Валерий Зеленогорский о своём новом сборнике: «Здесь только новые рассказы, написанные в последнее время, – о людях с аномальными закидонами. Я не специально выбирал персонажей с некоторыми отклонениями от нормы. Время ненормальное, а люди в нем живут и, чтобы не сойти с ума, привыкают к новым ролям…»

Rosario y Milagros son barrenderas y se conocen desde niñas. Tan vulnerable en apariencia como firme pese a sus contradicciones, Rosario relata los años transcurridos junto a esa fuerza de la naturaleza que es Milagros; años de tropiezos, ilusión, miedo y realidades que han dado forma al temor de no merecer ser felices.

Galardonada con el Premio Biblioteca Breve 2005, Una palabra tuya es el retrato de dos mujeres -extraordinaria aportación a la narrativa española actual-, de dos proyecciones de un mismo espejo deformante, de dos trayectorias vitales, una hacia la nada más cruel desde una vida triste y la otra hacia un futuro expectante desde una vida redimida; y en medio, la piedad y el perdón.

Elvira Lindo es dueña de un admirable sentido de la forma, una observación del habla y de la realidad tan precisas que refleja la vida con una complejidad narrativa prodigiosamente fácil. Visceral, arrebatada, escrita en un estado de trance que se desliza intacto en su lectura, la novela posee una hondura emocional que corta el aliento. Es una novela grande y grave, pero también llena de ironía, de sarcasmo, de una crudeza que se transforma de pronto en ternura. Las vidas corrientes que retrata Elvira Lindo cobran la dimensión de encrucijadas morales y adquieren la grandeza, dignidad y profunda nobleza humana de una tragedia antigua en el mundo contemporáneo.

The gulf that separates expatriate Bengali parents from their American-raised children-and that separates the children from India-remains Lahiri's subject for this follow-up to Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake. In this set of eight stories, the results are again stunning. In the title story, Brooklyn-to-Seattle transplant Ruma frets about a presumed obligation to bring her widower father into her home, a stressful decision taken out of her hands by his unexpected independence. The alcoholism of Rahul is described by his elder sister, Sudha; her disappointment and bewilderment pack a particularly powerful punch. And in the loosely linked trio of stories closing the collection, the lives of Hema and Kaushik intersect over the years, first in 1974 when she is six and he is nine; then a few years later when, at 13, she swoons at the now-handsome 16-year-old teen's reappearance; and again in Italy, when she is a 37-year-old academic about to enter an arranged marriage, and he is a 40-year-old photojournalist. An inchoate grief for mothers lost at different stages of life enters many tales and, as the book progresses, takes on enormous resonance. Lahiri's stories of exile, identity, disappointment and maturation evince a spare and subtle mastery that has few contemporary equals.

La vida de los Lingord, un matrimonio liberal de Suráfrica, sufre un vuelco cuando su hijo Duncan mata a uno de sus compañeros de piso. El joven ha confesado su autoría, pero no el motivo del crimen. Para afrontar el proceso, los Lingord recurren a un abogado negro recién regresado del exilio, una elección arriesgada en un país donde sólo formalmente se ha puesto fin a la discriminación racial.

O romance de Ken Kesey é inspirado em suas próprias experiências quando participou de pesquisas com drogas psicoativas no centro psiquiátrico do Menlo Park Veterans Hospital (Califórnia). 'Um estranho no ninho' é protagonizado por R. P. McMurphy, um preso que escapa da condenação fingindo-se de louco. McMurphy é então internado em um hospício, sob a tutela da sádica Chefona, a enfermeira Ratched, que comanda os internos com suas rigorosas sessões de terapia e eletrochoque. Aos poucos McMurphy percebe que o hospício pode ser muito pior que a prisão, nesse novo universo cercado de pacientes inseguros, ansiosos e constantemente dopados. Pessoas que buscaram refúgio da sociedade no hospício.

Revelación literaria en los años cincuenta, Kenzaburo Oé quedó consagrado como el mejor novelista japonés de la generación posterior a Yukio Mishima desde los años sesenta y se ha afirmado que recuerda a Dante, William Blake y Malcom Lowry. "Una cuestión personal", una de sus mejores y más crueles novelas, animada de una extraña violencia interior, cuenta la terrible odisea de Bird, un joven profesor de inglés abrumado por una cenagosa existencia cotidiana en el Japón contemporáneo. Su anhelo secreto es redimirse a través de un mítico viaje por África, donde, según cree, su vida renacerá plena de sentido. Pero tales proyectos sufren un vuelco de ciento ochenta grados: su esposa da a luz un monstruoso bebé, condenado a una muerte inminente o, en el mejor de los casos, a una vida de vegetal. Este hecho convulsiona el lánguido e indolente existir de Bird y, durante tres días y tres noches, se arrastra por un implacable recorrido hacia lo más profundo de su abismo interior. Descenso a los infiernos en el que le acompañará Himiko, una vieja compañera de estudios. Bird buscará refugio en el alcohol, en los brazos de Himiko y, principalmente, en su propia vergüenza y humillación: ¿debe aceptar la fatalidad, cargar para siempre con un hijo anormal y renunciar a sus planes de una vida mejor o, por el contrario, debe desembarazarse del bebé provocando un desenlace fatal?.

Ivo Andric, connotado escritor de origen bosnio (1892-1975), creó en los años de la Segunda Guerra Mundial una trilogía novelística denominada ‘de los Balcanes’. Del primero de sus títulos, ‘Crónica de Travnik’, ya hay gran reseña en Hislibris. Esta es la presentación del segundo: ‘Un puente sobre el Drina’.

Drina es el nombre de un río que desde antiguo ha hecho de frontera natural entre Bosnia y Serbia. En el siglo XVI, cuando la región circundante conformaba una provincia adscrita al imperio turco, el visir que la gobernaba decidió construir un puente sobre dicho río, a la altura de la ciudad de Vichegrado. La presente novela cubre los cuatro siglos que van desde la construcción del puente hasta el período inicial de la Primera Guerra Mundial.

Se trata de una obra de ficción con basamento en hechos históricos. Su registro es episódico, alternando la anécdota y el drama. Andric es un estupendo fabulador, de modo que en ‘Un puente…’ ni lo dramático degenera en patetismo ni lo anecdótico en banalidad. Nunca sus materiales, aquellos de los que se vale el autor, llegan a degradar el alto nivel del todo. Mi impresión es que Andric advierte en cada situación un indicio de sentido -de la vida, del mundo, del ser del hombre-, sin que esto signifique que la novela abunde en filosofías (como no abunda en simbolismos). Acaso hiciera una muy certera selección de lo que, a su juicio, merece ser contado en unas crónicas (mayormente ficticias, cómo éstas de la ciudad de Vichegrado). El caso es que ninguno de los episodios que componen la novela adolece de gratuidad, y todos ellos sortean con éxito los riesgos de la sordidez y el melodrama.

Cada personaje y cada sucedido, cual sea el volumen que ocupen en el conjunto, son útiles al propósito de plasmar la dignidad de lo humano, así como la futilidad de toda soberbia (ideas ambas, directrices en el plan de la obra). Por momentos parece que el relato discurriese por la senda ejemplarizante de cierta literatura, mas enaltecido por la ausencia de moralinas y de sentencias edificantes. He ahí, por ejemplo, el personaje de lamentable estampa cuyo destino es el de ser bufón del pueblo: incluso él en su miseria puede disfrutar un asomo de gloria, cuando le celebran la pequeña aunque temeraria proeza de bailar sobre el parapeto del puente. O aquel dignatario musulmán, presunto erudito y cronista de la ciudad, en realidad un fatuo ignorante: los hechos más notorios -tal como la conquista austro-húngara de la provincia- empalidecen ante su convencimiento de que nada sería más importante que su propia persona; así pues, sus pretendidas crónicas no pasan de unas cuantas páginas de cuadernillo.

Si el puente aparece como escenario privilegiado de la novela, su kapia (una terraza provista de graderíos a mitad de la construcción) es a la vez hito y epítome de la historia de Vichegrado -tanto la Gran Historia como la pequeña, la del hombre común-. En la kapia se reúnen a diario ociosos y opinantes de lo divino y de lo humano. Allí se comentan noticias y se cierran negocios, y refuerzan los vichegradenses sus vínculos sociales. Desde la kapia se arroja al río la bella a la que han desposado contra su voluntad. Ahí se le ha aparecido a un jugador compulsivo el Gran Engatusador, que lo ha curado de su mal pero también le ha robado su vitalidad. Sobre sus piedras consuman los juerguistas grandes borracheras, y las nuevas generaciones de estudiantes filosofan sobre el mundo y rivalizan en amores. Es en una losa de la kapia donde se emplazan bandos y proclamas oficiales (del gobierno turco primero, luego del poder habsburgo). En esta terraza se instalan las guardias que controlan el paso de viajeros y transeúntes. En postes erigidos de propósito exhibe el ejército turco cabezas de rebeldes serbios -también de inocentes que han tenido el infortunio de hacerse sospechosos al arbitrio otomano-. En la terraza discuten los musulmanes, ya en el siglo XIX, las medidas a seguir para enfrentar el avance de las tropas cristianas. Y es en ella que un comité representativo de las tres religiones de la ciudad (musulmana, ortodoxa y judía) recibe al victorioso ejército austro-húngaro -y sufre el desdén de su altivo comandante-.

El puente es también testigo y víctima del cambio de los tiempos. Nacido como fundación pía por voluntad de un gobernante islámico, conforme transcurren los siglos su significado religioso pierde relevancia, para terminar cediendo frente al utilitarismo y pragmatismo de los días de la modernidad (llegada con el dominio habsburgo). Estupefactos, los musulmanes de Vichegrado observan lo que ellos consideran característica inquietud y laboriosidad de los occidentales, manifiesta en los ingentes trabajos de reparación del puente. Pero también constatan -desde el prisma de los más ancianos y testarudos de entre aquellos- la malicia e impiedad del eterno enemigo, al enterarse de que los austríacos han instalado una carga explosiva en la emblemática edificación.

Entrado el siglo XX, el país será un enorme campo de batalla en que se batirán los ejércitos de imperios decadentes y de incipientes estados. Si durante las Guerras Balcánicas de 1912 y 1913 en Vichegrado sólo resuenan ecos distantes de la guerra, el conflicto desatado por el atentado de Sarajevo (el asesinato del archiduque Francisco Fernando) acaba por ensañarse con la ciudad.

“[…] Y el puente -comenta en medio de la novela el narrador- continuaba irguiéndose, como siempre, con su eterna juventud, la juventud de una concepción perfecta y de las grandes y estimables obras del hombre, que ignoran lo que sea envejecer y cambiar y que no comparten -al menos, ésa es la impresión que dan- el destino de las cosas efímeras de este bajo mundo”.

Lo lamentable es que los azares de la historia confirmen a veces -tal vez con demasiada frecuencia- la precariedad de impresiones como aquella. No obstante, habría que congratularse de que la misma veleidosa historia inspire obras de excelencia, como ésta que he comentado. Si hay gentes de talento en quienes aproveche la inspiración, mejor que mejor.

Nacida para sustituir, en cierto modo, a dos hermanos muertos en un accidente, Ruth Cole vive una infancia muy especial. En el verano de 1958, cuando ella tiene cuatro años, Marion, su madre, tras una tórrida aventura con un jovencito de dieciséis, abandona el hogar. Ruth se queda con su padre, con el que mantiene una relación de amor-odio marcada por la rivalidad. Pero, andando el tiempo, a sus treinta y seis años, Ruth se ha convertido en una mujer atractiva y en una escritora de éxito, y, pese a su personalidad compleja y difícil, cuatro años después no sólo se ha casado, sino que tiene un hijo, enviuda y, por si fuera poco, se enamora por primera vez. Lo que no podía prever era la reaparición de la inquietante Marion…

Fogwill se pregunta en todas sus novelas sobre el amor. `Urbana` no es una excepción. La historia se desarrolla en la soledad de una ciudad. El amor produce, según Fogwill, un bienestar estomacal y neurológico que se traduce en una armonía del hombre con el todo. Como bien indica el título, se habla de la vida en la ciudad, del que llega a un lugar ignorando el nombre de sus calles y la ubicación de los sitios donde suceden los principales acontecimientos. Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill, más conocido como Fogwill, nació en Buenos Aires en 1941. Ha publicado poemarios, libros de relatos y novelas, entre las que destacan `En otro orden de cosas`, `La experiencia sensible` y `Los pichiciegos`.

Claro que es redundante llamar urbana a una novela. Hoy toda novela es urbana: la ciudad, que es su agente, compone a la vez el fondo de todo lo que sucede. Más cuando ni se nombra y más aún cuando el relato figura una escenografía sin ciudades ni casas ni más vida colectiva que la que pueda hallarse en los recuerdos y en los diálogos interiores del presunto personaje: al parecer, sólo puede escribirse con las palabras de la ciudad. ¿Cuáles serán…? No está al alcance de una novela determinarlo. Esta era una historia de personajes sin cara y terminó como un relato de personajes sin caras ni nombres. Idealmente debía eludir cualquier acontecimiento, pero en tal caso nadie la habría editado y no habría encontrado un lector. Rimando, puede afirmarse que los lectores acuden a la novela sedientos de acontecimientos. Algo ha de estar indicando esto: quizás haya tanta demanda de que en un texto sucedan cosas porque se descuenta que nada sucederá entre el texto y su lector. Pero los editores dominan el arte de administrar la medida justa que puede definirse como la presencia de un máximo de acontecimientos en el texto y ninguno por efectos de la lectura. Con ello consiguen que el lector termine de consumir manteniendo intactas sus cualidades más preciadas: su poder de compra y el hábito que lo llevará a pagar por algún nuevo título de esa colección. Idealmente, un día la industria terminará por librarse de los autores. Mientras tanto, se insiste en narrar como si nada estuviese ocurriendo.

Amazon.co.uk Review

"Every family has its black sheep-in ours it was Uncle Petros": the narrator of Apostles Doxiadis's novel Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture is the mystified nephew of the family's black sheep, unable to understand the reasons for his uncle's fall from grace. A kindly, gentle recluse devoted only to gardening and chess, Petros Papachristos exhibits no signs of dissolution or indolence: so why do his family hold him in such low esteem? One day, his father reveals all:

Your uncle, my son, committed the greatest of sins… he took something holy and sacred and great, and shamelessly defiled it! The great, unique gift that God had blessed him with, his phenomenal, unprecedented mathematical talent! The miserable fool wasted it; he squandered it and threw it out with the garbage. Can you imagine it? The ungrateful bastard never did one day's useful work in mathematics. Never! Nothing! Zero!

Instead of being warned off, the nephew instead has his curiosity provoked, and what he eventually discovers is a story of obsession and frustration, of Uncle Petros's attempts at finding a proof for one of the great unsolved problems of mathematics-Goldbach's conjecture.

If this might initially seem undramatic material for a novel, readers of Fermat's Last Theorem, Simon Singh's gripping true-life account of Andrew Wiles's search for a proof for another of the great long-standing problems of mathematics, would surely disagree. What Doxiadis gives us is the fictional corollary of Singh's book: a beautifully imagined narrative that is both compelling as a story and highly revealing of a rarefied world of the intellect that few people will ever access. Without ever alienating the reader, he demonstrates the enchantments of mathematics as well as the ambition, envy and search for glory that permeate even this most abstract of pursuits. Balancing the narrator's own awkward move into adulthood with the painful memories of his brilliant uncle, Doxiadis shows how seductive the world of numbers can be, and how cruel a mistress. "Mathematicians are born, not made," Petros declares: an inheritance that proves to be both a curse and a gift.-Burhan Tufail

Review

If you enjoyed Fermat's Last Theorem, you'll devour this. However, you don't need to be an academic to understand its imaginative exploration of the allure and danger of genius. Old Uncle Petros is a failure. The black sheep of a wealthy Greek family, he lives as a recluse surrounded by dusty books in an Athenian suburb. It takes his talented nephew to penetrate his rich inner world and discover that this broken man was once a mathematical prodigy, a golden youth whose ambition was to solve one of pure maths' most famous unproven hypotheses – Goldbach's Conjecture. Fascinated, the young man sets out to discover what Uncle Petros found – and what he was forced to sacrifice. Himself a mathematician as well as a novelist, Doxiadis succeeds in shining a light into the spectral world of abstract number theory where unimaginable concepts and bizarre realities glitter with a cold, magical and ultimately destructive beauty. (Kirkus UK)

Amy Haskel made it into elite Eli University. Then she made it into the ultraselective Order of Rose & Grave. Now a senior, Amy is looking her future squarely in the eye—until someone starts selling society secrets. When a series of bizarre messages suggests conspiracy within the ranks and a female knight mysteriously disappears, no member of Rose & Grave is safe…or above suspicion.

On her side, Amy has a few loyal Diggirls—her fellow female Rose & Grave knights. Against her? Certainly it's a group of Rose & Grave's überpowerful patriarchs who want their old boys' club back. As new developments in her love life threaten to implode, and the case of the vanished Diggirl gets weirder by the moment, Amy will need to use every society trick she's ever learned in order to set things right. Even if it means turning to old adversaries for help—or discovering that the real foes are closer than she'd thought….

Le héros principal est un petit scribe, Vassia, jeune homme plein de qualités, de bonté et d'amour. Ce jeune homme modeste est content de son sort, quoiqu'il ne reçoive que vingt-cinq roubles par mois. Son chef, Julian Mastakovitch, l'exploite en lui donnant du travail supplémentaire non payé durant quatre mois. Mais Vassia le fait avec zèle, et lorsque le chef le gratifie de cinquante roubles, l'âme candide de Vassia déborde de reconnaissance. Il est heureux, car il possède un ami qui lui est cher, Arcade, il s'est fiancé à une jeune fille adorable, il jouit de la faveur de son chef. Mais ce «coeur faible» ne peut supporter la plénitude de son bonheur. Il a négligé son travail supplémentaire, en passant tout son temps libre chez sa fiancée: il se sent fautif envers son chef qu'il ne pourra arriver à satisfaire, grossit démesurément sa faute, se sent criminel par insubordination. Et voici que la folie, peu à peu, s'empare de lui…

A lo largo del hilo conductor del relato, consistente en la relación conflictiva entre el personaje principal y el Alcalde del pueblo, se nos van ofreciendo momentos anteriores de su vida hasta llegar al momento presente de la narración. Esto sirve para describirnos la especial ligazón que une al viejo con la selva. Todo está contado en un lenguaje directo y sin mucho rebusque. En especial cuando precisamente el viejo se dedica a leer su novela de amor.

`Un bel morir tutta la vita onora`, dice el verso de Petrarca que Mutis hace suyo para titular esta tercera novela dedicada a la figura de Maqroll. El singular aventurero de tierra caliente, contrabandista y filósofo, amante y marino, no morirá en esta ocasión. Anclado primero en un puerto fluvial, alojado en una extraña habitación suspendida entre las aguas del gran río, dentro de una singular pensión gobernada por una mujer ciega y repleta de extraños saberes, Maqroll termina involucrado en una turbia trama entre el ejército y bandas de criminales.

Un héros de notre temps est constitué de cinq récits. Dans le premier texte, Béla, un vieil officier, Maximitch, conte les aventures de Petchorin qui enleva Béla, la fille d'un prince tartare. Dans le second texte, le narrateur et Maximitch croisent Petchorin en route vers la Perse. C'est l'occasion pour le narrateur de récupérer des extraits du journal tenu par Petchorin. Ayant appris la mort de Pétchorin, le narrateur publie ces extraits qui constituent les trois textes suivants: Taman, une histoire de contrebandiers, La Princesse Marie, dans lequelle le héros séduit deux femmes, ce qui le conduit à se battre en duel, et enfin Le Fataliste, où le héros s'interroge sur la force de la destinée.

Le Démon est l'histoire du démon qui, survolant le Caucase, s'éprend d'une jeune fille, Tamara, qui attend son fiancé. Celui-ci n'arrivera jamais. Tamara se réfugie ans un monastère, mais le démon la poursuit, et sa vision hante les pensées de la jeune fille.

"Much less a book than a state of vision." – Henry James

The narrative drive of Stowe's classic novel is often overlooked in the heat of the controversies surrounding its anti-slavery sentiments. In fact, it is a compelling adventure story with richly drawn stories has earned a place in both literary American history.

Corre el año 1958. Landon Carter es el típico estudiante de secundaria. Lo único que le interesa es salir con sus amigos, pasar el menor tiempo posible en el colegio y disfrutar de sus últimos años de libertad antes de ir a la universidad. Jamie Sullivan, en cambio, no es una chica común. No sale por las noches, no acude a fiestas ni se maquilla como hacen las demás chicas de su edad. Hija del pastor del pueblo, se pasa los mediodías leyendo la Biblia, las tardes como voluntaria en un orfanato y los veranos en el campamento de la parroquia. No podría haber dos personas más diferentes. Hasta que, una noche de Navidad, todo cambia. En apenas un mes, Landon descubrirá cosas que lleva una vida entera aprender, verdades acerca de la naturaleza de la belleza, la alegría de vivir, el dolor de la pérdida y, sobre todo, el poder real y milagroso del primer amor…

Amazon.com Review

While Eisenstein documented the forces of totalitarianism and Stalinism upon the faces of the Russian peoples, DeLillo offers a stunning, at times overwhelming, document of the twin forces of the cold war and American culture, compelling that "swerve from evenness" in which he finds events and people both wondrous and horrifying. Underworld opens with a breathlessly graceful prologue set during the final game of the Giants-Dodgers pennant race in 1951. Written in what DeLillo calls "super-omniscience" the sentences sweep from young Cotter Martin as he jumps the gate to the press box, soars over the radio waves, runs out to the diamond, slides in on a fast ball, pops into the stands where J. Edgar Hoover is sitting with a drunken Jackie Gleason and a splenetic Frank Sinatra, and learns of the Soviet Union's second detonation of a nuclear bomb. It's an absolutely thrilling literary moment. When Bobby Thomson hits Branca's pitch into the outstretched hand of Cotter-the "shot heard around the world"-and Jackie Gleason pukes on Sinatra's shoes, the events of the next few decades are set in motion, all threaded together by the baseball as it passes from hand to hand.

"It's all falling indelibly into the past," writes DeLillo, a past that he carefully recalls and reconstructs with acute grace. Jump from Giants Stadium to the Nevada desert in 1992, where Nick Shay, who now owns the baseball, reunites with the artist Kara Sax. They had been brief and unlikely lovers 40 years before, and it is largely through the events, spinoffs, and coincidental encounters of their pasts that DeLillo filters the Cold War experience. He believes that "global events may alter how we live in the smallest ways," and as the book steps back in time to 1951, over the following 800-odd pages, we see just how those events alter lives. This reverse narrative allows the author to strip away the detritus of history and pop culture until we get to the story's pure elements: the bomb, the baseball, and the Bronx. In an epilogue as breathless and stunning as the prologue, DeLillo fast-forwards to a near future in which ruthless capitalism, the Internet, and a new, hushed faith have replaced the Cold War's blend of dread and euphoria.

Through fragments and interlaced stories-including those of highway killers, artists, celebrities, conspiracists, gangsters, nuns, and sundry others-DeLillo creates a fragile web of connected experience, a communal Zeitgeist that encompasses the messy whole of five decades of American life, wonderfully distilled.

***

Starting with a 1951 baseball game and ending with the Internet, "Underworld" is not a book for the faint-hearted. Elegiac in tone and described variously as DeLillo's Magnum Opus and his attempt to write the Great American Novel, the book weighs in at a hefty 827 pages and zips back and forwards in time, moving in and out of the lives of a plethora of different characters.

Following three main themes – the fate of a baseball from the winning game of the 1951 world series, the threat of atomic warfare and the mountains of garbage created by modern society – DeLillo moves forwards and backwards through the decades, introducing characters and situations and gradually showing the way their lives are interconnected.

Reading the prose can be uncannily like using a web browser: the narrative focus moves from character to character almost as quickly as we are introduced to them, and the time frame regularly changes to show further connections between the key players. This device – literature as hypertext – is particularly effective in the early parts of the novel and the technique never intrudes on the story itself.

The book focuses on Nick Shay, a former hoodlum who now works in the burgeoning waste management industry and owns the baseball from the 1951 game, "the shot heard around the world". In addition to Nick we hear from Frank Sinatra, J. Edgar Hoover, Lenny Bruce and the various people who move in and out of Nick's life: lovers, family, friends and colleagues. Through these seemingly disconnected narratives DeLillo paints a picture of Cold War paranoia at its peak – the baseball game happened the same day as the USSR 's first nuclear test – and the changes affecting his characters as a microcosm of American society as a whole.

Very few writers, however, can justify over 800 densely-printed pages to tell a story and "Underworld" would have benefited greatly from judicious wielding of the blue pencil. Potentially intriguing plots which feature strongly in the earlier parts of the book – an intriguing serial killer subplot, the stories of each person who possesses the winning baseball – are abandoned halfway through the book in favour of overlong childhood memories or the inane ponderings of a performance artist; other stories are neglected for over 400 pages before reappearing at the end of the novel, causing an unwelcome jolt as the reader tries to remember the pertinent details.

In this respect "Underworld" is a victim of its own ambition: by trying to cover such a wide range of characters and situations, DeLillo loses track of some of them and, in the latter parts of the novel in particular, the writing feels as if it is on autopilot while the author works out what to do next.

There is still much to recommend in "Underworld", however. Each vignette is lovingly crafted: DeLillo seems as comfortable writing from the perspective of a street missionary as he is inhabiting J Edgar Hoover's paranoia. The book employs vivid imagery, from painted angels on ghetto walls to the cityscape created by mountains of domestic waste, and the dialogue is usually well-observed and thoroughly believable although it does flag when describing Nick Shay's hoodlum past. Despite its faults DeLillo has created an ambitious and powerful novel which, due to its size, can also be used to swat annoying children on trains. Highly recommended.

Gary Marshall

UGUNSKURS

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

Davinsky Labour Camp, Siberia, 1933: Sofia Morozova knows she has to escape. Only two things have sustained her through the bitter cold, aching hunger and hard labour: the prospect of one day walking free; and the stories told by her friend Anna, beguiling tales of a charmed upbringing in Petrograd? and of Anna's fervent love for a passionate revolutionary, Vasily. So when Anna falls gravely ill, Sofia makes a promise to escape the camp and find Vasily: to chase the memory that has for so long spun hope in both their hearts. But Sofia knows that times have changed. Russia, gripped by the iron fist of Communism, is no longer the country of her friend's childhood. Her perilous search takes her from industrial factories to remote villages, where she discovers a web of secrecy and lies, but also bonds of courage and loyalty? and an overwhelming love that threatens her promise to Anna.

Lucas, el anciano viajero que sueña con alcanzar las cumbres más altas del Himalaya a pesar de la fragilidad de su mente. Marcos, un músico que busca su lugar en el mundo y encuentra el amor de Roma. Y María, la hermana de Lucas, escritora anónima en busca del instante feliz que da sentido a la vida.

Esta novela es también el lugar de encuentro entre la juventud y la vejez, un espacio lleno de humor, ternura, sabiduría y asombro, una manera de contar, directa y cristalina, el nacimiento del amor, el avance de la enfermedad, la práctica de la convivencia y el valor de la buena compañía. Y además, una exploración sutil y directa de las ilusiones y los deseos, no sólo de los personajes, sino los del propio lector también.

Lo que la crítica ha dicho de Un tranvía en SP:

«Continuamente se escucha la música alegre y pícara, un ritmo excitante, audaz, que te hace sentir un temblor de satisfacción.»

José Luis Padrón, Pérgola

«Una historia maravillosa. En cada párrafo hay mucho que disfrutar, que paladear, que leer una y otra vez.»

Lutxos Egia, Deia

«El libro de Elorriaga no tiene antídoto. Conviene arriesgarse o renunciar a tiempo.»

Rosa Aneiros, La Voz de Galicia

«He dejado las últimas páginas para leerlas en un sitio tranquilo. Y tanta historia para que al final, en lugar del llanto me aflorara una incontenible sonrisa. Se lo tengo que agradecer a Unai Elorriaga.»

Amagoia Iban, Egunkaria

«Ha sido una sorpresa impresionante. Una gozada. El libro es un estallido continuo, una serie de pequeñas explosiones: una enorme cantidad de imágenes e ideas. Hay que subrayar la poesía que emana de muchos de sus párrafos, el amor que se vislumbra alrededor de los personajes… Unai Elorriaga dará que hablar.»

Alberto Barandiaran, Nabarra

En una remota provincia china, un campesino sutil se extravía en un hechizo de amor. Como casi todos los amores, este es imposible. Pero Lu Hsin, ingenioso y paciente, decide crear una posibilidad a partir de la nada.

La tarea le lleva casi toda la vida.Esta fábula erótica, atemporal y eterna aunque inelidublemente china, sucede sobre el fondo agotado de veinte años cruciales en la historia del Imperio de la Porcelana: los que van entre la Larga Marcha y la Revolución Cultural. La hidráulica, la pintura, la política, la vida cotidiana en una pequeña aldea, y una colorida galería de personajes, marcan el paso del tiempo de la ficción, que se revela en el desenlace como el fulminante momento de la realidad y el amor.

Sólo los grandes maestros como Bioy Casares dominan con maestría el arte de contar historias sencillas, propias de la pequeña odisea cotidiana del ser humano, que, no obstante, sin que el lector perciba exactamente cuándo ni cómo, lo precipitan en una atmósfera de inaprensible extrañeza o enajenación, a veces inquietante, como en «Un encuentro en Rauch», a veces atroz, como en «Margarita o El poder de la farmacopea», y a veces delirante, como en «A propósito de un olor» o en «Bajo el agua». En estos casos, como en «Una muñeca rusa», es lo grotesco lo que vuelca insidiosamente la realidad; y, en otros aún, como en «Catón», la amarga ironía de las contradicciones entre el arte y la política es la que nos compromete en una reflexión turbadora. De la risa incontenible al desasosiego, Bioy Casares nos conduce hacia ese asombroso lugar fronterizo entre lo real y lo fantástico en el que la ficción, todopoderosa, nos envuelve completamente.

Un amor es una novela de gran intensidad literaria, que absorbe al lector desde la primera página. Narra la historia de un enamoramiento, de una experiencia personal inusitada y turbadora. Si bien por su tema, por su enfoque y por su escenario difiere del resto de las novelas de Buzzati, tiene en común con ellas su calidad, un trasfondo de preocupación ética y una poesía en la que reconocemos inequívocamente a su autor. Cuando se publicó por primera vez en 1963, Un amor se convirtió rápidamente en uno de los primeros «best sellers» de la historia de Italia. Esa aceptación por parte del público no ha cesado tantos años después, y hoy sigue siendo considerada como una de las obras maestras de Buzzati. Esta edición ha recibido el Premio de Traducción del Ministerio Italiano de Asuntos Exteriores en el año 2005.

A. RIMBAUD

(1854-1891)

UNE SAISON EN ENFER

-----------------------

PRIX: UN FRANC

-----------------------

BRUXELLES

ALLIANCE TYPOGRAPHIQUE (M.-J. POOT ET COMPAGNIE)

37, rue aux Choux, 37

-

1873

Premio Eugenio Nadal 1968

UN HOMBRE QUE SE PARECÍA A ORESTES (Premia Nadal 1968) recrea de una forma totalmente libre el mito clásico. La acción se paraliza después del asesinato de Agamenón, sin que la esperada venganza llegue a cumplirse. Orestes sabe que debe perpetrarla; pero el tiempo pasa y no ocurre nada. Y así resulta que los personajes del mito ya no funcionan en claves de fatalidad y trascendencia sino en los regocijos y amarguras de la vida cotidiana. Orestes ya no es el joven atleta admirado por Electra, sino un hombre muy hecho que viaja de incógnito. Y en todas las aldeas una muchacha le sonríe y le hace pensar más en la vida que en la muerte… La acción transcurre en una época indefinible en la que lo más antiguo coexiste con lo más reciente en una proximidad que sólo el sueño hace verosímil. Un hombre con dos cabezas, un caballo de madera que fecunda la yegua del abad, un patético Egisto que, obsesionado por la llegada del vengador, se finge caballero andante en busca de aventuras sin lograr por ello superar sus temores…Todo esto lo presenta Cunqueiro sin prisa, con un cierto regodeo en la frase, con frecuentes toques de humor y abundantes disgresiones, dejando siempre suelta su inagotable y gozosa fantasía.

Victoire se réveille un matin en découvrant le corps de son compagnon, Félix, gisant sur le parquet de la chambre. Sans parvenir à reconstituer le cours des dernières heures, mais persuadée de n'y être pas complètement étrangère, elle décide de prendre la fuite. Où qu'elle se trouve alors, tous ponts coupés, un certain Louis-Philippe sait pourtant curieusement toujours la retrouver et la tient informée des suites de 'l' affaire'

. Mais Louis-Philippe ne dit pas tout. Que cache-t-il? Qui est qui? Qui ment, affabule, dément, qui est le dément de l'autre? Et que s'est-il réellement passé?

Verano de 1940. Leonor, esposa de un alto cargo republicano fusilado al final de la guerra, y su hija Camila son enviadas a un destierro forzoso a la isla de Cabrera. Como única compañía tendrán al matrimonio que atiende una cantina miserable, algún pescador, un ermitaño alemán y un destacamento militar atemorizado por un posible ataque del ejército inglés. Entretanto, en Mallorca, un hombre recibe un encargo de las autoridades que puede redimirle de su turbio pasado. Pedro Zarraluki (Barcelona, 1954) se sirve de una trama apasionante para convertir esta isla mediterránea en un orbe singular en el que es imprescindible reinventar las reglas y las relaciones para alcanzar la armonía. En `Un encargo difícil`, premiada con el último Nadal, dos mujeres nos van a demostrar que hasta en las peores condiciones es posible empezar la vida de nuevo. Porque todo aquello que nos hace felices siempre dependerá más de la integridad de ciertas personas que de las leyes que nos gobiernan.

Finalizada la guerra civil, una mujer con sus hijas y nieta regresa a su ciudad natal, donde se encuentra con el desolador paisaje que deja la guerra. Premio de Novela Fernando Lara 2000.

Finalizada la guerra civil española, una mujer cuyo marido e hijo pertenecieron al bando republicano regresa a la ciudad de provincias en la que había transcurrido su vida hasta el inicio del conflicto. Sus hijas y su nieta de pocos años la acompañan en el difícil regreso. Como si de un fatal presagio se tratara, un fuerte aguacero recibe a ese grupo de mujeres, cansadas, débiles, derrotadas, pero en cuyas miradas late, sin embargo, toda la voluntad y el deseo de salir adelante de los supervivientes.

Salvo la niña, todas han perdido mucho, quizá demasiado, con la guerra. En breve, los vencedores comenzarán a dejarles claro que tampoco podrán recuperar nada de cuanto aún creían poseer, desde la casa familiar, que les ha sido usurpada, hasta la belleza de sus sueños. La derrota no sólo ha sido total: debe ser continua.

Un largo silencio profundiza en uno de los episodios más terribles de nuestra historia reciente desde la mirada, lúcida e inerme, con que una serie de mujeres, muy distintas entre sí, observan un mismo y desolado paisaje ante el que no cabe más refugio que el recuerdo, ni más gesto que la claudicación.

Esta novela obtuvo el Premio Planeta 2004, concedido por el siguiente jurado: Alberto Blecua, Pere Gimferrer, Juan Marsé, Carmen Posadas, Antonio Prieto, Carlos Pujol y Rosa Regás.

Una historia que conmoverá a los hijos y pondrá a prueba a los padres

Eva Agulló se ha hecho famosa con un libro sobre adicciones. La propia Eva es, en realidad, una adicta. Adicta al alcohol, a la angustia, a la valoración de los otros. En una carta-diario escrita a su hija recién nacida mientras su madre agoniza en el hospital, Eva intenta explicar de qué familia viene para poder imaginar hacia qué familia se dirige. A caballo entre el pasado, el presente y el futuro, entre Nueva York, Madrid y Alicante, reconstruye la historia nunca contada de la familia Agulló Benayas: los secretos a voces, las herencias, materiales o no, que los padres legan a sus hijos, y cómo para algunos lleva toda una vida aprender a vivirla. Para acabar concluyendo que la vida es, en sí misma, un milagro. Un milagro en equilibrio.

Un relato inolvidable sobre el poder del amor, Gabriel tiene nueve años y ha crecido en un orfanato junto a su fiel amiga Eri. Una mañana ella no se despierta y es llevada a un hospital, donde los médicos diagnostican que la niña ha entrado en coma por causas desconocidas. Muy asustado, Gabriel sale en busca de ayuda. Nadie sabe darle consejo. Sin embargo, al entregar su única moneda a una mendiga, ésta le explica que Eri tiene el corazón enfermo por la falta de amor. Para curarla existe un remedio: debe encontrar las nueve cualidades del amor -generosidad, ternura, amabilidad-… y hallar a nueve personas que sean un ejemplo de estas virtudes. Recortará a cada una de ellas una estrella de su ropa sin que se den cuenta. Antes de diez días, Gabriel debe entregar los nueve retales a la mendiga para que confeccione con ellos «un corazón lleno de estrellas» que devolverá la vida a Eri. Pero aún faltará algo: una estrella secreta -la número diez- que es la que permite que las otras nueve tengan poder. Para hallarla, Gabriel tendrá que descubrir por sí mismo cuál es el secreto último del amor que todo lo cura.

Until I Find You is the story of the actor Jack Burns — his life, loves, celebrity and astonishing search for the truth about his parents.

When he is four years old, Jack travels with his mother Alice, a tattoo artist, to several North Sea ports in search of his father, William Burns. From Copenhagen to Amsterdam, William, a brilliant church organist and profligate womanizer, is always a step ahead — has always just departed in a wave of scandal, with a new tattoo somewhere on his body from a local master or “scratcher.”

Alice and Jack abandon their quest, and Jack is educated at schools in Canada and New England — including, tellingly, a girls’ school in Toronto. His real education consists of his relationships with older women — from Emma Oastler, who initiates him into erotic life, to the girls of St. Hilda’s, with whom he first appears on stage, to the abusive Mrs. Machado, whom he first meets when sent to learn wrestling at a local gym.

Too much happens in this expansive, eventful novel to possibly summarize it all. Emma and Jack move to Los Angeles, where Emma becomes a successful novelist and Jack a promising actor. A host of eccentric minor characters memorably come and go, including Jack’s hilariously confused teacher the Wurtz; Michelle Maher, the girlfriend he will never forget; and a precocious child Jack finds in the back of an Audi in a restaurant parking lot. We learn about tattoo addiction and movie cross-dressing, “sleeping in the needles” and the cure for cauliflower ears. And John Irving renders his protagonist’s unusual rise through Hollywood with the same vivid detail and range of emotions he gives to the organ music Jack hears as a child in European churches. This is an absorbing and moving book about obsession and loss, truth and storytelling, the signs we carry on us and inside us, the traces we can’t get rid of.

Jack has always lived in the shadow of his absent father. But as he grows older — and when his mother dies — he starts to doubt the portrait of his father’s character she painted for him when he was a child. This is the cue for a second journey around Europe in search of his father, from Edinburgh to Switzerland, towards a conclusion of great emotional force.

A melancholy tale of deception, Until I Find You is also a swaggering comic novel, a giant tapestry of life’s hopes. It is a masterpiece to compare with John Irving’s great novels, and restates the author’s claim to be considered the most glorious, comic, moving novelist at work today.

Рассказ вошёл в сборники:

Dark Carnival (Тёмный карнавал)

The October Country (Октябрьская страна)

R Is For Rocket (Р — значит ракета)

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

Рассказ вошёл в сборники:

Quicker Than The Eye (В мгновение ока)

Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales (Сборник ста лучших рассказов)

En plena pubertad, a punto ya de ser un hombre, Tonio Treschi fue drogado y raptado con la complicidad de su familia y castrado cruelmente para que no perdiera la voz…

Guido Maffeo, cuando apenas era un niño -demasiado joven para protestar o para huir-había sido vendido a los maestros de canto y «operado» también con fines artísticos.

Los dos eran castrati: sopranos masculinos cuya voz increíble causaba la admiración de Europa. Vivían como auténticos ídolos, deseados y cortejados lo mismo por hombres que por mujeres. Pero también sufrían el rechazo de muchos, que los miraban como si fuesen monstruos de feria. Tonio Treschi no olvidaba nunca la violencia que se había ejercido sobre su cuerpo. Y su pensamiento permanente era cómo vengarse…

«Fascinante y llena de colorido… Un grito al cielo es una historia de oscuros secretos familiares, de odio edípico y venganza, de complejas intrigas y violencia cotidiana, en la cual, como en la ópera, un personaje se vuelve loco, otro se oculta tras un disfraz y un tercero es víctima de un secuestro… Una mirada absorbente y deslumbrante a un mundo muy poco conocido». The Washington Post

«Sometidos a la «operación» más desconsiderada de todas, ¿quién hubiera adivinado que los castrati venecianos tenían una vida sexual tan variada y versátil?». The Guardian

«Un grito al cielo, como Entrevista con el vampiro, es una novela osada y erótica, atravesada por la lujuria, la tensión sexual y la música. Aquí la pasión lo es todo, el deseo es abrumador y los géneros quedan abolidos. Encontramos amantes gozosos y amantes separados, relaciones de primos con primos y de sobrinos con tías, eunucos convertidos en favoritos de cardenales, mujeres disfrazadas con ropa masculina, hombres luciendo sedas y rouge… La música lo inunda todo…» The New York Times Book Review

«La exubérante narración de Anne Rice -alternativamente tórrida y apasionada- sería un espléndido libreto». The New Yorker

Deux femmes, Clémentine et Marie. Deux mariages, deux époux, charmants, convenables, vivant l'amour à la petite semaine et soignés comme une petite maîtresse . Deux femmes, deux mariages, deux époux et, bien sûr, deux amants, vigoureux comme des tigres, de chevelure inculte et de regard napoléonien . Deux amants ? En fait un seul, Balzac lui-même, prodigieux narcisse et visionnaire amoureux qui évoque ici une de ses conquêtes et récupère un de ses plus cuisants échecs amoureux, toutes les femmes ne lui ayant pas dit, comme Mme de Berny : Adieu didi on t'aime quand même… malgré la corde qui te manque. Et tous les personnages qui apparaissent dans Une fille d'Eve et deviendront les maréchaux et les grognards de la Grande Armée balzacienne font de ce roman le laboratoire central de La Comédie humaine.

En Una conspiración de papel, Benjamin Weaver se enfrenta a un crimen relacionado con la muerte de su padre, un especulador que se movía como pez en el agua en la Bolsa de Londres. Para hallar respuestas el protagonista deberá escarbar en su pasado y contactar con parientes lejanos que le reprochan su distanciamiento de la fe judia. Poco a poco, Weaver descubre a una peligrosa red de especuladores formada por hombres poderosos del mundo de las finanzas. David Liss elabora con maestría una complicada trama, una hábil combinación de novela histórica y de misterio.

Bel Kaufman's Up the Down Staircase is one of the best-loved novels of our time. It has been translated into sixteen languages, made into a prize-winning motion picture, and staged as a play at high schools all over the United States; its very title has become part of the American idiom.

Never before has a novel so compellingly laid bare the inner workings of a metropolitan high school. Up the Down Staircase is the funny and touching story of a committed, idealistic teacher whose dash with school bureaucracy is a timeless lesson for students, teachers, parents--anyone concerned about public education. Bel Kaufman lets her characters speak for themselves through memos, letters, directives from the principal, comments by students, notes between teachers, and papers from desk drawers and wastebaskets, evoking a vivid picture of teachers fighting the good fight against all that stands in the way of good teaching.

Мы все, конечно, умрем, но, пока мы живы, нужно каждый день принимать решения.

Некоторые решают судьбы народов, играя людьми, как в детстве в крестики-нолики, другие изводят себя вопросом «кто я?» и, не находя ответа, убивают старушек, третьи не могут выбрать между мясом и рыбой на обед и от этого страдают, как на плахе.

Выбор пути – задача нетранспортная, можно подавиться безобидной рыбной косточкой, и тогда проблема выбора блюда станет вопросом жизни и смерти.

Ежедневный выбор – вот предмет книги «Ultraмарин».

Она не рекомендуется людям, за которых выбор делают другие – президенты, жены, командиры и средства массовой информации.

Она для тех, кто сделал свой выбор сам – правильный или…

E se o espaço mudasse de posição e o tempo se curvasse e pudéssemos nos conhecer como seremos daqui a vinte anos? E se pudéssemos conversar, face a face, com as pessoas que fomos no passado, com as pessoas que somos em vidas paralelas, em mundos alternativos? O que lhes diríamos, o que lhes perguntaríamos? Em que sentido mudaríamos se soubéssemos aquilo que nos espera além do espaço e do tempo?

UM é o romance mais surpreendente de Richard Bach. Tão cheio de aventura quanto Fernão Capelo Gaivota, tão divertido quanto Ilusões, tão inspirador quanto A ponte para o sempre.

Neste livro, ele viaja com a mulher, Leslie, a um mundo onde a sobrevivência depende de descobrirem o que outros aspectos deles mesmos aprenderam em caminhos que eles jamais trilharam; onde a imaginação e o medo são instrumentos para salvar e destruir mundos; e onde morrer é um passo no triunfo sobre a morte.

Do mesmo modo que o mundo pode não ser o que parece, mostram os Bach, também nós podemos ser mais do que o que parecemos. UM é uma curiosa fantasia que se apóia tanto na ciência quanto na espiritualidade — uma surpreendente porta entreaberta para um caminho diferente na busca de nós mesmos.

Winner Betty Trask award 1992

Shortlisted for Booker Prize 1993

Set in post-war Hungary between 1944 and 1956, this ferociously funny and bitterly sad story follows the fortunes of two young men in the pursuit of sex and the avoidance of work and army service. They survive the chaos of communism by becoming part of a travelling basketball team.

Ultimamente he de reconocer que cada vez me gusta más la literatura japonesa, su estilo me tiene enganchado. Narración directa, sencilla, pero siempre con un “algo” que te atrapa. Esta novela de Ishiguro no es una excepción.

En ella nos cuenta la historia de Ono, (bueno para ser sincero Ono nos cuenta su propia historia ya que está contada en primera persona) un pintor laureado en el pasado, que reflexiona sobre su carrera pictórica desde la experiencia y la madurez que le proporciona su edad. La historia está ambientada en el Japón posterior a la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Ono en su juventud era un pintor que apoyó al Japón imperial, lo que le acarreó enemistades entre los demás pintores, y aunque era reconocido por la crítica, con el paso de los años reflexiona y esto le hace replantearse su pasado, más aún cuando las nuevas generaciones quieren tomar ejemplo de todo lo que hacen los estadounidenses y no ven con buenos ojos su obra.

Es un libro que propone algunas reflexiones muy interesantes sobre temas como la moral, las dificultades por las que pasan los artistas para expresarse, las elecciones que deben realizar en su carrera…

Yo personalmente como “intento de artista” sé que hay veces en que te planteas si seguir haciendo lo que a tí realmente te gusta o intentar acercarte más a lo que guste a la mayoría. Yo de momento lo tengo claro, pobre pero auténtico.

Por último os dejo una crítica de un colega, para que tengais una opinión más.

The twelve stories in Under the Red Flag take place during China's Cultural Revolution. Ha Jin, who was raised in China and emigrated to the United States after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, writes about loss and moral deterioration with the keen sense of a survivor. His stories examine life in the bleak rural town of Dismount Fort, where the men and women are full of passion and certainty but blinded by their limited vision as they grapple with honor and shame, manhood and death, infidelity and repression.

In "A Man-to-Be," a militiaman engaged to be married participates in a gang rape, but finds himself impotent when he looks into the eyes of the victim. His fiancee's family breaks off the engagement, not because of the rape, but because they doubt his virility. In "Winds and Clouds over a Funeral," a Communist leader disobeys his mother's last wish for burial to keep his good standing in the party, but his enemies bring him down for being a bad son. "In Broad Daylight" is the story of the public humiliation of a woman accused of being a whore. Her dignified defiance is gradually stripped away as she is dragged through the streets, cursed and spat upon by strangers and family alike.

In Under the Red Flag, privacy is nonexistent and paranoia rules as neighbor turns against neighbor, husband turns against wife, state turns against individual, history turns against humanity. These stories display the earnestness and grandeur of human folly, and in a larger sense, form a moral history of a time and a place.

Considered one of Sweden's greatest 20th-century writers, Vilhelm Moberg created Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson to portray the joys and tragedies of daily life for early Swedish pioneers in America. His consistently faithful depiction of these humble people's lives is a major strength of the Emigrant Novels. Moberg's extensive research in the papers of Swedish emigrants in archival collections, including the Minnesota Historical Society, enabled him to incorporate many details of pioneer life. First published between 1949 and 1959 in Swedish, these four books were considered a single work by Moberg, who intended that they be read as documentary novels. These new editions contain introductions written by Roger McKnight, Gustavus Adolphus College, and restore Moberg's bibliography not included in earlier English editions.Book 2 opens in the summer of 1850 as the emigrants disembark in New York City. Their journey to a new home in Minnesota Territory takes them by riverboat, steam wagon, Great Lakes steamship, and oxcart to Chisago County."It's important to have Moberg's Emigrant Novels available for another generation of readers."-Bruce Karstadt, American Swedish Institute

Радіоведучий Марк Лютий, головний герой роману Василя Зими «Ukrainian dream. Последний заговор» працює в своє задоволення і готується до весілля з донькою олігарха. Та раптом до нього потрапляє вбивчий компромат на відомих політиків і він має обирати: піти на компроміс з власним сумлінням чи узятися за справу, ризикуючи втратити все, навіть власне життя. Долі героїв переплітаються, події, наче в калейдоскопі, змінюють одна одну. Хто переможе, а хто загине – відповіді у романі.

Радіоведучий Марк Лютий, головний герой роману Василя Зими «Ukrainian dream. Последний заговор» працює в своє задоволення і готується до весілля з донькою олігарха. Та раптом до нього потрапляє вбивчий компромат на відомих політиків і він має обирати: піти на компроміс з власним сумлінням чи узятися за справу, ризикуючи втратити все, навіть власне життя. Долі героїв переплітаються, події, наче в калейдоскопі, змінюють одна одну. Хто переможе, а хто загине — відповіді у романі.

Breaking all the rules of life, love and death.

Prepare yourself to be engulfed in two worlds.

One within Catherine’s dreams, the other the life she is living. Catherine will be left to navigate her way through an eerie sequence of events that threaten her both emotionally and physically in pursuit of the mystery that surrounds her love for James.

Can she figure it out before it’s too late?

Or will history repeat itself…

Unformed Landscape begins in a small village on a fjord in the Finnmark, on the northeastern coast of Norway, where the borders between Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia lie covered in snow and darkness, where the real borders are between day and night, summer and winter, and between people. Here, a sensitive young woman like Kathrine finds few outlets for her desires. Half Norwegian, half Sami (an indigenous people), Kathrine works for the customs office inspecting the fishing boats arriving regularly in the harbor. She is in her late 20s, has a son from an early marriage, and has drifted into a second loveless marriage to a man whose cold and dominating conventionality forms a bold stroke through the unformed landscape of her life. After she makes a discovery about her husband that deeply wounds her, Kathrine cuts loose from her moorings and her confusion and sets off in search of herself.

Her journey begins aboard a ship headed south, taking her below the Arctic Circle for the first time in her life. Kathrine makes her way to France and has the bittersweet experience of a love affair that flares and dies quickly, her starved senses rewarded by the shimmering beauty of Paris. Through a series of poignant encounters, Kathrine is led to the richer life she was meant to have and is brave enough to claim.

Using simple words strung together in a melodic alphabet, Peter Stamm introduces us, through a series of intimate sketches, to the heart of an unforgettable woman. Her story speaks eloquently about solitude, the fragility of love, lost illusions, and self-discovery.

Darcey Steinke's first novel, now back in print, is an unusually assured and lyrical debut. Set on an island resort town off North Carolina, it tells of summer people and islanders, mothers and sons, women and men, love and its dangers. It is the story of Emily, a woman free as the waves she swims in every day, of the man who wants to clip her wings, of her son and the summer that he will become a man. George Garrett called it "clean-cut, lean-lined, quickly moving, and audacious. . [Steinke is] compassionate without sentimentality, romantic without false feelings, and clearly and extravagantly gifted." "Beautifully written. . a seamless and almost instinctive prose that often reads more like poetry than fiction." — Robert Olmstead, The New York Times Book Review; "Dazzling and charged. . Darcey Steinke has the sensuous and precise visions of female and male, and of the light and dark at the edge of the sea." — John Casey.

When Nicholson Baker, one of the most linguistically talented writers in America, set out to write a book about John Updike, the result was no ordinary biography. Instead Baker's account of his relationship with his hero is a hilarious story of ambition, obsession, talent and neurosis, alternately self-deprecating and self-aggrandizing. More memoir than literary criticism, Baker is excruciatingly honest, and U & I reveals at least as much about Baker himself as it does about his idol. Written twenty years before Updike's death in 2009, U & I is a very smart and extremely funny exploration of the debts we owe our heroes.

Winner of the 2014 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

A BEAUTIFUL, HAUNTING NOVEL INSPIRED BY THE TRUE LIFE AND LOVES OF THE FAMED RUSSIAN SCIENTIST, INVENTOR AND SPY LEV TERMEN — CREATOR OF THE THEREMIN.

Us Conductors takes us from the glamour of Jazz Age New York to the gulags and science prisons of the Soviet Union. On a ship steaming its way from Manhattan back to Leningrad, Lev Termen writes a letter to his “one true love”, Clara Rockmore, telling her the story of his life. Imprisoned in his cabin, he recalls his early years as a scientist, inventing the theremin and other electric marvels, and the Kremlin’s dream that these inventions could be used to infiltrate capitalism itself. Instead, New York infiltrated Termen — he fell in love with the city’s dance clubs and speakeasies, with the students learning his strange instrument, and with Clara, a beautiful young violinist. Amid ghostly sonatas, kung-fu tussles, brushes with Chaplin and Rockefeller, a mission to Alcatraz, the novel builds to a crescendo: Termen’s spy games fall apart and he is forced to return home, where he’s soon consigned to a Siberian gulag. Only his wits can save him, but they will also plunge him even deeper toward the dark heart of Stalin’s Russia.

Us Conductors is a book of longing and electricity. Like Termen’s own life, it is steeped in beauty, wonder and looping heartbreak. How strong is unrequited love? What does it mean when it is the only thing keeping you alive? This sublime debut inhabits the idea of invention on every level, no more so than in its depiction of Termen’s endless feelings for Clara — against every realistic odd. For what else is love, but the greatest invention of all?

“Michaels’ book is based on the life of Lev Termen, the Russian-born inventor of the Theremin, the most ethereal of musical instruments. As the narrative shifts countries and climates, from the glittery brightness of New York in the 1920s to the leaden cold of the Soviet Union under Stalin, the grace of Michaels’s style makes these times and places seem entirely new. He succeeds at one of the hardest things a writer can do: he makes music seem to sing from the pages of a novel.”

— Giller Prize Jury Citation

‘Too clever for its own good in parts, but otherwise a damned good read.’ Col. Sebastian Moran in the Simla Times.

‘This anthology may be likened to a vast architectural folly imblending the idioms of the Greek, Gothic, Oriental, Baroque, Scottish Baronial and Bauhaus schools. Like one who, absently sauntering the streets of Barcelona, suddenly beholds the breathtaking grandeur of Gaudi’s Familia Sagrada, I am compelled to admire a display of power and intricacy whose precise purpose evades me. Is the structure haunted by a truth too exalted and ghostly to dwell in a plainer edifice? Perhaps. I wonder. I doubt.’ Lady Nicola Stewart, Countess of Dunfermline in The Celtic Needlewoman.

Alasdair Gray’s most playful book earned a place in this Classic Series by being in print since first published by Canongate in 1983. This completely amended edition has two new stories; also a postscript by the author and Douglas Gifford.

"Hoang invited over twenty adventurous writers to submit unfinished stories that she then completed. Story fragments ranged from a few sentences to a few pages, and manifested in wildly different styles."

Perry and Baby Girl are best friends, though you wouldn’t know it if you met them. Their friendship is woven from the threads of never-ending dares and power struggles, their loyalty fierce but incredibly fraught. They spend their nights sneaking out of their trailers, stealing cars for joyrides, and doing all they can to appear hard to the outside world.With all their energy focused on deceiving themselves and the people around them, they don’t know that real danger lurks: Jamey, an alleged high school student from a nearby town, has been pining after Perry from behind the computer screen in his mother’s trailer for some time now, following Perry and Baby Girl’s every move — on Facebook, via instant messaging and text,and, unbeknownst to the girls, in person. When Perry and Baby Girl finally agree to meet Jamey face-to-face, they quickly realize he’s far from the shy high school boy they thought he was, and they’ll do whatever is necessary to protect themselves.

Lindsay Hunter's stories have been called "mesmerizing. . visceral. . exquisite" (Chicago Tribune), and in Ugly Girls she calls on all her faculties as a wholly original storyteller to deliver the most searing, poignant, powerful debut novel in years.

Undermajordomo Minor is the raucous, poignant and spectacularly enjoyable new masterpiece from the author of Man Booker Prize-shortlisted The Sisters Brothers.

Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the bucolic hamlet of Bury. Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, he is a compulsive liar and a melancholy weakling. When Lucy accepts employment assisting the majordomo of the remote, forbidding castle of the Baron Von Aux he meets thieves, madmen, aristocrats, and a puppy. He also meets Klara, a delicate beauty who is, unfortunately, already involved with an exceptionally handsome partisan soldier. Thus begins a tale of polite theft, bitter heartbreak, domestic mystery and cold-blooded murder in which every aspect of human behaviour is laid bare for our hero to observe. Lucy must stay safe, and protect his puppy, because someone or something is roaming the corridors of the castle late at night.

Undermajordomo Minor is a triumphant ink-black comedy of manners by the Man Booker shortlisted author of The Sisters Brothers. It is an adventure story, and a mystery, and a searing portrayal of rural Alpine bad behaviour with a brandy tart, but above all it is a love story. And Lucy must be careful, for love is a violent thing.

A husband wakes up to find that his wife has had a seizure during the night. The husband calls an ambulance and his wife is rushed to a hospital where she lies in a coma. By day, the husband sits beside his wife and tries to think of ways to wake her up. At night, the husband sleeps in the chair next to his wife’s bedside dreaming that she will wake up. He wants to be able to take her back home. Years later, the story of this long and loving marriage is retold by their grandson. He wants to understand his grandmother's life and death, what it meant to his grandfather, and what it means to him. He wants to understand — in his own words — "how love can accumulate between two people."

Praise for Lincoln Michel:

"Lincoln Michel is one of contemporary literary culture's greatest natural resources." — Justin Taylor, Vice

"Weird, darkly funny stories…Michel ably handles modes from lyrical to ironic.” — New York Times

Children go to school long after all the teachers have disappeared, a man manages an apartment complex of attempted suicides, and a couple navigates their relationship in the midst of a zombie attack. In these short stories, we are the upright beasts, doing battle with our darker, weirder impulses as the world collapses around us.

“Lincoln Michel’s stories are strange, haunting and often very funny beasts. His prose is rich and also spare. He can kill you in two pages or take you for a long, dangerous, kooky ride — and then kill you. And by kill you, I mean thrill you. Savor this book and welcome Mr. Michel.”—Sam Lipsyte

“In Upright Beasts, Lincoln Michel uses the unreal and the surreal in ways that allow his readers to understand something about the human condition. Who are we when someone allows us to see ourselves more clearly? We are pitiful, ridiculous, beautiful, sometimes brave and sometimes cowards, but always — in these stories — illuminated.”—Kelly Link

“Many first books carry the suggestion of promise, of wonderful things to come, but it is most unusual to encounter a debut as agile and assured and utterly dazzling as Upright Beasts. These stories are mighty surrealist wonders, mordantly funny and fiercely intelligent, and Lincoln Michel is a writer that will leave you in awe.”—Laura van den Berg

“Lincoln Michel has created a sinister landscape that feels at once uncomfortably familiar and yet truly strange. This is the post-pastoral as creeping horror story — a kind of secret, alternate history of a forgotten America, a country of half-dead towns and empty streets. There are welcome echoes of Barthelme and others in here, but Michel’s voice carries through, darkly intelligent and unmistakably original. A tremendous debut.”—Charles Yu

“The world presented in Michel’s admirable debut collection is similar to our own, yet twisted just enough to feel strange. . Michel frequently knocks his brief bursts of prose out of the park.”—Publishers Weekly

“Deadpan and life affirming, the stories in this genre-bending debut veer from an apartment complex for the suicidal to a ghostly artists’ colony to the innards of wild things.”—O Magazine

Inspired by Nigeria’s folktales and its war, Under the Udala Trees is a deeply searching, powerful debut about the dangers of living and loving openly.

Ijeoma comes of age as her nation does; born before independence, she is eleven when civil war breaks out in the young republic of Nigeria. Sent away to safety, she meets another displaced child and they, star-crossed, fall in love. They are from different ethnic communities. They are also both girls. When their love is discovered, Ijeoma learns that she will have to hide this part of herself. But there is a cost to living inside a lie.

As Edwidge Danticat has made personal the legacy of Haiti’s political coming of age, Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees uses one woman’s lifetime to examine the ways in which Nigerians continue to struggle toward selfhood. Even as their nation contends with and recovers from the effects of war and division, Nigerian lives are also wrecked and lost from taboo and prejudice. This story offers a glimmer of hope — a future where a woman might just be able to shape her life around truth and love.

Acclaimed by Vogue, the Financial Times, and many others, Chinelo Okparanta continues to distill “experience into something crystalline, stark but lustrous” (New York Times Book Review). Under the Udala Trees marks the further rise of a star whose “tales will break your heart open” (New York Daily News).

A wild, erotic novel — a daring debut — from the much-admired, award-winning poet, author of Flying Inland, A History of Yearning, and With Robert Lowell and His Circle: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz, and Others. A strange, haunting novel about survival and love in all its forms; about sexual awakenings and dark secrets; about European refugee intellectuals who have fled Hitler’s armies with their dreams intact and who have come to an elusive new (American) “can do, will do” world they cannot seem to find. A novel steeped in surreal storytelling and beautiful music that transports its half-broken souls — and us — to another realm of the senses.

The setting: the early 1940s, New York — city of refuge, city of hope, with the specter of a red-hot Europe at war.

At the novel’s center: Anna (known as the Rat), an exotic Hungarian countess with the face of an angel, beautiful eyes, and a seraphic smile, with a passionate intelligence, an exquisite ugliness, and the power to enchant. . Her second cousin Herbert, a former minor Austrian civil servant who believes in Esperanto and the international rights of man, wheeling and dealing in New York, powerful in the social sphere yet under the thumb of his wife, Adeline. . Michael, their missing homosexual son. . Felix, a German pediatrician who dabbles in genetic engineering, practicing from his Upper East Side office with his little dachshund, Schatzie, by his side. . The Tolstoi String Quartet, four men and their instruments, who for twenty years lived as one, playing the great concert halls of Europe, escaping to New York with their money sewn into the silk linings of their instrument cases. .

And watching them all: Herbert’s eight-year-old granddaughter, Maria, who understands from the furtive fear of her mother, and the huddled penury of their lives, and the sense of being in hiding, even in New York, that life is a test of courage and silence, Maria witnessing the family’s strange comings and goings, being regaled at night, when most are asleep, with the intoxicating, thrilling stories of their secret pasts. . of lives lived in Saint Petersburg. . of husbands being sent to the front and large, dangerous debts owed to the Tsar of imperial Russia, of late-night visits by coach to the palace of the Romanovs to beg for mercy and avoid execution. . and at the heart of the stories, told through the long nights with no dawn in sight, the strange, electrifying tale of a pact made in desperation with the private adviser to the Tsar and Tsarina — the mystic faith healer Grigory Rasputin (Russian for “debauched one”), a pact of “companionship” between Anna (the Rat) and the scheming Siberian peasant — turned — holy man, called the Devil by some, the self-proclaimed “only true Christ,” meeting night after night in Rasputin’s apartments, and the spellbinding, unspeakable things done there in the name of penance and pleasure. .

At the heart of this novel lies the fictional village of Ulverton. It is the fixed point in a book that spans three hundred years. Different voices tell the story of Ulverton: one of Cromwell's soldiers staggers home to find his wife remarried and promptly disappears, an eighteenth century farmer carries on an affair with a maid under his wife's nose, a mother writes letters to her imprisoned son, a 1980s real estate company discover a soldier's skeleton, dated to the time of Cromell…

Told through diaries, sermons, letters, drunken pub conversations and film scripts this is a masterful novel that reconstructs the unrecorded history of England.

What if Charles Dickens had written a 21st century thriller? Welcome to Dingley Dell. The Encyclopedia Britannica (Ninth Edition), a King James Bible, a world atlas, and a complete set of the novels of Charles Dickens are the only books left to the orphans of Dingley Dell when the clandestine anthropological experiment begins. From these, they develop their own society, steeped in Victorian tradition and the values of a Dickensian world. For over a century Dinglians live out this semi-idyllic and anachronistic existence, aided only by minimal trade with the supposedly plague-ridden Outland. But these days are quickly coming to an end. The experiment, which has evolved into a lucrative voyeuristic peep-box for millionaires and their billionaire descendants, has run its course. Dingley Dell must be totally expunged, and with it, all trace of the thousands of neo-Victorians who live there. A few Dinglians learn the secret of both their manipulated past and their doomed future, and this small, motley crew of Dickensian innocents must race the clock to save their countrymen and themselves from mass annihilation.

“Ms. Jufresa: Where the f*#! did you learn to tell a story so well?”

— Álvaro Enrigue, award-winning author of Sudden Death

It started with a drowning.

Deep in the heart of Mexico City, where five houses cluster around a sun-drenched courtyard, lives Ana, a precocious twelve-year-old who spends her days buried in Agatha Christie novels to forget the mysterious death of her little sister years earlier. Over the summer she decides to plant a milpa in her backyard, and as she digs the ground and plants her seeds, her neighbors in turn delve into their past. The ripple effects of grief, childlessness, illness and displacement saturate their stories, secrets seep out and questions emerge — Who was my wife? Why did my Mom leave? Can I turn back the clock? And how could a girl who knew how to swim drown?

In prose that is dazzlingly inventive, funny and tender, Laia Jufresa immerses us in the troubled lives of her narrators, deftly unpicking their stories to offer a darkly comic portrait of contemporary Mexico, as whimsical as it is heart-wrenching.

L'étouffoir… Ce n'est pas seulement cette lande qui sent le pin brûlé. Maltaverne et ses deux mille hectares, ses papillons cloués à la résine des arbres… C'est aussi cette force obscure qui saisit les êtres, les incendie…

Alain est l'héritier de ce domaine. Il aime Marie, du moins la désire. Mais elle n'a pas de dot et, quand on s'appelle Alain Gajac, on ne se commet pas avec une employée de librairie.

Madame Gajac, sa mère, ne rêne que stères de bois et bourgeoisie bien pensante… Ses fantômes, qui les connaît ? Quant à Jeannette, cette innocente, elle est déjà fauchée avant même que d'être en fleur. Alain sait qu'on la lui destine. Il l'a surnommée « le pou »…

Malaise, mal d'aimer… À Maltaverne, le drame couve, exacerbé par le ciel brûlant des Landes. Car tous, à commencer par cet adolescent d'autrefois, ont oublié une chose : vivre…

Giannina Braschi explores the cultural and political journey of nearly 50 million Hispanic Americans living in the United States in this explosive new work of fiction, her first written originally in English. United States of Banana takes place at the Statue of Liberty in post-9/11 New York City, where Hamlet, Zarathustra, and Giannina are on a quest to free the Puerto Rican prisoner Segismundo. Segismundo has been imprisoned for more than one hundred years, hidden away by his father, the king of the United States of Banana, for the crime of having been born. But when the king remarries, he frees his son, and for the sake of reconciliation, makes Puerto Rico the fifty-first state and grants American passports to all Latin American citizens. This staggering show of benevolence rocks the global community, causing an unexpected power shift with far-reaching implications. In a world struggling to realign itself in favor of liberty, United States of Banana is a force to be reckoned with in literature, art, and politics.

“The best work of art on the subject of September 11th that I have ever experienced!” — Mircea Cartarescu

“Revolutionary in subject and form, United States of Banana is a beautifully written declaration of personal independence. Giannina Braschi’s take on U.S. relations with our southern neighbors in Latin America and the Caribbean, most especially Puerto Rico, is an eye-opener. The ire and irony make for an explosive combination and a very exciting read.”

— Barney Rosset, The Evergreen Review

“Good poets write great poems. Great poets create a new language. Giannina Braschi is a brilliant artist who has invented a syntax that reveals how we think, suffer, and take delight in the twenty-first century. Though the tone can be playful, her work has deep roots in the subversive side of classical literature. The scale is epic.” — D. Nurkse

Michael Mahana’s personal disclosure to his parents leads to the uncovering of another family secret about his uncle, Sam, who had fought in the Vietnam War. Now, armed with his uncle’s diary, Michael goes searching for the truth about his uncle, about the secret the Mahana family has kept hidden for over thirty years, and what happened to Sam.Set in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam and in present-day New Zealand and North America, Witi Ihimaera’s dramatic novel combines the superb story-telling of Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies with the unflinching realism of Nights in the Gardens of Spain. A powerful love story, it courageously confronts Maori attitudes to sexuality and masculinity and contains some of Ihimaera’s most passionate writing to date.

Winner of an Edgar Award for Best First Novel for Bent Road, Lori Roy returns with Until She Comes Home, a tale of spellbinding suspense in which a pair of seemingly unrelated murders crumbles the facade of a changing Detroit neighborhood.

In 1958 Detroit, on Alder Avenue, neighbors struggle to care for neighbors amid a city ripe with conflicts that threaten their peaceful street.

Grace, Alder's only expectant mother, eagerly awaits her first born. Best friend Julia prepares to welcome twin nieces. And Malina sets the tone with her stylish dresses, tasteful home, and ironfisted stewardship of St. Alban's bake sale.

Life erupts when childlike Elizabeth disappears while in the care of Grace and Julia. All the ladies fear the recent murder of a black woman at the factory on Willingham Avenue where their husbands work may warn of what has become of Elizabeth, and they worry what is yet to become of Julia – the last to see Elizabeth alive.

The men mount an around-the-clock search, leaving their families vulnerable to sinister elements hidden in plain sight. Only Grace knows what happened, but her mother warns her not to tell. "No man wants to know this about his wife." Ashamed that her silence puts loved ones in harm's way, Grace gravitates toward the women of Willingham Avenue, who recognize her suffering as their own. Through their acceptance, Grace conquers her fear and dares to act.

On Alder Avenue, vicious secrets bind friends, neighbors, and spouses. For the wicked among them, the walk home will be long.

Ceci est l'histoire de la mort d'Héléna.

Seulement pour bien comprendre sa mort, il nous faut auparavant parler de sa vie. Laquelle des deux fut la plus mystérieuse, la plus secrète ?

Mais au fait : qui était Héléna ?

Un feu dévore un autre feu, un grand roman d'amour, un drame de la passion, enchâssé dans un drame social dont les vingt dernières années nous ont fourni de bouleversants exemples. Imaginaire, se déroulant dans un pays non précisé, en vingt-six jours, cette histoire, où l'amour triomphe malgré tout, emprunte ses passages les plus intenses au tragique le plus réel de notre temps.

In this “compelling, clever, and dark” (Heat magazine) thriller, a man’s shocking act of savagery stuns a local community—and the revelations that follow will keep you gripped until the very last page. This work of psychological suspense, a #1 bestseller in Ireland, is perfect for fans of Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Ware.

“I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.”

So begins Liz Nugent’s astonishing debut novel—a chilling, elegantly crafted, and psychologically astute exploration of the nature of evil.

Oliver Ryan, handsome, charismatic, and successful, has long been married to his devoted wife, Alice. Together they write and illustrate award-winning children’s books; their life together one of enviable privilege and ease—until, one evening after a delightful dinner, Oliver delivers a blow to Alice that renders her unconscious, and subsequently beats her into a coma.

In the aftermath of such an unthinkable event, as Alice hovers between life and death, the couple’s friends, neighbors, and acquaintances try to understand what could have driven Oliver to commit such a horrific act. As his story unfolds, layers are peeled away to reveal a life of shame, envy, deception, and masterful manipulation. With its alternating points of view and deft prose, Unraveling Oliver is “a page-turning, one-sitting read from a brand new master of psychological suspense” (Sunday Independent) that details how an ordinary man can transform into a sociopath.

ENTRE MAD MAX 2 ET LA ROUTE : LE NOUVEAU CHEF-D'ŒUVRE POST-APOCALYPTIQUE.

L'ouragan Katrina n'était qu'un signe avant-coureur ; après des années de catastrophes écologiques, le sud des États-Unis, de l'Alabama au Texas, s'apparente désormais à un véritable no man's land. Plutôt que de reconstruire sans cesse, le gouvernement a tracé une frontière et ordonné l'évacuation de la zone. Le sud de la Limite est devenu une terre de non-droit ravagée en permanence par les tempêtes et les orages diluviens — un royaume sans électricité, sans ressources et sans lois.

Cohen fait partie de ceux qui, envers et contre tout, ont choisi de rester. Terrassé par la mort de sa femme et de l’enfant quelle portait, il s’efforce de panser ses blessures, seul avec son chien et son cheval.

Mais nul ne peut vivre éternellement dans les brumes du passé. Bientôt forcé de sortir de chez lui, il découvre une colonie de survivants menée par Aggie, un prêcheur fanatique hanté de visions mystiques. L'homme retenant contre leur gré des femmes et des enfants, Cohen les libère, et se met en tête de leur faire franchir la Limite. Commence alors, à travers un paysage dévasté, un étrange et terrible périple avec, pour horizon principal, l'espoir d’une humanité peut-être retrouvée.

Comparé par une critique américaine dithyrambique à La Route de McCarthy et aux âpres chefs-d'œuvre de Faulkner, Une pluie sans fin orchestre avec une étourdissante maestria les noces du conte métaphysique et de l'épopée funèbre, porté par une langue incantatoire.

Michael Farris Smith vit à Columbus, Mississippi. Une pluie sans fin est son premier roman.

Traduit de l'anglais (États-Unis) par Michelle Charrier

« De temps à autre apparaît un auteur amoureux de soir art du langage écrit […] et des grands mystères gui résident de l'autre côté du monde physique. Il y avait William Faulkner Cormac McCarthy ou Annie Proulx. Vous pouvez maintenant ajouter Michael Farris Smith à la liste. »

James Lee Burke

Trois femmes, trois âges, trois amies que les hasards de l’existence et les épreuves ont rapprochées dans un lieu comme aucun autre.

Trois façons d’aimer. Aucune ne semble conduire au bonheur.

Séparément, elles sont perdues. Ensemble, elles ont une chance.

Accrochées à leurs espoirs face aux tempêtes que leur réserve le destin, avec l’énergie et l’imagination propres à celles qui veulent s’en sortir, elles vont tenter le tout pour le tout. Personne ne dit que ça ne fera pas de dégâts…

Fidèle à son humanité et à son humour, grâce à son regard unique fait de sensibilité et d’un exceptionnel sens de l’observation de la nature humaine, Gilles Legardinier nous entraîne cette fois au cœur d’une troupe réjouissante, à la croisée des chemins.

Auteur, scénariste, producteur et réalisateur, Gilles Legardinier s’est toujours attaché à faire naître des émotions qui se partagent.

En quelques livres singuliers, alternant les genres avec un même talent, il s’est imposé comme un des auteurs français majeurs dont le succès dépasse très largement nos frontières.

A collection of seventeen wonderful short stories showing that two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor.

A gentle Eastern European immigrant arrives in New York City after his family and his life have been torn apart by his country’s civil war. A man who loves to bowl rolls a perfect game—and then another and then another and then many more in a row until he winds up ESPN’s newest celebrity, and he must decide if the combination of perfection and celebrity has ruined the thing he loves. An eccentric billionaire and his faithful executive assistant venture into America looking for acquisitions and discover a down and out motel, romance, and a bit of real life. These are just some of the tales Tom Hanks tells in this first collection of his short stories. They are surprising, intelligent, heartwarming, and, for the millions and millions of Tom Hanks fans, an absolute must-have!

David Nicholls brings the wit and intelligence that graced his enormously popular New York Times bestseller, One Day, to a compellingly human, deftly funny new novel about what holds marriages and families together — and what happens, and what we learn about ourselves, when everything threatens to fall apart.

Douglas Petersen may be mild-mannered, but behind his reserve lies a sense of humor that, against all odds, seduces beautiful Connie into a second date … and eventually into marriage. Now, almost three decades after their relationship first blossomed in London, they live more or less happily in the suburbs with their moody seventeen year-old son, Albie. Then Connie tells him she thinks she wants a divorce.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Hoping to encourage her son’s artistic interests, Connie has planned a month-long tour of European capitals, a chance to experience the world’s greatest works of art as a family, and she can’t bring herself to cancel. And maybe going ahead with the original plan is for the best anyway? Douglas is privately convinced that this landmark trip will rekindle the romance in the marriage, and might even help him to bond with Albie.

Narrated from Douglas’s endearingly honest, slyly witty, and at times achingly optimistic point of view, Us is the story of a man trying to rescue his relationship with the woman he loves, and learning how to get closer to a son who’s always felt like a stranger. Us is a moving meditation on the demands of marriage and parenthood, the regrets of abandoning youth for middle age, and the intricate relationship between the heart and the head. And in David Nicholls’s gifted hands, Douglas’s odyssey brings Europe — from the streets of Amsterdam to the famed museums of Paris, from the cafés of Venice to the beaches of Barcelona — to vivid life just as he experiences a powerful awakening of his own. Will this summer be his last as a husband, or the moment when he turns his marriage, and maybe even his whole life, around?

‘There they stood, bumbling into lines with a bit of difficulty: Mother Finland’s chosen sacrifice to world history’

Unknown Soldiers follows the fates of a ramshackle troupe of machine-gunners in the Second World War, as they argue, joke, swear, cadge a loaf of bread or a cigarette, combat both boredom and horror in the swamps and pine forests – and discover that war will make or break them. One of Finland’s best-loved books, this gritty and unromantic depiction of battle honours the dogged determination of a country and the bonds of brotherhood forged between men at war, as they fight for their lives.

‘A rediscovered classic… profound and enriching… Unknown Soldiers still has the power to shock’ Herald

‘One of the best war novels ever written’ Guardian

About the Author

Väinö Linna (1920–1992) was one of the most influential Finnish authors of the 20th century. He shot to immediate literary fame with his third novel, Tuntematon sotilas (Unknown Soldiers), and consolidated his position with the trilogy Täällä Pohjantähden alla (Under the North Star).

‘There they stood, bumbling into lines with a bit of difficulty: Mother Finland’s chosen sacrifice to world history’

Unknown Soldiers follows the fates of a ramshackle troupe of machine-gunners in the Second World War, as they argue, joke, swear, cadge a loaf of bread or a cigarette, combat both boredom and horror in the swamps and pine forests – and discover that war will make or break them. One of Finland’s best-loved books, this gritty and unromantic depiction of battle honours the dogged determination of a country and the bonds of brotherhood forged between men at war, as they fight for their lives.

‘A rediscovered classic… profound and enriching… Unknown Soldiers still has the power to shock’ Herald

‘One of the best war novels ever written’ Guardian

About the Author

Väinö Linna (1920–1992) was one of the most influential Finnish authors of the 20th century. He shot to immediate literary fame with his third novel, Tuntematon sotilas (Unknown Soldiers), and consolidated his position with the trilogy Täällä Pohjantähden alla (Under the North Star).

‘There they stood, bumbling into lines with a bit of difficulty: Mother Finland’s chosen sacrifice to world history’

Unknown Soldiers follows the fates of a ramshackle troupe of machine-gunners in the Second World War, as they argue, joke, swear, cadge a loaf of bread or a cigarette, combat both boredom and horror in the swamps and pine forests – and discover that war will make or break them. One of Finland’s best-loved books, this gritty and unromantic depiction of battle honours the dogged determination of a country and the bonds of brotherhood forged between men at war, as they fight for their lives.

‘A rediscovered classic… profound and enriching… Unknown Soldiers still has the power to shock’ Herald

‘One of the best war novels ever written’ Guardian

About the Author

Väinö Linna (1920–1992) was one of the most influential Finnish authors of the 20th century. He shot to immediate literary fame with his third novel, Tuntematon sotilas (Unknown Soldiers), and consolidated his position with the trilogy Täällä Pohjantähden alla (Under the North Star).

« La vie est une hécatombe. 59 millions de morts par an. 1,9 par seconde. 158 857 par jour. Depuis que vous lisez ce paragraphe, une vingtaine de personnes sont décédées dans le monde — davantage si vous lisez lentement. L’humanité est décimée dans l’indifférence générale.

Pourquoi tolérons-nous ce carnage quotidien sous prétexte que c’est un processus naturel ? Avant je pensais à la mort une fois par jour. Depuis que j’ai franchi le cap du demi-siècle, j’y pense toutes les minutes.

Ce livre raconte comment je m’y suis pris pour cesser de trépasser bêtement comme tout le monde. Il était hors de question de décéder sans réagir. »

F. B.

Contrairement aux apparences, ceci n’est pas un roman de science-fiction.

"Веру в Бога на поток!" - вот призыв нового реалити-шоу, участником которого становится старец Лазарь. Что он получит в конце этого проекта?