desde que se conocieron de niños. Ahora, ya treintañeros, siguen compartiendo muchas cosas, pues ambos han pasado por un divorcio y por la experiencia de ser padres: Antoine, de un niño llamado Louis, y Mathias, de una niña llamada Emily. Pero mientras que Antoine se fue a vivir con su hijo a Londres, Mathias sigue residiendo en su París natal, cada vez más insatisfecho con su trabajo y teniendo que soportar que su hija viva también en la capital inglesa. Por eso cuando Antoine le propone regentar una pequeña librería en Londres, él acaba aceptando la oferta. Sin embargo, sus planes se ven trastocados por la decisión de su ex mujer de trasladarse a París por motivos laborales y de pedirle que se haga cargo él de Emily, para que la niña no tenga que adaptarse de nuevo a un cambio de hogar y colegio. Esto dará pie a que Mathias y Antoine decidan pasar de ser vecinos a vivir en la misma casa para así criar juntos a sus hijos. Eso sí, comprometiéndose a respetar dos reglas básicas de convivencia: no contratar a una canguro y no traer mujeres a casa.

Джузеппе Д`Агата — известный итальянский писатель, автор многих романов, среди которых «Армия Сципиона», «Четверо повешенных на площади дель Пополо», «Возвращение тамплиеров»… Особым успехом у российских писателей пользуется его недавно опубликованный роман «Римский медальон». Герой нового романа Д`Агата «Memow, или Регистр смерти» — обычный бухгалтер. Этот человек мог быть блестящим ученым, но предпочел работу в Кредитном банке. Он всю жизнь занимался одним делом — составлял список Особых Должников, которые вскоре умирали. Однажды в этом списке оказался он сам. И тогда он попросил компьютер выдумать ему другую биографию…

Finalista Premio Planeta de Novela 1997

Siempre había pensado que si alguna vez me separaba de Ventura sólo me llevaría el cuadro de las espigas. Es lo único que tenía cuando me casé y lo único que quisiera llevarme cuando me descase. Mi corazón siempre ha bailado con las espigas de ese cuadro que adquirí al ganar mi primer sueldo. En realidad no es un cuadro, sino una copia de otra copia, pero en sus colores están contenidos todos los vaivenes emocionales que he sufrido en los veinte años de mi última existencia, el entusiasmo, los nervios, el amor innecesario, la ternura y, al fin, esa desazón que se ha apoderado de mí y me hace sentir como si tuviera el cuerpo burbujeando en alka-seltzer.` Así es Fidela, una mujer a la deriva en el ancho mar de los sentimientos, en un mundo y un ambiente en los que apenas hay lugar para ella. Sólo el tórrido romance que mantiene con un hombre casado consigue proyectarla más allá dé su desazón cotidiana y la invita a pasar revista a su azarosa vida. El resultado es un relato vibrante y arrollador en el que las relaciones afectivas de la vida familiar cobran vida propia y se convierten en puntos de referencia de nuestras propias vidas.

`…Mashenka fue mi primera novela. Comencé a trabajar en ella en Berlín, poco después de haber contraído matrimonio, en la primavera de 1925. La terminé a principios del año siguiente, y fue publicada por una editorial regida por emigrados rusos (Slovo, Berlín, 1926). Dos años después, aparecía una versión alemana que no he leído (Ullstein, Berlín, 1928). Con esta sola excepción, la novela no ha sido traducida a lo largo del impresionante período de cuarenta y cinco años.`

"Maszeńka", napisana na emigracji, uchodzi za najbardziej rosyjską powieść Nabokova. Specyficzny klimat książki, pełen niedopowiedzeń, dwuznaczności, mistyfikacji, fascynuje i urzeka czytelnika, który wraz z bohaterem utworu przeżywa jego duchowe rozterki. Ganinowi – bo tak nazywa się ów bohater – ojczyzna z perspektywy ubożuchnego berlińskiego pensjonatu dla rosyjskich emigrantów jawi się jako nostalgiczny sen, mit, niezatarte wspomnienie. Jednocześnie zaś przeżyta t a m, w Rosji, miłość młodzieńcza i romantyczna, jest dla niego droższa i realniejsza niż szara, nieprzyjazna teraźniejszość. I nagle okazuje się, że dziwnym zrządzeniem losu bliskie jest spotkanie z ukochaną. Ganin przeczuwa, że pojawienie się prawdziwej Maszeńki – nie tej z wyidealizowanych wspomnień młodości – unicestwi kruchą przeszłość…

In her charming debut novel, Simonson tells the tale of Maj. Ernest Pettigrew, an honor-bound Englishman and widower, and the very embodiment of duty and pride. As the novel opens, the major is mourning the loss of his younger brother, Bertie, and attempting to get his hands on Bertie's antique Churchill shotgun—part of a set that the boys' father split between them, but which Bertie's widow doesn't want to hand over. While the major is eager to reunite the pair for tradition's sake, his son, Roger, has plans to sell the heirloom set to a collector for a tidy sum. As he frets over the guns, the major's friendship with Jasmina Ali—the Pakistani widow of the local food shop owner—takes a turn unexpected by the major (but not by readers). The author's dense, descriptive prose wraps around the reader like a comforting cloak, eventually taking on true page-turner urgency as Simonson nudges the major and Jasmina further along and dangles possibilities about the fate of the major's beloved firearms. This is a vastly enjoyable traipse through the English countryside and the long-held traditions of the British aristocracy.

Amazon.com Review

"The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin." So begins Memories of My Melancholy Whores, and it becomes even more unlikely as the novel unfolds. This slim volume contains the story of the sad life of an unnamed, only slightly talented Colombian journalist and teacher, never married, never in love, living in the crumbling family manse. He calls Rosa Cabarcas, madame of the city's most successful brothel, to seek her assistance. Rosa tells him his wish is impossible-and then calls right back to say that she has found the perfect girl.

The protagonist says of himself: "I have never gone to bed with a woman I didn't pay… by the time I was fifty there were 514 women with whom I had been at least once… My public life, on the other hand, was lacking in interest: both parents dead, a bachelor without a future, a mediocre journalist… and a favorite of caricaturists because of my exemplary ugliness."

The girl is 14 and works all day in a factory attaching buttons in order to provide for her family. Rosa gives her a combination of bromide and valerian to drink to calm her nerves, and when the prospective lover arrives, she is sound asleep. Now the story really begins. The nonagenarian is not a sex-starved adventurer; he is a tender voyeur. Throughout his 90th year, he continues to meet the girl and watch her sleep. He says, "This was something new for me. I was ignorant of the arts of seduction and had always chosen my brides for a night at random, more for their price than their charms, and we had made love without love, half-dressed most of the time and always in the dark, so we could imagine ourselves as better than we were… That night I discovered the improbably pleasure of contemplating the body of a sleeping woman without the urgencies of desire or the obstacles of modesty."

Márquez's style never falters throughout this recounting of his life and his exploration of love, found at an unexpected time and place. The erstwhile lover is still capable of being surprised-and fulfilled. After an absence of ten years, it is a treat to have another parable from the master.

From Publishers Weekly

García Márquez's slim, reflective contribution to the romance of the brothel, his first book-length fiction in a decade, is narrated by perhaps the greatest connoisseur ever of girls for hire. After a lifetime spent in the arms of prostitutes (514 when he loses count at age 50), the unnamed journalist protagonist decides that his gift to himself on his 90th birthday will be a night with an adolescent virgin. But age, followed by the unexpected blossoming of love, disrupts his plans, and he finds himself wooing the allotted 14-year-old in silence for a year, sitting beside her as she sleeps and contemplating a life idly spent. Flashes of García Márquez's brilliant imagery-the sleeping girl is "drenched in phosphorescent perspiration"-illuminate the novella, and there are striking insights into the euphoria that is the flip side of the fear of death. The narrator's wit and charm, however, are not enough to counterbalance the monotony of his aimlessness. Though enough grace notes are struck to produce echoes of eloquence, this flatness keeps the memories as melancholy as the women themselves. 250,000 first printing.

Дон Делилло (р.1936) — американский писатель и драматург, лауреат ряда престижных премий. За роман "Мао II" (1991 г.) был удостоен премии "ПЕН\Фолкнер". Спустя десять лет, когда рухнули башни в Нью-Йорке, Делилло объявили пророком. Эта книга об эпохе, когда будущее принадлежит толпам, а шедевры создаются с помощью гексогена. Ее герой — легендарный американский писатель, много лет проживший отшельником, — оказывается ключевой фигурой в игре ближневосточных террористов.

У героя ретроградная амнезия и каждые десять минут он «перезагружается», начинает свою жизнь с чистого листа. Единственный выход не потерять себя — это оставлять себе всевозможные письменные послания. А как иначе не забыть, что у него еще есть цель в этой жизни и цель эта — месть.

Рассказ лег в основу сценария к фильму «Помни» (Memento), снятому в 2000 году Кристофером Ноланом.

'Parent saunters into the book aged fifteen, shouldering a.22 Mossberg rifle as earlier, more innocent American heroes used to tote a fishing pole. In his pocket is a paperback translation of Dante's 'Inferno'…He is a creature of naked and unquenchable ego, greedy for sex, money, experience, another life' — Jonathan Raban, 'Observer'.

Secondo voi "kibbutz" è un’espressione usata dalle contadine di Alberobello quando sentono bussare alla porta del trullo? "Venerea" si dice di donna bellissima e diafana? "Prostata" di persona sdraiata a terra, a faccia in giù, in atto di adorazione? "Kandinsky" è un dolce nazionale ungherese? E, passando al latino, Memento mori significa "il mio mento sembra quello di un negro"? Brevi manu "tenere le mani all’ altezza delle ascelle"? Deus ex machina "perdio, che macchina!"?

Allora avete bisogno di questo Prontuario comico della lingua italiana, un saggio tanto divertente quanto impietoso, scritto da una delle più grandi voci umoristiche della nostra storia. Villaggio ci fa ridere e riflettere sull’ italiano scritto e quello parlato, la neolingua degli SMS e dei computer, i congiuntivi degli accademici e il linguaggio degli intellettuali di sinistra.

Così l’ inventore di Fantozzi torna a fustigare, esaltare, fotografare l’ italiano medio. Inteso, stavolta, come lingua.

In sovraccoperta:

Paolo Villaggio ha scritto oltre trenta libri, gli ultimi dei quali sono Storia della libertà di pensiero (Feltrinelli, 2008), Sione di donne straordinarie (Mondadori, 2009) e Crociera lo cost (Mondadori, 2010). Ha vinto il Premio Città di Vigevano e due volte il Premio Flaiano.

Paul Theroux, one of the world’s most popular authors, both for his travel books and his fiction, has produced an off-beat story of 1960s weirdos unlike anything he has ever written.

During the time of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, Herbie Gneiss is forced to leave college to get a job. His income from the Kant-Brake toy factory, which manufactures military toys for children, keeps his chocolate-loving mother from starvation. Mr. Gibbon, a patriotic veteran of three wars, also works at Kant-Brake. When Herbie is drafted, Mr. Gibbon falls in love with Herbie’s mother and they move in together at Miss Ball’s rooming house. Since Herbie is fighting for his country, Mr. Gibbon feels that he, too, should do something for his country and convinces Miss Ball and Mrs. Gneiss to join him in the venture. They decide to rob the Mount Holly Trust Company because it is managed by a small dark man who is probably a communist. There are some complications. Combine Donald E. Westlake with Abby Hoffman, add a bit of Gore Vidal at his most vitriolic, and you will have Murder in Mount Holly.

A dark and bitingly humorous collection of short stories from the “brilliantly evocative” (Time) Paul Theroux A family watches in horror as their patriarch transforms into the singing, wise-cracking lead of an old-timey minstrel show. A renowned art collector relishes publicly destroying his most valuable pieces. Two boys stand by helplessly as their father stages an all-consuming war on the raccoons living in the woods around their house. A young artist devotes himself to a wealthy, malicious gossip, knowing that it’s just a matter of time before she turns on him.

In this new collection of short stories, acclaimed author Paul Theroux explores the tenuous leadership of the elite and the surprising revenge of the overlooked. He shows us humanity possessed, consumed by its own desire and compulsion, always with his carefully honed eye for detail and the subtle idiosyncrasies that bring his characters to life. Searing, dark, and sure to unsettle, Mr. Bones is a stunning new display of Paul Theroux’s “fluent, faintly sinister powers of vision and imagination” (John Updike, The New Yorker).

Harry is a Richard Nixon scholar who leads a quiet, regular life; his brother George is a high-flying TV producer, with a murderous temper. They have been uneasy rivals since childhood. Then one day George's loses control so extravagantly that he precipitates Harry into an entirely new life. In May We Be Forgiven, Homes gives us a darkly comic look at 21st-century domestic life — at individual lives spiraling out of control, bound together by family and history. The cast of characters experience adultery, accidents, divorce, and death. But it is also a savage and dizzyingly inventive satire on contemporary America, whose dark heart Homes penetrates like no other writer — the strange jargons of its language, its passive aggressive institutions, its inhabitants' desperate craving for intimacy and their pushing it away with litigation, technology, paranoia. At the novel's heart are the spaces in between, where the modern family comes together to re-form itself.

May We Be Forgiven explores contemporary orphans losing and finding themselves anew; and it speaks above all to the power of personal transformation — simultaneously terrifying and inspiring.

Winner of FC2’s American Book Review/Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize.

A monogrammed cube appears in your town. Your landlord cheats you out of first place in the annual Christmas decorating contest. You need to learn how to love and care for your mate — a paring knife. These situations and more reveal the wondrous play and surreal humor that make up the stories in Amelia Gray’s stunning collection of stories: Museum of the Weird.

Acerbic wit and luminous prose mark these shorts, while sickness and death lurk amidst the humor. Characters find their footing in these bizarre scenarios and manage to fall into redemption and rebirth. Museum of the Weird invites you into its hallways, then beguiles, bewitches, and reveals a writer who has discovered a manner of storytelling all her own.

For the narrator of Motion Sickness, life is an unguided tour, populated with hotels, art, strangers, books, and movies. Adrift in Europe in the late 1980s, she improvises a life and a self. In London, she’s befriended by an expatriate American Buddhist and her mysterious husband, who may be following her. In Paris, she discovers Arlette, an art historian obsessed with Velazquez's painting “Las Meninas.” In Barcelona, she is befriended by two generations of Germans, pre- and post-World War 2. She tours the hill towns of Italy, in a London taxi, with two surprising Englishmen, brothers in pursuit of art and Henry Moore. And everywhere she goes she collects postcards.

La klasika zamenhofa traduko kun disdivido en partojn kaj kun la diakritiloj en la neasimilitaj polaĵoj

Mira Corpora is the debut novel from acclaimed playwright Jeff Jackson. It's a coming-of-age story for people who hate coming-of-age stories. A journey across a shifting dreamlike landscape, featuring feral children, teenage oracles, mysterious cassette tapes, and a reclusive underground rockstar.

With astounding precision, Jackson weaves a moving tale of discovery and mad hope across a startling, vibrant landscape.

The inspired, insightful and intensely absorbing new novel from one of the most important literary writers working today.

Her boyfriend said she was quirky but it was more than that. Some things were important in life. You had to fight for them. Helen was prepared for that. Only she wasn't as strong as people thought. She tried to be but didn't always succeed. Nobody does, not all the time.

Trust, love, friendship; the lives of others, relationships; parents, children, lovers; and death, and the rich, and poor; safety, security; home and homelessness. The ordinary stuff of life but extraordinary too when you think about it. As Helen did, each waking hour, as day follows dawn, till that strangest of moments on the way home from work this tall, skinny down-at-heel guy crossed the road in front of her taxi. Brian? Her long-lost brother? How could it be? But it was his shape, his way of moving, his very presence. Could it be?

So begins this twenty-four hours in the life of this ordinary young woman, as ordinary, as unique, as each and every one of us.

Love and betrayal complicate a robbery gone wrong in this edgy true-crime novel based on a 1965 Argentine bank robbery. There's the drama of the botched raid itself, followed by a blowout afterparty, an attempted double-crossing of the corrupt local authorities, and a final shootout where, as a last act of rebellion, the robbers burn all the loot. This gritty tale has been adapted for a major motion picture by renowned Argentine director Marcelo Pinyero.

Two days before New Years, a pack of five friends — three men and two women — head to a remote cabin near Lake Tahoe to celebrate the holidays. They've been buddies forever, banded together by scrapes and squalor, their relationships defined by these wild times.

After a car accident leaves one friend sick and dying, and severe weather traps them at the cabin, there is nowhere to go, forcing them to finally and ultimately take stock and confront their past transgressions, considering what they mean to one another and to themselves.

With some of the most luminous and purple prose flexed in recent memory, D. Foy is an incendiary new voice and Made to Break, a grand, episodic debut, redolent of the stark conscience of Denis Johnson and the spellbinding vision of Roberto Bolaño.

Mermaids, kidnappers, and mercenaries hijack a tropical vacation in this genre-bending sendup of the American honeymoon.

On the grounds of a Caribbean island resort, newlyweds Deb and Chip — our opinionated, skeptical narrator and her cheerful jock husband who’s friendly to a fault — meet a marine biologist who says she’s sighted mermaids in a coral reef.

As the resort’s “parent company” swoops in to corner the market on mythological creatures, the couple joins forces with other adventurous souls, including an ex — Navy SEAL with a love of explosives and a hipster Tokyo VJ, to save said mermaids from the “Venture of Marvels,” which wants to turn their reef into a theme park.

Mermaids in Paradise is Lydia Millet’s funniest book yet, tempering the sharp satire of her early career with the empathy and subtlety of her more recent novels and short stories. This is an unforgettable, mesmerizing tale, darkly comic on the surface and illuminating in its depths.

This unusual epic from the Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz portrays five generations of one sprawling family against the upheavals of two centuries of modern Egyptian history.Set in Cairo, Morning and Evening Talk traces three related families from the arrival of Napoleon to the 1980s, through short character sketches arranged in alphabetical order. This highly experimental device produces a kind of biographical dictionary, whose individual entries come together to paint a vivid portrait of life in Cairo from a range of perspectives. The characters include representatives of every class and human type and as the intricate family saga unfolds, a powerful picture of a society in transition emerges. This is a tale of change and continuity, of the death of a traditional way of life and the road to independence and beyond, seen through the eyes of Egypt's citizens. Naguib Mahfouz's last chronicle of Cairo is both an elegy to a bygone era and a tribute to the Egyptian spirit.

"There are three things about this planet which are too wonderful for me. Make that four things. The way of dreams in the mind; the way of tears in the eye; the way of words in the mouth; and the way of my wife Edna Bradshaw when she acts like a cat and love-nibbles me into her arms." This is the voice of Desi, the hero of Robert Olen Butler's novel Mr. Spaceman, who has kept a quiet vigil above the Earth for decades while studying the confusing, fascinating, and frustrating primary species of our planet, occasionally venturing to the planet's surface to hear their thoughts and experience their memories using his empathic powers. Now, on December 31, 2000, he prepares for the final phase of his mysterious mission, which begins when he beams a tour bus bound for a Louisiana casino aboard his ship. The twelve passengers will be the last humans whose lives he will experience before he positions his spaceship in full and irrefutable view of the people of Earth, and descend to the planet's surface to proclaim his presence to all of humanity at the turn of the millennium. Poignant, funny, and charming, Mr. Spaceman is filled with unexpected twists and turns, a tribute to the powers of love and understanding and the essence of what it means to be human.

This novel is about a man pursued by his shadow. Its protagonist is either a desperate ex-con who has become convinced that he is an important American novelist or a desperate American novelist who has become convinced that he, and most of what passes for literary life on three continents, is a con.

A dazzling work of American history from the author of the “U.S.A. trilogy”.

Beginning with the assassination of McKinley and ending with the defeat of the League of Nations by the United States Senate, the twenty-year period covered by John Dos Passos in this lucid and fascinating narrative changed the whole destiny of America. This is the story of the war we won and the peace we lost, told with a clear historical perspective and a warm interest in the remarkable people who guided the United States through one of the most crucial periods.

Foremost in the cast of characters is Woodrow Wilson, the shy, brilliant, revered, and misunderstood “schoolmaster”, whose administration was a complex of apparent contradictions. Wilson had almost no interest in foreign affairs when he was first elected, yet later, in proposing the League of Nations, he was to play a major role in international politics. During his first summer in office, without any…

Considered by many to be John Dos Passos’s greatest work, Manhattan Transfer is an “expressionistic picture of New York” (New York Times) in the 1920s that reveals the lives of wealthy power brokers and struggling immigrants alike. From Fourteenth Street to the Bowery, Delmonico’s to the underbelly of the city waterfront, Dos Passos chronicles the lives of characters struggling to become a part of modernity before they are destroyed by it.

More than seventy-five years after its first publication, Manhattan Transfer still stands as “a novel of the very first importance” (Sinclair Lewis). It is a masterpeice of modern fiction and a lasting tribute to the dual-edged nature of the American dream.

Fiction. "It is curious that a reprint could be heroic. It is more curious that a book this good could go out of print so quickly. And it is most curious that an introduction would even be required for a novel that, if you examine it carefully in the right kind oflight, might actually be seen to be steaming. MOTORMAN is a central work, pulsing with mythology, created by a craftsman of language who was seemingly channeling the history of narrative when he wrote it. It is a book about the future that comes from the past, and we are caught in its amazing middle. To read MOTORMAN now is to encouter proof that a book can be both emotional and eccentric, smeared with humanity and artistically ambitious, messy with grief and dazzling with spectacle"-Ben Marcus, from his introduction.

My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist is a postmodernist/absurdist book composed of 17 loosely-related chapters with no general storyline. It is voiced in first-person by an anonymous narrator often using jargon, broken grammar and punctuation with a poetry-like structure. The narration shifts quickly from random idea to idea with little to no connectivity between them, typically giving vivid descriptions of abstract situations. The narrative styles in the book vary significantly as well, with no apparent solid identity to the narrator itself. Some characters and ideas emerge suddenly and disappear without explanation.

Within this form incorporate elements of science fiction, cyberpunk, tabloid journalism, and advertising slogans. Due to its use of pop-culture references (e.g. to kung-fu films) and literary allusions it requires knowledge of (then) current affairs. Leyner resorts to irony and humor as a means of interplay with traditional realism.

Winner of The 1963 National Book Award for Fiction.

The hero of J.F. Powers's comic masterpiece is Father Urban, a man of the cloth who is also a man of the world. Charming, with an expansive vision of the spiritual life and a high tolerance for moral ambiguity, Urban enjoys a national reputation as a speaker on the religious circuit and has big plans for the future. But then the provincial head of his dowdy religious order banishes him to a retreat house in the Minnesota hinterlands. Father Urban soon bounces back, carrying God's word with undaunted enthusiasm through the golf courses, fishing lodges, and backyard barbecues of his new turf. Yet even as he triumphs his tribulations mount, and in the end his greatest success proves a setback from which he cannot recover.

First published in 1962, Morte D'Urban has been praised by writers as various as Gore Vidal, William Gass, Mary Gordon, and Philip Roth. This beautifully observed, often hilarious tale of a most unlikely Knight of Faith is among the finest achievements of an author whose singular vision assures him a permanent place in American literature.

In Lahore, Daru Shezad is a junior banker with a hashish habit. When his old friend Ozi moves back to Pakistan, Daru wants to be happy for him. Ozi has everything: a beautiful wife and child, an expensive foreign education -- and a corrupt father who bankrolls his lavish lifestyle.

As jealousy sets in, Daru's life slowly unravels. He loses his job. Starts lacing his joints with heroin. Becomes involved with a criminally-minded rickshaw driver. And falls in love with Ozi's lonely wife.

But how low can Daru sink? Is he guilty of the crime he finds himself on trial for?

Mary is a new mother transformed by the birth of her baby; Walter, a lonely gay Episcopal priest, privately struggles with his contradictory desires; and John, a monk who has left his monastery after fifteen years, craves intimacy with a woman. With mesmerizing prose, Darcey Steinke weaves together the lives of these three characters in ways that explore the intersection of spirituality and sexuality and reveal how even our rawest, most confused impulses may contain elements of the divine.

Evan S. Connell achieved fame with his remarkable biography of General Armstrong Custer, SON OF MORNING STAR. But he was an accomplished artist long before that. His literary reputation rests in large measure on his two Bridge books.

MR. BRIDGE is the companion volume to Connell's MRS. BRIDGE. It is made up of fragments of experience from the life of a middle-aged suburban couple between two wars. Brief episodes are juxtaposed to reveal the stereotyped values and emotional and spiritual aridity of the prosperous and ever-so-proper Bridges.

"Connell's art is one of restraint and perfect mimicry. His chapters are admirably short, his style is brevity itself…rarely has a satirist damned his subject with such good humor." (The New York Times)

In Mrs. Bridge, Evan S. Connell, a consummate storyteller, artfully crafts a portrait using the finest of details in everyday events and confrontations. With a surgeon’s skill, Connell cuts away the middle-class security blanket of uniformity to expose the arrested development underneath — the entropy of time and relationships lead Mrs. Bridge's three children and husband to recede into a remote silence, and she herself drifts further into doubt and confusion. The raised evening newspaper becomes almost a fire screen to deflect any possible spark of conversation. The novel is comprised of vignettes, images, fragments of conversations, events — all building powerfully toward the completed group portrait of a family, closely knit on the surface but deeply divided by loneliness, boredom, misunderstandings, isolation, sexual longing, and terminal isolation. In this special fiftieth anniversary edition, we are reminded once again why Mrs. Bridge has been hailed by readers and critics alike as one of the greatest novels in American literature.

A refreshingly imaginative, daring debut collection of stories which illuminates with audacious wit the complexity of human behavior, as seen through the lens of the natural world.

Told with perfect rhythm and unyielding brutality, these stories expose unsuspecting men and women to the realities of nature, the primal instincts of man, and the dark humor and heartbreak of our struggle to not only thrive, but survive. In “Girl on Girl,” a high school freshman goes to disturbing lengths to help an old friend. An insatiable temptress pursues the one man she can’t have in “Meteorologist Dave Santana.” And in the title story, a long fraught friendship comes undone when three buddies get impossibly lost on a lake it is impossible to get lost on. In Diane Cook’s perilous worlds, the quotidian surface conceals an unexpected surreality that illuminates different facets of our curious, troubling, and bewildering behavior.

Other stories explore situations pulled directly from the wild, imposing on human lives the danger, tension, and precariousness of the natural world: a pack of not-needed boys take refuge in a murky forest and compete against each other for their next meal; an alpha male is pursued through city streets by murderous rivals and desirous women; helpless newborns are snatched by a man who stalks them from their suburban yards. Through these characters Cook asks: What is at the root of our most heartless, selfish impulses? Why are people drawn together in such messy, complicated, needful ways? When the unexpected intrudes upon the routine, what do we discover about ourselves?

As entertaining as it is dangerous, this accomplished collection explores the boundary between the wild and the civilized, where nature acts as a catalyst for human drama and lays bare our vulnerabilities, fears, and desires.

In Matt Sumell’s blazing first book, our hero Alby flails wildly against the world around him — he punches his sister (she deserved it), "unprotectos" broads (they deserved it and liked it), gets drunk and picks fights (all deserved), defends defenseless creatures both large and small, and spews insults at children, slow drivers, old ladies, and every single surviving member of his family. In each of these stories Alby distills the anguish, the terror, the humor, and the strange grace — or lack of — he experiences in the aftermath of his mother’s death. Swirling at the center of Alby’s rage is a grief so big, so profound, it might swallow him whole. As he drinks, screws, and jokes his way through his pain and heartache, Alby’s anger, his kindness, and his capacity for good bubble up when he (and we) least expect it.

Making Nice is a powerful, full-steam-ahead ride that will keep you laughing even as you try to catch your breath; a new classic about love, loss, and the fine line between grappling through grief and fighting for (and with) the only family you’ve got.

Jonathan Fitch was shocked by Mr. Rinyo-Clacton's offer a million pounds and one year to live, but what happened next was even more shocking. In a state of desperation after being left by beautiful Serafina, Jonathan does his best to pull up his socks with varying success. Beginning with the chance meeting of two strangers in Piccadilly Circus Underground Station, MR RINYO-CLACTON'S OFFER is full of the loving and carefully observed London detail that Russell Hoban and his readers so enjoy. Some love stories are about triangles, but what happens between Jonathan and Serafina and Katerina and Mr. Rinyo-Clacton is perhaps more of a trapezoid, in the pointy corners of which a long hard look is taken at what goes on between consenting, relenting, and dissenting adults. Sharp and witty but written with affection, MR RINYO-CLACTON'S OFFER reaches parts not reached by other Hoban novels.

Phil Ockerman falls for Bertha Strunk at a tango lesson in a church crypt in Clerkenwell. Each recently separated, both their Suns are squared by Neptune. Bertha also bears a strong resemblance to the 17th century Venetian singer and composer, Barbara Strozzi with whom Phil is obsessed.

An inexplicable message flashed onto the screen of his Apple II computer at 3am heralds the beginning of a startling quest for frustrated author Herman Orff. Taking up the offer of a cure for writer's block plunges him into a semi-dreamland inhabited by a bizarre combination of characters from myth and reality; the talking head of Orpheus, the young girl of Vermeer's famous portrait, and a frequency of Medusas.

“In Gallant’s stories, the conflicts, obsessions, and concerns — the near-impossibility of gaining personal freedom without inflicting harm on those whom you love and who love you; the difficulty of forgiving a cruel and selfish parent without sentimentalizing him; or the pain of failed renewal — are limned with an affectionate irony and generated by a sincere belief in their ultimate significance, significance not just for the characters who embody them, but for the author and, presumably, the reader as well.”

— Russell Banks, from his introduction

Mavis Gallant is the modern master of what Henry James called the international story, the fine-grained evocation of the quandaries of people who must make their way in the world without any place to call their own. The complexity of the very idea of home is alive in the stories Gallant has written about Montreal. Montreal Stories, Russell Banks’s new selection from Gallant’s work demonstrates anew the remarkable reach of this writer’s singular art. Among its contents are three previously unpublished stories, as well as the celebrated semi-autobiographical sequence about Linnet Muir — stories that are wise, funny, and full of insight into the perils and promise of growing up and breaking loose.

Warren Ziller moved his family to Southern California in search of a charmed life, and to all appearances, he found it: a gated community not far from the beach, amid the affluent splendor of the 1980s. But the Zillers’ American dream is about to be rudely interrupted. Warren has squandered their savings on a bad real estate investment, which he conceals from his wife, Camille, who misreads his secrecy as a sign of an affair. Their children, Dustin, Lyle, and Jonas, have grown as distant as satellites, too busy with their own betrayals and rebellions to notice their parents’ distress. When tragedy strikes, the Zillers are forced to move to Warren’s abandoned housing development in the desert. In this comically bleak new home, each must reckon with what’s led them there and who’s to blame — and whether they can summon the forgiveness needed to hold the family together.

With penetrating insights into modern life and an uncanny eye for everyday absurdities, Eric Puchner delivers a wildly funny, heartbreaking, and thoroughly original portrait of an American family.

An astute, lively, and heartfelt debut story collection by an exciting new voice in contemporary fiction.

Marine Park — in the far reaches of Brooklyn, train-less and tourist-free — finds its literary chronicler in Mark Chiusano. Chiusano’s dazzling stories delve into family, boyhood, sports, drugs, love, and all the weird quirks of growing up in a tight-knit community on the edge of the city. In the tradition of Junot Díaz’s Drown, Stuart Dybek’s The Coast of Chicago, and Russell Banks’s Trailerpark, this is a poignant and piercing collection — announcing the arrival of a distinct new voice in American fiction.

Over the course of a four-day yacht trip, an assortment of guests goes through the motions of socializing with their wealthy host while pursuing their own disparate goals. As the guests are separated into artists and non-artists, youth and widows, males and females, Mosquitoes explores gender and societal roles, sexual tension, and unrequited love as Faulkner delves into what it means to be an artist.

Faulkner’s second novel, Mosquitoes was first published in 1927, but did not receive any critical response until his literary reputation was well-established.

Written from the point of view of a ten-year-old boy who lives with his grandmother, Marcel is a striking debut novel describing the vivid history of a family in a Flemish village. The mysterious death of Marcel, the family favourite, has always haunted the young boy. With the help of his schoolteacher, he starts to discover the secrets of Marcel’s ‘black’ past. The story of his death on the Eastern Front for the sake of Flanders, and the shame this brought upon his family gradually become clear. Erwin Mortier unravels this shameful family past in an unusually sensitive and evocative manner.

Mightier than the Sword opens with an IRA bomb exploding during the MV Buckingham's maiden voyage across the Atlantic — but how many passengers lose their lives?

When Harry Clifton visits his publisher in New York, he learns that he has been elected as the new president of English PEN, and immediately launches a campaign for the release of a fellow author, Anatoly Babakov, who's imprisoned in Siberia. Babakov's crime? Writing a book called Uncle Joe, a devastating insight into what it was like to work for Stalin. So determined is Harry to see Babakov released and the book published, that he puts his own life in danger.

His wife Emma, chairman of Barrington Shipping, is facing the repercussions of the IRA attack on the Buckingham. Some board members feel she should resign, and Lady Virginia Fenwick will stop at nothing to cause Emma's downfall.

Sir Giles Barrington is now a minister of the Crown, and looks set for even higher office, until an official trip to Berlin does not end as a diplomatic success. Once again, Giles's political career is thrown off balance by none other than his old adversary, Major Alex Fisher, who once again stands against him at the election. But who wins this time?

In London, Harry and Emma's son, Sebastian, is quickly making a name for himself at Farthing's Bank in London, and has proposed to the beautiful young American, Samantha. But the despicable Adrian Sloane, a man interested only in his own advancement and the ruin of Sebastian, will stop at nothing to remove his rival.

Jeffrey Archer's compelling Clifton Chronicles continue in this, his most accomplished novel to date. With all the trademark twists and turns that have made him one of the world's most popular authors, the spellbinding story of the Clifton and the Barrington families continues.

From a prizewinning young writer, a brilliant and inventive story of love, lies, and inspiration.

Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding, and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, the celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently.

Mary challenges Mr. Fox to join her in stories of their own devising; and in different times and places, the two of them seek each other, find each other, thwart each other, and try to stay together, even when the roles they inhabit seem to forbid it. Their adventures twist the fairy tale into nine variations, exploding and teasing conventions of genre and romance, and each iteration explores the fears that come with accepting a lifelong bond. Meanwhile, Daphne becomes convinced that her husband is having an affair, and finds her way into Mary and Mr. Fox's game. And so Mr. Fox is offered a choice: Will it be a life with the girl of his dreams, or a life with an all-too-real woman who delights him more than he cares to admit?

The extraordinarily gifted Helen Oyeyemi has written a love story like no other. Mr. Fox is a magical book, endlessly inventive, as witty and charming as it is profound in its truths about how we learn to be with one another.

If Gabriel García Márquez had chosen to write about Pakistani immigrants in England, he might have produced a novel as beautiful and devastating as Maps for Lost Lovers. Jugnu and Chanda have disappeared. Like thousands of people all over Enland, they were lovers and living together out of wedlock. To Chanda’s family, however, the disgrace was unforgivable. Perhaps enough so as to warrant murder.As he explores the disappearance and its aftermath through the eyes of Jugnu’s worldly older brother, Shamas, and his devout wife, Kaukab, Nadeem Aslam creates a closely observed and affecting portrait of people whose traditions threaten to bury them alive. The result is a tour de force, intimate, affecting, tragic and suspenseful.

Stillwater College in Virginia, 1966. Freshman Peggy, an ingénue with literary pretensions, falls under the spell of Lee, a blue-blooded poet and professor, and they begin an ill-advised affair that results in an unplanned pregnancy and marriage. The couple are mismatched from the start — she’s a lesbian, he’s gay — but it takes a decade of emotional erosion before Peggy runs off with their three-year-old daughter, leaving their nine-year-old son behind.

Worried that Lee will have her committed for her erratic behavior, Peggy goes underground, adopting an African American persona for her and her daughter. They squat in a house in an African American settlement, eventually moving to a housing project where no one questions their true racial identities. As Peggy and Lee’s children grow up, they must contend with diverse emotional issues: Byrdie must deal with his father’s compulsive honesty; while Karen struggles with her mother’s lies — she knows neither her real age, nor that she is “white,” nor that she has any other family.

Years later, a minority scholarship lands Karen at the University of Virginia, where Byrdie is in his senior year. Eventually the long lost siblings will meet, setting off a series of misunderstandings and culminating in a comedic finale worthy of Shakespeare.

"My cleaner. She does my dirty work. She knows more about me than anyone else in the world. But does she, in fact, like me? Does her presence fill me with shame?"

Ugandan Mary Tendo worked for many years in the white middle-class Henman household in London, cleaning for Vanessa and looking after her only child, Justin. More than ten years after Mary has left, Justin — now twenty-two, handsome and gifted — is too depressed to get out of bed. To his mother's surprise, he asks for Mary. When Mary responds to Vanessa's cry for help and returns from Uganda to look after Justin, the balance of power in the house shifts dramatically. Both women's lives change irrevocably as tensions build towards a startling climax on a snowbound motorway.

Maggie Gee confronts racism and class conflict with humour and tenderness in this engrossing read.

Maggie Gee was chosen as one of Granta's original 'Best Young British Novelists'. She has published many novels to great acclaim, including The White Family, which was shortlisted for the 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction and for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2004; and The Flood, which was longlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize. She has also published My Cleaner, My Driver, The Ice People and My Animal Life with Telegram. Virginia Woolf in Manhattan is her latest novel.

Maggie was the first female Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, 2004–2008, and is now one of its Vice-Presidents. She lives in London.

"A wise and beautiful book about what it feels like to be alive-I really loved it."-Zadie Smith

"Maggie Gee's account of her life as a writer cuts to the bone as she relives triumphs, rejections, despair and renewal. It's a wonderful book, for its boldness and vigour, and for its piercing honesty."-Claire Tomalin

How do you become a writer, and why?

Maggie Gee's journey starts in a small family in post-war Britain, a long way from the literary world. At seventeen, Maggie goes, a lamb to the slaughter, to university. From the 1960s onwards she lives the defining events of her generation: the coming of the Pill and sexual freedom, tremors in the British layer-cake of class and race. In the 1980s, Maggie finally gets published, falls in love, marries, and has a daughter-but for the next three decades and beyond, she survives, and sometimes thrives, by writing. This frank, bold memoir dares to explore the big questions: success and failure, sex, death, and parenthood-our animal life.

Maggie Gee was chosen as one of Granta's original Best Young British Novelists. She has published many novels to great acclaim, including "The White Family," shortlisted for the Orange and IMPAC prizes; "My Cleaner"; "The Flood," longlisted for the Orange Prize; and "The Ice People." She was the first female chair of the Royal Society of Literature from 2004–2008 and is now one of its vice presidents.

When a girl falls into a deep and impenetrable sleep, the borders between her provincial French village and the peculiar, beguiling realm of her dreams begin to disappear: A fat woman sprouts delicate wings and takes flight; a failed photographer stumbles into the role of pornographer; a beautiful young wife grows to resemble her husband's viol. And in their midst travels Madeleine, the dreamer, who is trying to make sense of her own metamorphosis as she leaves home, joins a gypsy circus, and falls into an unexpected triangle of desire and love.

Ms. Beatrice Hempel, teacher of seventh grade, is new — new to teaching, new to the school, newly engaged, and newly bereft of her idiosyncratic father. Grappling awkwardly with her newness, she struggles to figure out what is expected of her in life and at work. Is it acceptable to introduce swear words into the English curriculum, enlist students to write their own report cards, or bring up personal experiences while teaching a sex-education class? Sarah Shun-lien Bynum finds characters at their most vulnerable, then explores those precarious moments in sharp, graceful prose. From this most innovative of young writers comes another journey down the rabbit hole to the wonderland of middle school, memory, daydreaming, and the extraordinary business of growing up.

A boozy ex-military captain trapped in a mysterious vessel searches for his runaway son, an aging superhero settles into academia, and a professional "dystopianist" receives a visit from a suicidal sheep. Men and Cartoons contains eleven fantastical, amusing, and moving stories written in a dizzying array of styles that shows the remarkable range and power of Lethem's vision. Sometimes firmly grounded in reality, and other times spinning off into utterly original imaginary worlds, this book brings together marvelous characters with incisive social commentary and thought provoking allegories.


 A visionary and creative collection that only Jonathan Lethem could have produced, the Vintage edition features two stories not published in the hardcover edition, "The Shape We're In" and "Interview with the Crab.

A collection of stories that describe painful kinds of education, the title story describing how an uninhibited woman educates a prim Scottish lecturer. Five other tales describe folk in Britain's lowest professional class between the late-1950s and 60s.

Best Translated Book Award Longlist

Reader’s Digest Great New Book

World Literature Today Holiday Gift Guide Recommendation

“Offer[s] surprise and revelation at every turn.” — Reader’s Digest

“Eduardo Halfon is a brilliant storyteller.” —DANIEL ALARCÓN, author of At Night We Walk in Circles

In Monastery, the nomadic narrator of Eduardo Halfon’s critically-acclaimed The Polish Boxer returns to travel from Guatemalan cities, villages, coffee plantations, and border towns to a private jazz concert in New York’s Harlem, a former German U-Boat base on the French Breton coast, and Israel, where he escapes from his sister’s Orthodox Jewish wedding into an erotic adventure with the enigmatic Tamara. His passing encounters are unforgettable; his relationships, problematic. At once a world citizen and a writer who mistrusts the power of language, he is pursued by history’s ghosts and unanswerable questions. He is a cartographer of identity on a compelling journey to an uncertain destination. As he draws and redraws his boundaries, he confronts us with the limitations of our own.

Eduardo Halfon was named one of the best young Latin American writers by the Hay Festival of Bogotá and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the prestigious José María de Pereda Prize for the Short Novel. The Polish Boxer, his first book to appear in English, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection and finalist for the International Latino Book Award. Halfon currently lives in Nebraska and frequently travels to Guatemala.

The exacting Miranda's search for a suitable companion brings her family into contact with a very different kind of household, raising a plenitude of questions about the ability to manage alone, the difficulties of living with strangers and some strange discoveries about intimates.

At the centre of this novel stands Harriet Haslam, the epitome of the maternal power figure,whose genuine but overpowering love dominates the novel and whose self-knowledge drives her into insanity. Even after her death Harriet continues to dominate.

Surrounding this central figure are a host of marvelously realised characters — Sir Geoffrey Haslam, Harriet's husband, an innocent self-deluder; Dominic Spong, a hypocrite whose platitudes do not quite conceal his powerful self-interest; Agatha Calkin whose benevolent maternalism nearly hides the greediest of drives towards power; Lady Hardistry, the most outrageously witty of all sophisticates; Camilla Christy, a loose woman, dazzling, charming, and corrupt. Unlike Harriet Haslam, who will not spare herself the truth, the others are happier with their lies and can never achieve Harriet's grandeur.

Tej powieści Bułhakow poświęcił 12 lat życia. Zaczął ją pisać w 1928 r. ale po dwóch latach spalił rękopisy, uznając, że nie ma przed nim — jako pisarzem — przyszłości w Związku Sowieckim. Powrócił do pisania w 1931 r. Kończył książkę w strachu przed aresztowaniem, bo napisana przez niego na 60. urodziny Stalina roku sztuka „Batumi” nie spodobała się jubilatowi. Gniew dyktatora sprawił, że pisarz się rozchorował i przestał wychodzić z domu. Jego ostatnie dni opisała żona Jelena. Jej zapiski, po raz pierwszy publikowane w Polsce, dodajemy do tego wydania „Mistrza i Małgorzaty”.

Powieść ukazała się niemal 30 lat po śmierci pisarza — w okrojonej przez cenzurę formie — i stała się sensacją. Pierwsze polskie wydanie zniknęło z księgarń w ciągu jednego dnia. W obecnej, pełnej edycji zaznaczono miejsca w których ingerowała władza.

„Mistrz i Małgorzata” należy do kanonu powieści XX wieku. Trudno sobie bez niej wyobrazić współczesną kulturę. Zaś fraza „rękopisy nie płoną” weszła do języka potocznego — dziś wiemy, że słowo potrafi być nieśmiertelne, a wybitna twórczość przetrwa największe kataklizmy.

Part Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, part Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Adam Silvera’s extraordinary debut confronts race, class, and sexuality during one charged near-future summer in the Bronx.

The Leteo Institute’s revolutionary memory-relief procedure seems too good to be true to Aaron Soto — miracle cure-alls don’t tend to pop up in the Bronx projects. Aaron could never forget how he’s grown up poor, how his friends aren’t there for him, or how his father committed suicide in their one bedroom apartment. Aaron has the support of his patient girlfriend, if not necessarily his distant brother and overworked mother, but it’s not enough.

Then Thomas shows up. He has a sweet movie-watching setup on his roof, and he doesn’t mind Aaron’s obsession with a popular fantasy series. There are nicknames, inside jokes. Most importantly, Thomas doesn’t mind talking about Aaron’s past. But Aaron’s newfound happiness…

Charged by lyrical prose and vivid evocations of a more-than-human world, Meteors in August proves itself a magnificent debut, a tale of despair and salvation in all their many forms.

Lizzie Macon is seven when her father drives a Native American named Red Elk out of their valley and comes home with blood on his clothes. The following year, her older sister, Nina, cuts her head from every family photograph and runs away with Red Elk’s son and their unborn child. Nina’s actions have consequences no one could have predicted: jittery reverberations of violence throughout the isolated northern Montana mill town of Willis. Sparks of racial prejudice and fundamentalist fever flare until one scorching August when three cataclysmic events change the town — and Lizzie’s family — forever.

Named one of the must-read books of the summer by The Chicago Tribune, O Magazine, BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and  The L Magazine

Rebecca Makkai’s first two novels, The Borrower and The Hundred-Year House, have established her as one of the freshest and most imaginative voices in fiction. Now, the award-winning writer, whose stories have appeared in four consecutive editions of The Best American Short Stories, returns with a highly anticipated collection bearing her signature mix of intelligence, wit, and heart.

A reality show producer manipulates two contestants into falling in love, even as her own relationship falls apart. Just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a young boy has a revelation about his father’s past when a renowned Romanian violinist plays a concert in their home. When the prized elephant of a traveling circus keels over dead, the small-town minister tasked with burying its remains comes to question his own faith. In an unnamed country, a composer records the folk songs of two women from a village on the brink of destruction.

These transporting, deeply moving stories — some inspired by her own family history — amply demonstrate Makkai’s extraordinary range as a storyteller, and confirm her as a master of the short story form.

Morgan Gower has an outsize hairy beard, an array of peculiar costumes and fantastic headwear, and a serious smoking habit. He likes to pretend to be other people — a jockey, a shipping magnate, a foreign art dealer — and he likes to do this more and more since his massive brood of daughters are all growing up, getting married and finding him embarrassing. Then comes his first dramatic encounter with Emily and Leon Meredith, and the start of an extraordinary obsession.

Archived in a folder on award-winning author Alejandro Zambra's desktop are 11 stories of liars and ghosts, armed bandits and young lovers. Intimate, mysterious, and uncanny, these stories reveal a mind that is as undeniably singular as it is universal. Together, they constitute the debut short-story collection from Zambra, whose first novel was heralded as a “bloodletting in Chilean literature.”

Whether chronicling the return of a mercurial godson or the disappearance of a trusted cousin, the worlds of these stories are so powerful and deep that the works might better be described as brief novels. My Documents is by turns hilarious and heart-stopping, tragic and tender, but most of all, it is unflinchingly human and essential evidence of a sublimely talented writer working at the height of his powers.

Eva Ibbotson’s magical novel; set in that most poignant of all times and places, Vienna before the First World War. Susanna’s dress shop stands in the delightful Madensky Square and is the very hub and heart of life. Susanna sympathizes with her neighbours, watches over Signi, the wretched, orphaned child prodigy, and with her infallible eye for dress, turns an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. Of all the colourful characters in Madensky Square, only her dear friend Alice has the slightest inkling that Susanna hides more than one secret. This hidden life full of passion and anguish gradually unfolds in a city of romance, music and gossip. ’Sunshine and shadows, laughter and tears… the grace and gaiety of a Viennese waltz’ Sunday Telegraph

In this collection of stories, Kureishi chronicles the loveless, the lost and the dispossessed. They represent the frustrated and intoxicating, the melancholic and sensitive, capable of great cruelty and willing to break constraints of an old life to make way for the new.

An American living in London receives a phone call from a German policewoman telling him the nearly inconceivable news that his sister, Miriam, has been found dead in her Berlin apartment — from starvation. Three weeks later the man, his father, and an American consular official named Trish find themselves in the bizarre surroundings of a fogbound Munich Airport, where Miriam's coffin is set to be loaded onto a commercial jet and returned to America.

Greg Baxter's bold, mesmeric novel tells the story of these three people over the course of three weeks, as they wait for Miriam's body to be released, grieve over her incomprehensible death, and try to possess a share of her suffering — and her yearning and grace.

MUNICH AIRPORT is a novel for our time, a work of richness, gravity, and dark humor. Following his acclaimed American debut, MUNICH AIRPORT marks the establishment of Greg Baxter as an important new voice in literature — one who has already drawn comparisons to masters such as Kafka, Camus, Bernhard, and Murakami.

From the publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux: a first novel, at once hilarious and tender, about the decades-long rivalry between two publishing lions, and the iconic, alluring writer who has obsessed them both.

Paul Dukach is heir apparent at Purcell & Stern, one of the last independent publishing houses in New York, whose shabby offices on Union Square belie the treasures on its list. Working with his boss, the flamboyant Homer Stern, Paul learns the ins and outs of the book trade — how to work an agent over lunch; how to swim with the literary sharks at the Frankfurt Book Fair; and, most important, how to nurse the fragile egos of the dazzling, volatile authors he adores.

But Paul's deepest admiration has always been reserved for one writer: poet Ida Perkins, whose audacious verse and notorious private life have shaped America's contemporary literary landscape, and whose longtime publisher — also her cousin and erstwhile lover — happens to be Homer’s biggest rival. And when Paul at last has the chance to meet Ida at her Venetian palazzo, she entrusts him with her greatest secret — one that will change all of their lives forever.

Studded with juicy details only a quintessential insider could know, written with both satiric verve and openhearted nostalgia, Muse is a brilliant, haunting book about the beguiling interplay between life and art, and the eternal romance of literature.

A modern masterpiece from one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship.

The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists, the unforgettable Elena and Lila.

Ferrante is the author of three previous works of critically acclaimed fiction: The Days of Abandonment, Troubling Love, and The Lost Daughter. With this novel, the first in a trilogy, she proves herself to be one of Italy’s great storytellers. She has given her readers a masterfully plotted page-turner, abundant and generous in its narrative details and characterizations, that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight her many fans and win new readers to her fiction.

Moore's Mythopoeia is a story in which sci-fi meets the Biblical genesis story, espionage is taken to absurd lengths, action/adventure melds with bodice-ripping love scenes, and one man's defiance illuminates a uniquely human need for sin.

From the author of the internationally acclaimed The Harmony Silk Factory comes an enthralling novel that evokes an exotic yet turbulent place and time—1960s Indonesia during President Sukarno’s drive to purge the country of its colonial past. A page-turning story, Map of the Invisible World follows the journeys of two brothers and an American woman who are indelibly marked by the past — and swept up in the tides of history.

Janes Bowles has for many years had an underground reputation as one of the truly original writers of the twentieth century. This collection of expertly crafted short fiction will fully acquaint all students and scholars with the author Tennessee Williams called "the most important writer of prose fiction in modern American letters."

It is 1830. Rutherford Calhoun, a newly treed slave and irrepressible rogue, is desperate to escape unscrupulous bill collectors and an impending marriage to a priggish schoolteacher. He jumps aboard the first boat leaving New Orleans, the Republic, a slave ship en route to collect members of a legendary African tribe, the Allmuseri. Thus begins a daring voyage of horror and self-discovery.

Peopled with vivid and unforgettable characters, nimble in its interplay of comedy and serious ideas, this dazzling modern classic is a perfect blend of the picaresque tale, historical romance, sea yarn, slave narrative, and philosophical novel.

The gentle dhobi who transforms into a killer, a prostitute who is more child than woman, the cocky, young coachman who falls in love at first sight, a father convinced that his son will die before his first birthday. Saadat Hasan Manto's stories are vivid, dangerous and troubling and they slice into the everyday world to reveal its sombre, dark heart. These stories were written from the mid 30s on, many under the shadow of Partition. No Indian writer since has quite managed to capture the underbelly of Indian life with as much sympathy and colour. In a new translation that for the first time captures the richness of Manto's prose and its combination of high emotion and taut narrative, this is a classic collection from the master of the Indian short story.

Gass’s new novel moves from World War II Europe to a small town in postwar Ohio. In a series of variations, Gass gives us a mosaic of a life — futile, comic, anarchic — arranged in an array of vocabularies, altered rhythms, forms and tones, and broken pieces with music as both theme and structure, set in the key of middle C.

It begins in Graz, Austria, 1938. Joseph Skizzen's father, pretending to be Jewish, leaves his country for England with his wife and two children to avoid any connection with the Nazis, who he foresees will soon take over his homeland. In London with his family for the duration of the war, he disappears under mysterious circumstances. The family is relocated to a small town in Ohio, where Joseph Skizzen grows up, becomes a decent amateur piano player, in part to cope with the abandonment of his father, and creates as well a fantasy self — a professor with a fantasy goal: to establish the Inhumanity Museum. . as Skizzen alternately feels wrongly accused (of what?) and is transported by his music. Skizzen is able to accept guilt for crimes against humanity and is protected by a secret self that remains sinless.

Middle C tells the story of this journey, an investigation into the nature of human identity and the ways in which each of us is several selves, and whether any one self is more genuine than another.

A moving and enigmatic novel which deals with the Holocaust and a man's search for his own identity. Magnus pieces together the complex puzzle of his life, which turns out to be closer to a painting by Edward Munch than the romantic tale of family heroism and self-sacrifice on which he was nurtured by the woman he believed was his mother.

Product Description Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick. What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane. Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that. What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time. About the Author Jojo Moyes is a novelist and a journalist. She worked at the Independent for ten years before leaving to write full time. Her previous novels have all been critically acclaimed and include The Ship of Brides, Foreign Fruit and most recently The Last Letter from Your Lover. She lives in Essex with her husband and their three children.

Jojo Moyes was born in 1969 and brought up in London. A journalist and writer, she worked for The Independent newspaper until 2001. She lives in East Anglia with her husband and three children. She is the author of nine novels, two of which, The Last Letter From Your Lover (2010) and Foreign Fruit (2003), have won the RNA Novel of the Year award.

Product Description Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick. What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane. Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that. What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time. About the Author Jojo Moyes is a novelist and a journalist. She worked at the Independent for ten years before leaving to write full time. Her previous novels have all been critically acclaimed and include The Ship of Brides, Foreign Fruit and most recently The Last Letter from Your Lover. She lives in Essex with her husband and their three children.

Jojo Moyes was born in 1969 and brought up in London. A journalist and writer, she worked for The Independent newspaper until 2001. She lives in East Anglia with her husband and three children. She is the author of nine novels, two of which, The Last Letter From Your Lover (2010) and Foreign Fruit (2003), have won the RNA Novel of the Year award.

The prevalent trend of classifying Manto’s work into a) stories of Partition and b) stories of prostitutes forcibly enlists the writer to perform a dramatic dressing-down of society. But neither Partition nor prostitution gave birth to the genius of Saadat Hasan Manto. They only furnished him with an occasion to reveal the truth of the human condition.

My Name Is Radha is a path-breaking selection of stories which delves deep into Manto’s creative world. In this singular collection, the focus rests on Manto the writer. It does not draft him into being Manto the commentator. Muhammad Umar Memon’s inspired choice of Manto’s best-known stories, along with those less talked about, and his precise and elegant translation showcase an astonishing writer being true to his calling.

A wry, affecting tale set in a small town on the Indonesian coast, Man Tiger tells the story of two interlinked and tormented families and of Margio, a young man ordinary in all particulars except that he conceals within himself a supernatural female white tiger. The inequities and betrayals of family life coalesce around and torment this magical being. An explosive act of violence follows, and its mysterious cause is unraveled as events progress toward a heartbreaking revelation.

Lyrical and bawdy, experimental and political, this extraordinary novel announces the arrival of a powerful new voice on the global literary stage.

My Fellow Skin is a beautiful, affectionate novel told from the point of view of an impressionable young boy. The novel opens before the boy can talk, and we follow Anton’s first, tentative steps on the path to adulthood. He gradually begins to grasp an understanding of time and death, and when he goes to school he falls in love for the first time — not with the schoolgirls his peers are interested in, but with his classmate, Willem. A gentle, protective relationship develops between them, and this gives Anton his own, new identity, his ‘fellow skin’. But their love ends tragically, and Anton ultimately loses not only his love, but also his youth, the protection of his parents, and the old house in the village. He is left desolate.

Willie Bledsoe, once an idealistic young black activist, is now a burnt-out case. After leaving a snug berth at Tuskegee Institute to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he has become bitterly disillusioned with the civil rights movement and its leaders. He returns home to Alabama to try to write a memoir about his time in the cultural whirlwind, but the words fail to come.

The surprise return of his Vietnam veteran brother in the spring of 1967 gives Willie a chance to drive a load of smuggled guns to the Motor City — and make enough money to jump-start his stalled dream of writing his movement memoir. There, at Tiger Stadium on Opening Day of the 1968 baseball season — postponed two days in deference to the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr. — Willie learns some terrifying news: the Detroit police are still investigating the last unsolved murder from the bloody, apocalyptic riot of the previous summer, and a white cop named Frank Doyle will not rest until the case is solved. And Willie is his prime suspect.

1871. Cattle-dealer Solomon Meijer has made a reputation for himself as one of the few honest Jews in Endingen, a rare Swiss town in which Jews are allowed to reside. He leads a largely untroubled life, rewarded by his work and comforted at home by his wife and two daughters. But all of this is set to end when he answers a knock at the door in the middle of the night. On the doorstep stands his young distant cousin, Janki, half-dead and begging for refuge. The pitiful figure is invited in and given a coveted place in the bosom of the family, but when Janki recovers and regains his ambition and his fine-looks, he will change the Meijer family's lives for generations to come. In the tradition of the great family romances of the 19th century, Melnitz is the saga of the Swiss-Jewish Meijer family, spanning five generations from the Franco-Prussian War to World War II. It is a novel of fate, fortune and great falls; a homage to the sunken world of Yiddish culture and a celebration of the enduring spirit of biting Jewish humor.

Andrew Durbin’s Mature Themes is a hybrid text of poetry, art criticism, and memoir focused on the subject of disingenuity — and what constitutes "personal experience" both online and IRL when to "go deep" in a culture of so many unreliable communication technologies is to resend a text at 3 AM.

Throughout the book, Durbin’s voice mutates into others in order to uncover the fading specters of meaning buried under the pristine surfaces of art and Hollywood, locating below them the other realities that structure our experience of both.

From this renowned philosopher comes a debut work of fiction, at once a brilliant précis of the history of philosophy, a semiautobiographical meditation on the absurd relationship between knowledge and memory, and a very funny story.

A French philosopher dies during a savage summer heat wave. Boxes carrying his unpublished papers mysteriously appear in Simon Critchley’s office. Rooting through them, Critchley discovers a brilliant text on the ancient art of memory and a cache of astrological charts predicting the deaths of various philosophers. Among them is a chart for Critchley himself, laying out in great detail the course of his life and eventual demise. While waiting for his friend’s prediction to come through, Critchley receives the missing, final box, which contains a maquette of Giulio Camillo’s sixteenth-century Venetian memory theater, a space supposed to contain the sum of all knowledge. With nothing left to hope for, Critchley devotes himself to one final project before his death — the building of a structure to house his collective memories and document the remnants of his entire life.

Martin John is not keen on P words. He isolates P words from the newspapers into long lists. For you, so you know he's kept busy, so you don't have to worry he might be beside you or following you or thinking about your body parts. So you don't have to worry about what else he has been thinking about.

From Anakana Schofield, the brilliant and unconventional author of Malarky, comes a dark, humorous and uncomfortable novel circuiting through the minds, motivations, and preoccupations of a character many women have experienced, but few up until now, have understood quite so well. The result confirms Schofield as one of the bravest and most innovative authors at work in English today.

Winner of the Amazon.ca First Novel Award 2012.

Nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.

Nominated for the Debut-Litzer Fiction Prize.

An Amazon.ca Best Book of 2012 Editors' Pick.

A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick for Summer 2012.

A Chatelaine Magazine Top Five Books of 2012.

A Georgia Straight Best Book of the Year 2012.

An iTunes Canada Best of 2012 Fiction Pick..

A New Statesman Read-All-About-It Selection for 2012.

A Salon What to Read 2012 Pick.

A National Post Pick for Best Books of 2012.

Mail on Sunday Novel of the Week.

Our Woman refuses to be sunk by what life is about to serve her. She’s just caught her son Jimmy in the barn with another man. She’s been accosted by Red the Twit, who claims to have done the unmentionable with her husband. And now her son’s gone and joined the only group that will have him: an army division on its way to Afghanistan.

Set during the fall-out of the Cultural Revolution, these bizarre and delicate stories capture the collision of the old China of vanished dynasties, with communism and today's tiger economy.

The mad woman on the bridge wears a historical gown which she refuses to take off. In the height of summer she stands madly on the bridge. Until a young female doctor, bewitched by the beauty of the mad woman's dress, plots to take it from her, with tragic consequences.

A new book by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout is cause for celebration. Her bestselling novels, including Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys, have illuminated our most tender relationships. Now, in My Name Is Lucy Barton, this extraordinary writer shows how a simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the most tender relationship of all — the one between mother and daughter.

Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable.

Never before published in English, the stories in Mr. Kafka and Other Tales from the Time of the Cult were written mostly in the 1950s and present the Czech master Bohumil Hrabal at the height of his powers. The stories capture a time when Czech Stalinists were turning society upside down, inflicting their social and political experiments on mostly unwilling subjects. These stories are set variously in the gas-lit streets of post-war Prague; on the raucous and dangerous factory floor of the famous Poldi steelworks where Hrabal himself once worked; in a cacophonous open-air dance hall where classical and popular music come to blows; at the basement studio where a crazed artist attempts to fashion a national icon; on the scaffolding around a decommissioned church. Hrabal captures men and women trapped in an eerily beautiful nightmare, longing for a world where “humor and metaphysical escape can reign supreme.”

Love, sex, death, family, friendship, betrayal, tenderness, sacrifice and revelation…

This incendiary collection of stories from acclaimed bestselling international writer Christos Tsiolkas takes you deep into worlds both strange and familiar, and characters that will never let you go.

'…there is not a more important writer working in Australia today.' AB&P

'Tsiolkas has become that rarest kind of writer in Australia, a serious literary writer who is also unputdownable, a mesmerising master of how to tell a story. He has this ability more than any other writer in the country….' Peter Craven, The Sun Herald

'The sheer energy of Tsiolkas' writing — its urgency and passion and sudden jags of tenderness — is often an end in itself: a thrilling, galvanising reminder of the capacity of fiction to speak to the world it inhabits.' James Bradley, The Monthly

Basharat and his family are Indian Muslims who have relocated to Pakistan, but who remain deeply steeped in the nostalgia of pre-Partition life in India. Through Mirages of the Mind’s absurd anecdotes and unforgettable biographical sketches — which hide the deeper unease and sorrow of the family’s journey from Kanpur to Karachi — Basharet emerges as a wise fool, and the host of this unique sketch comedy. From humorous scenes in colonial north India, to the heartbreak and homesickness of post-colonial life in Pakistan, Mirages of the Mind forms an authentic portrait of life among South Asia’s Urdu speakers, rendered beautifully into English by Matt Reeck and Aftab Ahmad.

Part novel and part memoir, Yoel Hoffmann’s Moods is flooded with feelings, evoked by his family, losses, loves, the soul’s hidden powers, old phone books, and life in the Galilee — with its every scent, breeze, notable dog, and odd neighbor. Carrying these shards is a general tenderness, accentuated by a new dimension brought along by “that great big pill of Prozac.” Beautifully translated by Peter Cole, Moods is fiction for lovers of poetry and poetry for lovers of fiction — a small marvel of a book, and with its pockets of joy, a curiously cheerful book by an author who once compared himself to “a praying mantis inclined to melancholy.”

This first novel in Nuruddin Farah's Blood in the Sun trilogy tells the story of Askar, a man coming of age in the turmoil of modern Africa. With his father a victim of the bloody Ethiopian civil war and his mother dying the day of his birth, Askar is taken in and raised by a woman named Misra amid the scandal, gossip, and ritual of a small African village. As an adolescent, Askar goes to live in Somalia's capital, where he strives to find himself just as Somalia struggles for national identity.

Welcome to Lomaverde — a new Spanish utopia for those seeking their place in the sun. Now a ghost town where feral cats outnumber the handful of anxious residents. A place of empty pools, long afternoons and unrelenting sunshine.

Here, widowed Midlands bus driver Dermot Lynch turns up one bright morning. He's come to visit his son Eammon and his girlfriend, Laura. Except Eammon never opened Dermot's letter announcing his trip. Just like he can't quite get out of bed, or fix anything, or admit Laura has left him.

Though neither father nor son knows quite what to make of the other, Lomaverde's Brits — Roger and Cheryl, Becca and Iain — see in Dermot a shot of fresh blood. Someone to enliven their goat-hunting trips, their paranoid speculations, the endless barbecuing and bickering.

As Dermot and Eammon gradually reveal to one another the truth about why each left home, both get drawn further into the bizarre rituals of ex-pat life, where they uncover a shocking secret at the community's heart.

Mr Lynch's Holiday is about how families fracture and heal themselves and explores how living 'abroad' can feel less like a holiday and more like a life sentence.

My First Wife is the intense, powerful account of a marriage — and its ruinous collapse.

It is the story of Alexander Herzog, a young writer, who goes to Vienna to escape his debts and a failed love affair. There he is pursued by book-loving Ganna: giddy, girlish, clumsy, eccentric and wild. Dazzled and unnerved by her devotion to him, and attracted to the large dowry offered by her wealthy father, he thinks he can mould Ganna into what he wants. But no-one can control her troubling passions. As their marriage starts to self-destruct, Herzog will discover that Ganna has resources and determination of which he had no idea — and that he can never escape her.

Posthumously published in 1934 and based on the author Jakob Wassermann's own ruinous marriage, My First Wife bears the unmistakable aura of true and bitter experience. It is a tragic masterpiece that unfolds in shocking detail.

A new collection of short fiction from the acclaimed novelist, short story writer, and regular New Yorker contributor-"a supremely perceptive writer of formidable skill and intelligence" (New York Times Book Review)

"Hadley is a writer of exceptional intelligence and skill and. . a subtly subversive talent. . [Only Alice Munro and Colm Toibin] are so adept at portraying whole lives in a few thousand words. With Married Love, Hadley joins their company as one of the most clear-sighted chroniclers of contemporary emotional journeys." — Edmund Gordon, The Guardian

A girl haunts the edges of her parents' party; a film director drops dead, leaving his film unfinished and releasing his wife to a new life; an eighteen-year-old insists on marrying her music professor, then finds herself shut out from his secrets; three friends who were intimate as teenagers meet up again after the death of the women who brought them together. Ranging widely across generations and classes, and evoking a world that expands beyond the pages, these are the stories of Tessa Hadley's astonishing new collection.

On full display are the qualities for which Tessa Hadley has long been praised: her unflinching examination of family relationships; her humor, warmth and psychological acuity; her powerful, precise and emotionally dense prose. In this collection there are domestic dramas, generational sagas, wrenching love affairs and epiphanies-captured and distilled to remarkable effect. Married Love is a collection to treasure, a masterful new work from one of today's most accomplished storytellers.

Elegant, demonic, obsessive, John Lanchester's The Debt to Pleasure won the Whitbread Award for first novel, was short-listed for many others, and was translated into a dizzying number of foreign languages. Its narrator, Tarquin Winot, displays an encyclopedic knowledge of food and haute cuisine, and must surely be one of the first fictional "foodie-killers." The author's second novel, Mr Phillips, is in a very different key. The eponymous protagonist, a 50-year-old London accountant, has lost his job but hasn't told his family. He leaves for work as usual on Monday morning, and finds himself wandering aimlessly around the city, taking it all in. So the odyssey begins.

A statistician and inveterate quantifier, Mr Phillips likes to give marks out of ten for things (including sexual dreams), a habit that has especially humorous consequences when he visits the Tate Gallery. A Gaudier-Brzeska head: seven out of ten; The Boyhood of Raleigh: five. His thoughts on Millais's Ophelia are typical: "If she had drowned surely she wouldn't be floating on her back like that? Certainly that wasn't how drowned people looked on TV. Six out of ten." Mr Phillips's judgments may lack sophistication, but they are often hilariously apt, and above all true to his personality. He has a penchant for mental arithmetic, and speculates about how many women in England pose nude for magazines and tabloids (16,744, he deduces). He isn't exactly sex-obsessed, but he illustrates dramatically the notion that men think about sex a great deal of the time.

His thoughts also meander in many directions: How many people on a London bus have never been on the river Thames? What would the financial accounts of the Battersea Park authorities look like? Standing on Chelsea Bridge, he calculates the speed at which a suicide would hit the water. Is this litany of seemingly trivial arithmetical puzzles a response to the trauma of unemployment, or is it a heightened version of the mind games we all privately play? Mr Phillips is extremely observant and insightful-he should have given up accountancy long ago. He is good on old age and especially good on death: "But the thought that you would be aware of what was going on as you died implied that somewhere in his future was a moment of the purest terror, terror at 200 proof, so that you could have a small taste of the fear every time you let your mind touch on the subject, even for a second or two."

Reviewers have already been talking about literary influences-Woolf, Joyce, Wells-but John Lanchester's mesmerizing second novel has a cumulative power and brilliance all its own. -Jonathan Allison

The triumphant, long-awaited return of a writer of remarkable gifts: in this collection of richly imagined stories — her first new work in twenty years — the master of short fiction delivers a diverse suite of stories about men and women confronting their vulnerabilities in times of transition and challenge.

Beginning in the 1980s, Elizabeth Tallent’s work, appeared in some of our most prestigious literary publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and Harper’s. Marked by its quiet power and emotional nuance, her fiction garnered widespread praise.

Now, at long last, Tallent returns with a new collection of diverse, thematically linked, and deeply powerful stories that confirm her enduring gift for capturing relationships at their moment of transformation: marriages breaking apart, people haunted by memories of old love and reaching haltingly toward new futures. Mendocino Fire explore moments of fracture and fragmentation; it limns the wilderness of our inner psyche and brilliantly evokes the electric tension of deep emotion. In these pages, Tallent explores expectations met and thwarted, and our never-ending quest to avoid being alone.

With this breathtaking collection, Elizabeth Tallent cements her rightful place in the literary pantheon beside her contemporaries Lorrie Moore, Ann Beattie, and Louise Erdrich. Visceral and surprising, profound yet elemental, Mendocino Fire is a welcome visit with a wise and familiar friend.

Mightier than the Sword opens with an IRA bomb exploding during the MV Buckingham's maiden voyage across the Atlantic — but how many passengers lose their lives?

When Harry Clifton visits his publisher in New York, he learns that he has been elected as the new president of English PEN, and immediately launches a campaign for the release of a fellow author, Anatoly Babakov, who's imprisoned in Siberia. Babakov's crime? Writing a book called Uncle Joe, a devastating insight into what it was like to work for Stalin. So determined is Harry to see Babakov released and the book published, that he puts his own life in danger.

His wife Emma, chairman of Barrington Shipping, is facing the repercussions of the IRA attack on the Buckingham. Some board members feel she should resign, and Lady Virginia Fenwick will stop at nothing to cause Emma's downfall.

Sir Giles Barrington is now a minister of the Crown, and looks set for even higher office, until an official trip to Berlin does not end as a diplomatic success. Once again, Giles's political career is thrown off balance by none other than his old adversary, Major Alex Fisher, who once again stands against him at the election. But who wins this time?

In London, Harry and Emma's son, Sebastian, is quickly making a name for himself at Farthing's Bank in London, and has proposed to the beautiful young American, Samantha. But the despicable Adrian Sloane, a man interested only in his own advancement and the ruin of Sebastian, will stop at nothing to remove his rival.

Jeffrey Archer's compelling Clifton Chronicles continue in this, his most accomplished novel to date. With all the trademark twists and turns that have made him one of the world's most popular authors, the spellbinding story of the Clifton and the Barrington families continues.

At the start of this dazzlingly inventive novel from Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Abbas, a world-famous photographer and estranged father to a young novelist — also named Jonas Hassen Khemiri — is standing on a luxurious rooftop terrace in New York City. He is surrounded by rock stars, intellectuals, and political luminaries gathered to toast his fiftieth birthday. And yet how did Abbas, a dirt-poor Tunisian orphan and Swedish émigré, come to enjoy such success?

Jonas is fresh off the publication of his first novel when answers to this question come in the form of an unexpected e-mail from Kadir, a lifelong friend of Abbas and an effervescent storyteller with delightfully anarchic linguistic idiosyncrasies. The portrait Kadir paints of Abbas — from a voluntarily mute boy who suffers constant night terrors, to a soulful young charmer, to a Swedish immigrant and political exile — proves to be vastly different from Jonas’s view of his father. As the two jagged versions reconcile in Kadir and Jonas’s impassioned correspondence, we’re given a portrayal of a man that is at once tender and feverishly imagined.

With an arresting blend of humor and wit, Montecore marks the stateside arrival of an already acclaimed international novelist. Winner of the PO Enquist Literary Prize for accomplished European novelists under forty, Jonas Hassen Khemiri has created a world that is as heartbreaking as it is exhilarating.

It is March 30th 1924.

It is Mothering Sunday.

How will Jane Fairchild, orphan and housemaid, occupy her time when she has no mother to visit? How, shaped by the events of this never to be forgotten day, will her future unfold?

Beginning with an intimate assignation and opening to embrace decades, Mothering Sundayhas at its heart both the story of a life and the life that stories can magically contain. Constantly surprising, joyously sensual and deeply moving, it is Graham Swift at his thrilling best.

Margaret the First dramatizes the life of Margaret Cavendish, the shy, gifted, and wildly unconventional 17th-century Duchess. The eccentric Margaret wrote and published volumes of poems, philosophy, feminist plays, and utopian science fiction at a time when “being a writer” was not an option open to women. As one of the Queen’s attendants and the daughter of prominent Royalists, she was exiled to France when King Charles I was overthrown. As the English Civil War raged on, Margaret met and married William Cavendish, who encouraged her writing and her desire for a career. After the War, her work earned her both fame and infamy in England: at the dawn of daily newspapers, she was “Mad Madge,” an original tabloid celebrity. Yet Margaret was also the first woman to be invited to the Royal Society of London — a mainstay of the Scientific Revolution — and the last for another two hundred years.

Margaret the First is very much a contemporary novel set in the past, rather than “historical fiction.” Written with lucid precision and sharp cuts through narrative time, it is a gorgeous and wholly new narrative approach to imagining the life of a historical woman.

One of the last artistic expressions of life under communism, this novel captures the atmosphere in Prague between 1983 and 1987, where a dance could be broken up by the secret police, a traffic offense could lead to surveillance, and where contraband books were the currency of the underworld.

Deuxième grand roman de Louis-Ferdinand Céline,Mort à crédit, publié en 1936, raconte l'enfance du Bardamu de Voyage au bout de la nuit, paru quatre ans auparavant. Après un prologue situant son présent, médecin dans les années trente, le héros narrateur, Ferdinand, se rappelle ses jeunes années, dans un milieu petit bourgeois, vers 1900. Il est fils unique, élevé dans un passage parisien entre une grand-mère éducatrice fine et intuitive, une mère sacrificielle propriétaire d'un petit magasin de dentelles et objets de curiosité et un père violent et acariâtre, employé dans une compagnie d'assurances. Il grandit maladroitement, sans cesse victime des reproches amers de ses parents, multiplie les apprentissages et les échecs sentimentaux et professionnels, séjourne dans un collège anglais avant de voir son destin basculer avec la rencontre d'un inventeur loufoque, Léonard de Vinci de la fumisterie scientifique, pour vivre des aventures toujours tragi-comiques…

Texte des origines, marqué par le sceau de l'image maternelle,Mort à crédit est un parcours initiatique, tout en violence et en émotion, où les souvenirs s'accompagnent des misères et des révoltes de l'enfance. C'est aussi une formidable évocation de Paris au tournant du siècle, drôle et riche de cocasseries irrésistibles, dans un style propre à Céline, fait d'exclamation, cassant la syntaxe traditionnelle, transposant le parler populaire dru et vert dans le langage écrit.-Céline Darner

Quatrième de couverture

Un roman foisonnant où Céline raconte son enfance et sa jeunesse : « C'est sur ce quai-là, au 18, que mes bons parents firent de bien tristes affaires pendant l'hiver 92, ça nous remet loin.C'était un magasin de „Modes, fleurs et plumes“. Y avait en tout comme modèles que trois chapeaux, dans une seule vitrine, on me l'a souvent raconté. La Seine a gelé cette année-là. Je suis né en mai. C'est moi le printemps. »

The American debut of one of Granta's Best Young Spanish-Language Novelists: a daring, deeply affecting novel about the secrets buried in the past of an Argentine family-a story of fathers and sons, corruption and responsibility, memory and history, with a mystery at its heart.

A young writer, living abroad, returns home to his native Argentina to say good-bye to his dying father. In his parents' house, he finds a cache of documents-articles, maps, photographs-and unwittingly begins to unearth his father's obsession with the disappearance of a local man. Suddenly he comes face-to-face with the ghosts of Argentina's dark political past and with the long-hidden memories of his family's underground resistance against an oppressive military regime. As the fragments of the narrator's investigation fall into place-revealing not only a part of his father's life he had tried to forget but also the legacy of an entire generation- My Fathers' Ghost Is Climbing in the Rain tells a completely original story of family and remembrance. It is an audacious accomplishment by an internationally acclaimed voice poised to garner equal acclaim in America.

The narrator of Montano’s Malady is a writer named Jose who is so obsessed with literature that he finds it impossible to distinguish between real life and fictional reality. Part picaresque novel, part intimate diary, part memoir and philosophical musings, Enrique Vila-Matas has created a labyrinth in which writers as various as Cervantes, Sterne, Kafka, Musil, Bolano, Coetzee, and Sebald cross endlessly surprising paths. Trying to piece together his life of loss and pain, Jose leads the reader on an unsettling journey from European cities such as Nantes, Barcelona, Lisbon, Prague and Budapest to the Azores and the Chilean port of Valparaiso. Exquisitely witty and erudite, it confirms the opinion of Bernardo Axtaga that Vila-Matas is "the most important living Spanish writer."

In his most profound and accomplished book to date, acclaimed author Bruce Wagner breaks from Hollywood culture with a novel of exceptional literary dimension and searing emotional depth. Joan Herlihy is a semi-successful architect grasping at the illustrious commission that will catapult her to international renown, glossy de cor magazines, and the luxe condo designs of Meier, Koolhaas, and Hadid: the incestuous cult of contemporary Starchitects. Unexpectedly, she finds her Venice Beach firm on the short list for a coveted private memorial — a Napa billionaire's vanity tribute to relatives killed in the Christmas tsunami — with life-changing consequences. Her brother Chester clings to a failing career as a location scout before suffering an accidental injury resulting from an outrageous prank; the tragicomic repercussions lead him through a maze of addiction, delusion, paranoia — and ultimately, transcendence.

Virtually abandoned by her family, the indomitable Marjorie Herlihy — mother, widow, and dreamer — falls prey to a confidence scheme dizzying in its sadism and complexity. And unbeknownst to Marj and her children, the father who disappeared decades ago is alive and well nearby, recently in the local news for reasons that will prove to be both his redemption and his undoing. Spiraling toward catastrophe, separate lives collide as family members make a valiant attempt to reunite and create an enduring legacy. To rewrite a ruined American dream.

Deeply compassionate and violently irreverent, "Memorial" is a testament to faith and forgiveness, and a luminous tribute to spirituality in the twenty-first century. With an unflagging eye on a society ruptured by naturaland unnatural disaster, and an insatiable love for humanity, Wagner delivers a masterpiece.

These stories are linked by humor, setting, themes and recurring characters — cat lovers, murderers, gamblers, ghosts and fools — but mostly by the movie stars, gods and goddesses who look down on us struggling mortals with a mixture of benevolence and wrath. From Scarlett Johansson to Joan Crawford, Clint Eastwood to Jerry Lewis, they represent the impossible ideals to which lesser beings turn for hope in an otherwise baffling world.

The unnamed narrator of this slim, alluring novel recalls a summer spent at age sixteen on an idyllic Italian island off the coast of Naples in the 1950s, where he spends his days with Nicola, a local fisherman. The narrator falls in love with Caia, who shares with him that she’s Jewish, saved by Italian soldiers from the Nazis, who killed the rest of her Yugoslav family. The boy demands answers about the war from the adults around him, but is rebuffed by everyone but Nicola, who tells him of Italy’s complicity with the Nazis. His passion for Caia and his ardent patriotism lead him to a flamboyant, cataclysmic act of destruction that brings his tale to an end.

In Middle Men, Stegner Fellow and New Yorker contributor Jim Gavin delivers a hilarious and panoramic vision of California, portraying a group of men, from young dreamers to old vets, as they make valiant forays into middle-class respectability. In "Play the Man" a high-school basketball player aspires to a college scholarship, in "Elephant Doors", a production assistant on a game show moonlights as a stand-up comedian, and in the collection’s last story, the immensely moving “Costello”, a middle-aged plumbing supplies salesman comes to terms with the death of his wife. The men in Gavin’s stories all find themselves stuck somewhere in the middle, caught half way between their dreams and the often crushing reality of their lives. A work of profound humanity that pairs moments of high comedy with searing truths about life’s missed opportunities, Middle Men brings to life a series of unforgettable characters learning what it means to love and work and be in the world as a man, and it offers our first look at a gifted writer who has just begun teaching us the tools of his trade.

Sixty years after the publication of his great modernist masterpiece, Call It Sleep, Henry Roth, a retired waterfowl farmer already in his late eighties, shocked the literary world with the announcement that he had written a second novel. It was called, he reported, Mercy of a Rude Stream, the title inspired by Shakespeare, and it followed the travails of one Ira Stigman, whose family had just moved to New York’s Jewish Harlem in that "ominous summer of 1914."

"It is like hearing that…J. D. Salinger is preparing a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye," the New York Times Book Review pronounced, while Vanity Fair extolled Roth's new work as "the literary comeback of the century." Even more astonishing was that Roth had not just written a second novel but a total of four chronologically linked works, all part of Mercy of a Rude Stream. Dying in 1995 at the age of eighty-nine, Roth would not live to see the final two volumes of this tetralogy published, yet the reappearance of Mercy of a Rude Stream, a fulfillment of Roth's wish that these installments appear as one complete volume, allows for a twenty-first-century public to reappraise this late-in-life masterpiece, just as Call it Sleep was rediscovered by a new generation in 1964.

As the story unfolds, we follow the turbulent odyssey of Ira, along with his extended Jewish family, friends, and lovers, from the outbreak of World War I through his fateful decision to move into the Greenwich Village apartment of his muse and older lover, the seductive but ultimately tragic NYU professor Edith Welles. Set in both the fractured world of Jewish Harlem and the bohemian maelstrom of the Village, Mercy of a Rude Stream echoes Nabokov in its portrayal of sexual deviance, and offers a harrowing and relentless family drama amid a grand panorama of New York City in the 1910s and Roaring 20s.

Yet in spite of a plot that is fraught with depictions of menace, violence, and intense self-loathing, Mercy of a Rude Stream also contains a cathartic, even redemptive, overlay as "provocative as anything in the chapters of St. Augustine" (Los Angeles Times), in which an elder Ira, haunted by the sins of his youth, communes with his computer, Ecclesias, as he recalls how his family's traditional piety became corrupted by the inexorable forces of modernity. As Ira finally decides to get "the hell out of Harlem," his Proustian act of recollection frees him from the ravages of old age, and suddenly he is in his prime again, the entire telling of Mercy his final pronouncement.

Mercy of a Rude Stream is that rare work of fiction that creates, through its style and narration, a new form of art. Indeed, the two juxtaposed voices — one of the "little boys swimming in a sea of glory," the other of one of those same boys "in old age being rudely swept to sea" — creates a counterpoint, jarring yet oddly harmonious, that makes this prophetic American work such an lasting statement on the frailties of memory and the essence of human consciousness.

Mercy of a Rude Stream: The Complete Novels includes A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park, A Diving Rock on the Hudson, From Bondage, and Requiem for Harlem.

On the eve of his thirty-fifth birthday, the unnamed black narrator of Man Gone Down finds himself broke, estranged from his white wife and three children, and living in the bedroom of a friend’s six-year-old child. He has four days to come up with the money to keep the kids in school and make a down payment on an apartment for them in which to live. As we slip between his childhood in inner city Boston and present-day New York City, we learn of a life marked by abuse, abandonment, raging alcoholism, and the best and worst intentions of a supposedly integrated America. This is a story of the American Dream gone awry, about what it’s like to feel preprogrammed to fail in life and the urge to escape that sentence.

Breytenbach composed this docu-dream during a period of incarceration. Mouroir (mourir: to die + miroir: mirror) is a ship of thought moving with its own hallucinatory logic through a sea of mythic images, protean characters and what the author describes as “landscapes and spaces beyond death, spaces that have always existed and will always exist.” An Orphic voyage into memory and mirage, through passages between death and life, darkness and light, oppression and flight, sense and the sensed. Mouroir.

An outspoken human rights activist, Breyten Breytenbach is a poet, novelist, memoirist, essayist, and visual artist. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited around the world. Born in South Africa, he immigrated to Paris in the late ’60s and became deeply involved in the anti-Apartheid movement. Breytenbach is the author of All One Horse, A Season in Paradise, The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist, Dog Heart, and The Memory of Birds in Times of Revolution, among many others. He received the Alan Paton Award for Return to Paradise in 1994 and the prestigious Hertzog Prize for Poetry for Papierblom in 1999 and for Die Windvanger (Windcatcher) in 2008.

Alberto Manguel praises the Hungarian writer László Földényi as “one of the most brilliant essayists of our time.” Földényi’s extraordinary Melancholy, with its profusion of literary, ecclesiastical, artistic, and historical insights, gives proof to such praise. His book, part history of the term melancholy and part analysis of the melancholic disposition, explores many centuries to explore melancholy’s ambiguities. Along the way Földényi discovers the unrecognized role melancholy may play as a source of energy and creativity in a well-examined life.

Földényi begins with a tour of the history of the word melancholy, from ancient Greece to the medieval era, the Renaissance, and modern times. He finds the meaning of melancholy has always been ambiguous, even paradoxical. In our own times it may be regarded either as a psychic illness or a mood familiar to everyone. The author analyzes the complexities of melancholy and concludes that its dual nature reflects the inherent tension of birth and mortality. To understand the melancholic disposition is to find entry to some of the deepest questions one’s life.

This distinguished translation brings Földényi’s work directly to English-language readers for the first time.

From the New York Times‒bestselling author of The Vacationers, a smart, highly entertaining novel about a tight-knit group of friends from college — their own kids now going to college — and what it means to finally grow up well after adulthood has set in.

Friends and former college bandmates Elizabeth and Andrew and Zoe have watched one another marry, buy real estate, and start businesses and families, all while trying to hold on to the identities of their youth. But nothing ages them like having to suddenly pass the torch (of sexuality, independence, and the ineffable alchemy of cool) to their own offspring.

Back in the band's heyday, Elizabeth put on a snarl over her Midwestern smile, Andrew let his unwashed hair grow past his chin, and Zoe was the lesbian all the straight women wanted to sleep with. Now nearing fifty, they all live within shouting distance in the same neighborhood deep in gentrified Brooklyn, and the trappings of the adult world seem to have arrived with ease. But the summer that their children reach maturity (and start sleeping together), the fabric of the adults' lives suddenly begins to unravel, and the secrets and revelations that are finally let loose — about themselves, and about the famous fourth band member who soared and fell without them — can never be reclaimed.

Straub packs wisdom and insight and humor together in a satisfying book about neighbors and nosiness, ambition and pleasure, the excitement of youth, the shock of middle age, and the fact that our passions — be they food, or friendship, or music — never go away, they just evolve and grow along with us.

"[Written] with consummate mastery. . A gem of delight. . Bose stokes the embers of the story alive till the last page."

— Indian Express

A modern-day Bengali Decameron, My Kind of Girl is a sensitive and vibrant novella containing four disarming accounts of unrequited love. In a railway station one bleak December night, four strangers from different walks of life — a contractor, a government bureaucrat, a writer, and a doctor — face an overnight delay. The sight of a young loving couple prompts them to reflect on and share with each other their own experiences of the vagaries of the human heart in a story cycle that is in turn melancholy, playful, wise and heart-wrenching. The tales reveal each traveler's inner landscape and provide an illuminating

Buddhadeva Bose (1908–74), one of the most celebrated Bengali writers of the twentieth century, was a central figure in the Bengali modernist movement. Bose wrote numerous novels, short story collections, plays, essays, and volumes of poetry. He was also the acclaimed translator of Baudelaire, Hölderin, and Rilke into Bengali. Bose was awarded the prestigious Padma Bhushan in 1970.

Selected for the inaugural Fence Modern Prize in Prose by Rivka Galchen.

Salem, Massachusetts, 1851: McGlue is in the hold, still too drunk to be sure of name or situation or orientation — he may have killed a man. That man may have been his best friend. Intolerable memory accompanies sobriety. A-sail on the high seas of literary tradition, Ottessa Moshfegh gives us a nasty heartless blackguard on a knife-sharp voyage through the fogs of recollection.

They said I've done something wrong?. . And they've just left me down here to starve. They'll see this inanition and be so damned they'll fall to my feet and pass up hot cross buns slathered in fresh butter and beg I forgive them. All of them. .: the entire world one by one. Like a good priest I'll pat their heads and nod. I'll dunk my skull into a barrel of gin.

Ottessa Moshfegh was awarded the 2013 Plimpton Discovery Prize for her stories in the Paris Review and a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is currently a Wallace Stegner fellow at Stanford, and lives in Oakland, California.

«…– Кот пришел, – раздалось неподалеку.

– А кто тебя просил приходить? – машинально ответил Иван Матвеевич.

– Никто. Я сам пришел.

За спиной Ивана Матвеевича произошло какое-то движение. Он оглянулся. На жесткой скамье сидел белоснежный кот. Массивная голова на длинной шее, тело сильное и худое, хвост же – полосато-серый, будто с чужого плеча. Иван Матвеевич пригляделся. Сомнений не было – кот был настоящий и звуки он издавал вполне человеческие…»

“Multiple Choice is unlike anything I’ve ever encountered before. Reading this book is a wonderfully disconcerting and unforgettable experience.” —Francisco Goldman, author of Say Her Name

“There is no writer like Alejandro Zambra, no one as bold, as subtle, as funny. Multiple Choice is his most accomplished work yet. This book is not to be missed.” —Daniel Alarcón, author of At Night We Walk In Circles

A masterful, pioneering new work of fiction by “Latin America’s new literary star” (The New Yorker)

The works of Alejandro Zambra, “the most talked-about writer to come out of Chile since Bolaño” (New York Times Book Review), are distinguished by their striking originality, their brevity, their strangeness, and their flouting of narrative convention. Now, at the height of his powers, Zambra returns with a book that is the natural extension of these qualities: Multiple Choice.

Written in the form of a standardized test, Multiple Choice invites the reader to complete virtuoso language exercises and engage with short narrative passages via multiple-choice questions that are thought-provoking, usually unanswerable, and often absurd. It offers a new kind of reading experience, one where the reader participates directly in the creation of meaning. Full of humor, melancholy, and anger, Multiple Choice is about love and family; privacy and the limits of closeness; how a society is affected by the legacies of the past; and the conviction that, rather than learning to think, we are trained to obey and repeat. Serious in its literary ambition but playful in its execution, Multiple Choice confirms Alejandro Zambra as one of the most important writers working in any language.

A beautiful debut set around the creation of the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium — and the last days of John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row.

In 1940, fifteen year-old Margot Fiske arrives on the shores of Monterey Bay with her eccentric entrepreneur father. Margot has been her father’s apprentice all over the world, until an accident in Monterey’s tide pools drives them apart and plunges her head-first into the mayhem of John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row.

Steinbeck is hiding out from his burgeoning fame at the raucous lab of Ed Ricketts, the biologist known as Doc in Cannery Row. Ricketts, a charismatic bohemian, quickly becomes the object of Margot’s fascination. Despite Steinbeck’s protests and her father’s misgivings, she wrangles a job as Ricketts’s sketch artist and begins drawing the strange and wonderful sea creatures he pulls from the waters of the bay. Unbeknownst to Margot, her father is also working with Ricketts. He is soliciting the biologist’s advice on his most ambitious and controversial project to date: the transformation of the Row’s largest cannery into an aquarium. When Margot begins an affair with Ricketts, she sets in motion a chain of events that will affect not just the two of them, but the future of Monterey as well.

Astonishing prose brings to life a forgotten woman and a lost world in a strange and bittersweet Southern pastoral.

Since his award-winning debut collection of stories, Last Days of the Dog- Men, Brad Watson has been expanding the literary traditions of the South, in work as melancholy, witty, strange, and lovely as any in America. Inspired by the true story of his own great-aunt, he explores the life of Miss Jane Chisolm, born in rural, early-twentieth-century Mississippi with a genital birth defect that would stand in the way of the central “uses” for a woman in that time and place — namely, sex and marriage.

From the country doctor who adopts Jane to the hard tactile labor of farm life, from the highly erotic world of nature around her to the boy who loved but was forced to leave her, the world of Miss Jane Chisolm is anything but barren. Free to satisfy only herself, she mesmerizes those around her, exerting an unearthly fascination that lives beyond her still.

For fans of The Language of Flowers, a sparkling, big-hearted, page-turning debut set in the 1970s about a young black boy’s quest to reunite with his beloved white half-brother after they are separated in foster care.

Leon loves chocolate bars, Saturday morning cartoons, and his beautiful, golden-haired baby brother. When Jake is born, Leon pokes his head in the crib and says, “I’m your brother. Big brother. My. Name. Is. Leon. I am eight and three quarters. I am a boy.” Jake will play with no one but Leon, and Leon is determined to save him from any pain and earn that sparkling baby laugh every chance he can.

But Leon isn’t in control of this world where adults say one thing and mean another, and try as he might he can’t protect his little family from everything. When their mother falls victim to her inner demons, strangers suddenly take Jake away; after all, a white baby is easy to adopt, while a half-black nine-year-old faces a less certain fate. Vowing to get Jake back by any means necessary, Leon’s own journey — on his brand-new BMX bike — will carry him through the lives of a doting but ailing foster mother, Maureen; Maureen’s cranky and hilarious sister, Sylvia; a social worker Leon knows only as “The Zebra”; and a colorful community of local gardeners and West Indian political activists.

Told through the perspective of nine-year-old Leon, too innocent to entirely understand what has happened to him and baby Jake, but determined to do what he can to make things right, he stubbornly, endearingly struggles his way through a system much larger than he can tackle on his own. My Name Is Leon is a vivid, gorgeous, and uplifting story about the power of love, the unbreakable bond between brothers, and the truth about what, in the end, ultimately makes a family.

The mind-bending miniature historical epic is Sjón's specialty, and Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was is no exception. But it is also Sjón's most realistic, accessible, and heartfelt work yet. It is the story of a young man on the fringes of a society that is itself at the fringes of the world-at what seems like history's most tumultuous, perhaps ultimate moment.

Máni Steinn is queer in a society in which the idea of homosexuality is beyond the furthest extreme. His city, Reykjavik in 1918, is homogeneous and isolated and seems entirely defenseless against the Spanish flu, which has already torn through Europe, Asia, and North America and is now lapping up on Iceland's shores. And if the flu doesn't do it, there's always the threat that war will spread all the way north. And yet the outside world has also brought Icelanders cinema! And there's nothing like a dark, silent room with a film from Europe flickering on the screen to help you escape from the overwhelming threats-and adventures-of the night, to transport you, to make you feel like everything is going to be all right. For Máni Steinn, the question is whether, at Reykjavik's darkest hour, he should retreat all the way into this imaginary world, or if he should engage with the society that has so soundly rejected him.

***Best Small Press Debut of 2012 — The Atlantic Wire***

May We Shed These Human Bodies peers through vast spaces and skies with the world's most powerful telescope to find humanity: wild and bright and hard as diamonds.

The new Bulgarian ambassador to London is determined to satisfy the whims of his bosses at all costs. Putting himself at the mercy of a shady PR-agency, he is promised direct access to the very highest social circles. Meanwhile, on the lower levels of the embassy, things are not as they should be…

Combining the themes of corruption, confusion and outright incompetence, Popov masterly brings together the multiple plot lines in a sumptuous carnival of frenzy and futile vanity, allowing the illusions and delusions of the post-communist society to be reflected in their glorious absurdity!

Movieola is a collection of linked short stories that delights and exploits the language and paraphernalia of industrial Hollywood. The collection delves into a night at the movies, featuring all the familiar types — the rom-com, the action-adventure, the superhero and the spy — but the narratives are still under construction, and every story line is an opportunity for the unimaginable twist. Motive and identity are constantly shifting in these short stories that offer both narrative and anti-narrative, while the stunted shoptalk of the movie business struggles to keep up.

With the wit of Steve Erickson’s Zeroville and the inventive spirit of Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics, John Domini offers a collection at once comical and moving, carefully suspended between a game of language and a celebration of American film.

In this harrowing novel, a young Moroccan bookseller is falsely accused of being involved in jihadist activities. Drugged and carried off the street, Hamuda is "extraordinarily rendered" to a prison camp in an unknown location where he is interrogated and subjected to various methods of torture.

Narrated through the voice of the young prisoner, the novel unfolds in Hamuda’s attempt to record his experience once he is finally released after six years in captivity. He paints an unforgettable portrait of his captors’ brutality and the terrifying methods of his primary interrogator, a French woman known as Mama Ghula. With a lucid style, Himmich delivers a visceral tale that explores the moral depths to which humanity is capable of descending and the limits of what the soul can endure.

A commonplace book, arranging works of criticism looking at Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo with fragments of memoir/fiction. Presented first as random notes on watching Hitchcock, the fragments soon take up multiple narratives and threads and, like a classic Hitchcock movie, present competing realities. Fragments from a dizzying list of authors, from Truffaut to Philip K. Dick and Geoff Dyer to Bruno Schultz, are meticulously arranged in a fascinating, multilayered reading experience.

My Father's Dreams is a controversial and shocking novel by Slovenia's bestselling author Evald Flisar, and is regarded by many critics as his best. The book tells the story of fourteen-year-old Adam, the only son of a village doctor and his quiet wife, living in apparent rural harmony. But this is a topsy-turvy world of illusions and hopes, in which the author plays with the function of dreaming and story-telling to present the reader with an eccentric 'bildungsroman' in reverse. Spiced with unusual and original overtones of the grotesque, the history of an insidious deception is revealed, in which the unsuspecting son and his mother will be the apparent victims; and yet who can tell whether the gruesome end is reality or just another dream — This is a novel that can be read as an off-beat crime story, a psychological horror tale, a dream-like morality fable, or as a dark and ironic account of one man's belief that his personality and his actions are two different things. It can also be read as a story about a boy who has been robbed of his childhood in the cruelest way. It is a book which has the force of myth: revealing the fundamentals without drawing any particular attention to them; an investigation into good and evil, and our inclination to be drawn to the latter.

"One of the most harrowing, powerful, and imaginative books of the year" (Anthony Doerr) about twin sisters fighting to survive the evils of World War II.

Pearl is in charge of: the sad, the good, the past.

Stasha must care for: the funny, the future, the bad.

It's 1944 when the twin sisters arrive at Auschwitz with their mother and grandfather. In their benighted new world, Pearl and Stasha Zagorski take refuge in their identical natures, comforting themselves with the private language and shared games of their childhood.

As part of the experimental population of twins known as Mengele's Zoo, the girls experience privileges and horrors unknown to others, and they find themselves changed, stripped of the personalities they once shared, their identities altered by the burdens of guilt and pain.

That winter, at a concert orchestrated by Mengele, Pearl disappears. Stasha grieves for her twin, but clings to the possibility that Pearl remains alive. When the camp is liberated by the Red Army, she and her companion Feliks-a boy bent on vengeance for his own lost twin-travel through Poland's devastation. Undeterred by injury, starvation, or the chaos around them, motivated by equal parts danger and hope, they encounter hostile villagers, Jewish resistance fighters, and fellow refugees, their quest enabled by the notion that Mengele may be captured and brought to justice within the ruins of the Warsaw Zoo. As the young survivors discover what has become of the world, they must try to imagine a future within it.

A superbly crafted story, told in a voice as exquisite as it is boundlessly original, Mischling defies every expectation, traversing one of the darkest moments in human history to show us the way toward ethereal beauty, moral reckoning, and soaring hope.

In Caitlin’s world, everything is black or white. Things are good or bad. Anything in between is confusing. That’s the stuff Caitlin’s older brother, Devon, has always explained. But now Devon’s dead and Dad is no help at all. Caitlin wants to get over it, but as an eleven-year-old girl with Asperger’s, she doesn’t know how. When she reads the definition of closure, she realizes that is what she needs. In her search for it, Caitlin discovers that not everything is black and white — the world is full of colors — messy and beautiful.Kathryn Erskine has written a must-read gem, one of the most moving novels of the year.

Praise for MOCKINGBIRD

"Erskine works in powerful imagery throughout."

Publishers Weekly, starred review

"[A] fine addition to the recent group of books with autistic narrators."

Booklist, starred review

"A strong and complex character study."

Horn Book

"This heartbreaking story is delivered in the straightforward, often funny voice of a fifth-grade girl with Asperger's Syndrome."

Kirkus, starred review

"This is…a valuable book."

School Library Journal

"Fascinating characters."

Los Angeles Times

Marrow slowly unfolds as a tale of grotesque cannibalism in a small village in the Balou Mountains of China’s Henan Province. In the story, a mother takes extreme measures to provide her four mentally disabled children with a normal life. She feeds them a medicinal soup made from the bones of her dead husband when she finds out that bones ‘the closer from kin the better’ can cure their illness. When she runs out of her husband’s bones, she resorts to a measure that only a mother can take.

Впервые на русском – один из самых ярких романов 2016 года, «Книга года» по версии New York Times. По историческому размаху и лиричности «Чужекровку» сравнивали с романом Энтони Дорра «Весь невидимый нам свет», а по психологической напряженности – с «Комнатой» Эммы Донохью.

Итак, познакомьтесь с сестрами-близнецами Перль и Стасей.

Перль Заморска отвечает за грустное, хорошее, прошлое.

Стася Заморска должна взять на себя смешное, плохое, будущее.

Осенью 1944 года сестры вместе с матерью и дедом попадают в Освенцим. В аду концлагеря двенадцатилетние девочки находят спасение в тайном языке и секретных играх, в удивительном запасе внутренних сил. Став подопытными доктора Менгеле в лагерном блоке, именуемом «Зверинец», они получают определенные привилегии, но испытывают неведомые другим ужасы. Даже самая жестокая рука судьбы оказывается бессильна разлучить близнецов…

Avec ce livre, Frédéric Dard va plus loin dans le chemin tortueux des âmes. Tout en nous captivant par une action aux incessants rebondissements, nous sentons qu’il nous conduit infailliblement là où il veut, c’est-à-dire à une plus large compréhension de l’humanité.

MAUSOLÉE POUR UNE GARCE dresse un personnage de femme extraordinaire, vénéneux, fascinant, superbe.

Un livre que vous lirez rapidement, peut-être ? Mais que vous mettrez beaucoup de temps à oublier !

Après les maternités, les paternités difficiles, les révoltes adolescentes, les embarras conjugaux, voici le roman d’un divorce.

Publié par hasard au moment où s’amorce une révision de la loi, ce livre peut accessoirement lui fournir des arguments. Mais son thème n’est pas là. La procédure est une chose. L’état de divorcé(e) en est une autre qui — l’union par l’enfant restant indissoluble — dramatise souvent toute une vie. Aline, devenue Madame Ex, Louis remarié à Odile, leurs enfants divisés en Papiens et Mamiens, leurs parents, leurs amis, leurs avocats — intervenant sans cesse dans une guérilla où la rancune, l’intérêt, l’orgueil, le remords, le souvenir se mélangent — en fournissent ici un exemple tour à tour passionné et douloureux.

Madame Ex, par le ton, le trait, le mouvement, la précision du détail, est un roman typique d’Hervé Bazin et sans doute l’un des plus émouvants dans l’évocation de ce tragique quotidien où se meuvent comme nous ses personnages.

A love triangle involving Mikhail Bulgakov, famed author of The Master and Margarita, an agent of Stalin’s secret police, and the bewitching Margarita has inescapable consequences for all three in 1930s Russia.

It is 1933 and Mikhail Bulgakov’s enviable career is on the brink of being dismantled. His friend and mentor, the poet Osip Mandelstam, has been arrested, tortured, and sent into exile. Meanwhile, a mysterious agent of the secret police has developed a growing obsession with exposing Bulgakov as an enemy of the state. To make matters worse, Bulgakov has fallen in love with the dangerously outspoken Margarita. Facing imminent arrest, infatuated with Margarita, he is inspired to write his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita, a satirical novel that is scathingly critical of power and the powerful.

Ranging between lively readings in the homes of Moscow’s literary elite to the Siberian Gulag, Mikhail and Margarita recounts a passionate love triangle while painting a portrait of a country whose towering literary tradition is at odds with a dictatorship that does not tolerate dissent. Margarita is a strong, idealistic, seductive woman who is fiercely loved by two very different men, both of whom will fail in their attempts to shield her from the machinations of a regime hungry for human sacrifice.

Debut novelist Julie Lekstrom Himes launches a rousing defense of art and the artist during a time of systematic deception, and she movingly portrays the ineluctable consequences of love for one of history's most enigmatic literary figures.

A madcap, bawdy tale about an ordinary man who goes to work for a racketeer and has the adventure of a lifetime: the last novel by an iconic British writer

Michael Cullen, from Nottingham, has a shady past, but nearing his forties, he’s settled down, married a doctor, and started working for an ad agency. That is, until the agency fires him. He’s not terribly upset though. Actually, he feels free — he hated that job. But he knows he’s disappointed his wife and isn’t sure what to do next, so he decides to hit the road for a few weeks.

Then, he’s contacted by his old boss, Claude Moggerhanger. A racketeer whom Cullen once tried — and failed — to put in jail, Moggerhanger seems to have forgiven him, and wants to hire him to do a little “job.” All he has to do is drive Moggerhanger’s Rolls Royce to Greece, get Greek food for Moggerhanger’s wife, collect a few packages, and deliver one in Belgrade. This sounds pretty suspect to Cullen…

My Father More or Less deals with the confrontation between an 18 year old boy and his estranged novelist-turned-screenwriter father.