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The Villa: Escape to Sicily with the Number One Bestseller
By Rosanna Ley. 2014
THE #1 KINDLE BESTSELLER. An unforgettable story set off the sun-soaked coast of Sicily for fans of Dinah Jefferies, Victoria…
Hislop and Santa Montefiore.'The perfect holiday companion' - Heat'The ultimate feel-good read' - Candis'Sun-soaked escapism' - Best**********When Tess Angel receives a solicitor's letter inviting her to claim her inheritance - the Villa Sirena, perched on a clifftop in Sicily - she is stunned. Her only link to the island is through her mother, Flavia, who left Sicily during World War II and cut all contact with her family. When Tess goes to Sicily, Flavia realises the secrets from her past are about to be revealed and decides to try to explain her actions. Meanwhile, Tess' teenage daughter Ginny is stressed by college, by her blooming sexuality and filled with questions that she longs to ask her father, if only she knew where he was...********SEE WHAT EVERYONE IS SAYING ABOUT ROSANNA LEY:'An impeccably researched and deftly written narrative that kept me hooked until the end' - Kathryn Hughes, bestselling author of The Letter 'Loved it from start to finish. A brilliant holiday read' - Amazon reviewer'Perfect for fans of Santa Montefiore, Victoria Hislop and Leah Fleming' - Candis 'On so many levels a fantastic read' - Amazon reviewer'A fascinating story with engaging themes' - Dinah Jefferies, bestselling author of The Tea Planter's Wife 'Warm, enthralling, one of my favourite authors' - Amazon reviewerThe Grandissimes
By George Washington Cable, Michael Kreyling. 1988
The House Behind the Cedars
By Charles W. Chesnutt, Donald B. Gibson. 1993
An early masterwork among American literary treatments of miscegenation, Chesnutt's story is of two young African Americans who decide to…
pass for white in order to claim their share of the American dream.Guys Like Me
By Howard Curtis, Dominique Fabre. 2015
"Fabre is a genius of these nuanced, interior moments ... The story Fabre tells is that of every one of…
us: looking for meaning in the mundane, moving through our lives, our interactions, as if through the fabric of a dream ... How do we live? it asks to consider. And: What does our existence mean?"--Los Angeles Times"Guys Like Me is a short, arresting tale that ...not only offers keen insights into the mind of its middle-aged protagonist, but also provides the reader with a unique tour of what everyday life in the low-key suburbs of Paris must truly be like."--Typographical Era"Readers will take pleasure in this well-told tale with a satisfying ending."--Publishers Weekly"The setting may be Paris, but it's not the Paris of grand avenues and pricey cafés. In fact, Fabre's hero is a recognizable everyman, from any country."-Library JournalA smile like a soft flash of light . . . travels through this moving novel and tells, in words that are muted and profoundly humane, of life as it is."-Le Monde"Fabre speaks to us of luck and misfortune, of the accidents that make a man or defeat him. He talks about our ordinary disappointments and our small moments of calm. Fabre is the discreet megaphone of the man in the crowd."-Elle"In this novel one finds the intimate geography of an author who lays bare the essence of Paris and its outskirts."-La Quinzaine littéraireDominique Fabre, born in Paris and a lifelong resident of the city, exposes the shadowy, anonymous lives of many who inhabit the French capital. In this quiet, subdued tale, a middle-aged office worker, divorced and alienated from his only son, meets up with two childhood friends who are similarly adrift, without passions or prospects. He's looking for a second act to his mournful life, seeking the harbor of love and a true connection with his son. Set in palpably real Paris streets that feel miles away from the City of Light, Guys Like Me is a stirring novel of regret and absence, yet not without a glimmer of hope.Dominique Fabre, born in 1960, writes about people living on society's margins. He is a lifelong resident of Paris, France. His previous novel, The Waitress Was New, was also translated into English.The Marrow of Tradition
By Charles W. Chesnutt. 2002
Stay here beside her major I shall not he needed for an hour yet Meanwhile I…
ll go downstairs and snatch a bit of sleep or talk to oldJane The night was hot and sultry Though the windows of the chamber were wide open and the muslin curtains looped back not a breath of air was stirring Only the shrill chirp of the cicada and the muffled croaking of the frogs in some distant marsh broke the night silence The heavy scent of magnolias overpowering even the strong smell of drugs in the sickroom suggested death and funeral wreaths sorrow and tears the long home the last sleep The major shivered with apprehension as the slender hand which he held in his own contracted nervously and in a spasm of pain clutched his fingers with a viselike grip Major Carteret though dressed in brown linen had thrown off his coat for greater comfort The stifling heat in spite of the palm-leaf fan which he plied mechanically was scarcely less oppressive than his own thoughts Long ago while yet a mere boy in years he had come back from Appomattox to find his family one of the oldest and proudest in the state hopelessly impoverished by the war -even their ancestral home swallowed up in the common ruin His elder brother had sacrificed his life on the bloody altar of the lost cause and his father broken and chagrined died not many years later leaving the major the last of his line He had tried in various pursuits to gain a foothold in the new life but with indifferent success until he won the hand of Olivia Merkell whom he had seen grow from a small girl to glorious womanhood With her money he had founded the Morning Chronicle which he had made the leading organ of his party and the most influential paper in the State The fine old house in which they lived was hers In this very room she had first drawn the breath of life it had been their nuptial chamber and here too within a few hours she might die for it seemed impossible that one could long endure such frightful agony and liveThe Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man: The Autobiography Of An Ex-colored Man (Dover Thrift Editions)
By James Weldon Johnson. 1995
One of the most prominent African-Americans of his time, James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was a successful lawyer, educator, social reformer,…
songwriter, and critic. But it was as a poet and novelist that he achieved lasting fame. Among his most famous works, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man in many ways parallels Johnson's own remarkable life. First published in 1912, the novel relates, through an anonymous narrator, events in the life of an American of mixed ethnicity whose exceptional abilities and ambiguous appearance allow him unusual social mobility -- from the rural South to the urban North and eventually to Europe. A radical departure from earlier books by black authors, this pioneering work not only probes the psychological aspects of "passing for white" but also examines the American caste and class system. The human drama is powerful and revealing -- from the narrator's persistent battles with personal demons to his firsthand observations of a Southern lynching and the mingling of races in New York's bohemian atmosphere at the turn of the century. Revolutionary for its time, the Autobiography remains both an unrivaled example of black expression and a major contribution to American literature.Tales of Conjure and The Color Line: 10 Stories (Dover Thrift Editions: Black History)
By Charles Waddell Chesnutt. 1998
Outstanding, affordably priced volume presents a selection of 10 best stories by a pioneer in the development of African-American fiction:…
"The Goophered Grapevine," "Po' Sandy," "Sis' Becky's Pickaninny," "The Wife of His Youth," "Dave's Neckliss," "The Passing of Grandison," "A Matter of Principle," "The Sheriff's Children," "Baxter's Procrustes," and "The Doll." Redolent with wit, charm, and insight; essential reading for students of African-American culture. Edited and with an Introduction by Joan Sherman.The Yellow Wall-Paper, Herland, and Selected Writings
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Denise D. Knight. 1999
A superb collection of fiction and poetry from a major feminist voice in American literature Wonderfully sardonic and slyly humorous,…
the writings of landmark American feminist and socialist thinker Charlotte Perkins Gilman were penned in response to her frustration with the gender-based double standard that prevailed in America as the twentieth century began. Perhaps best known for her chilling depiction of a woman?s mental breakdown in her unforgettable 1892 short story ?The Yellow Wall-Paper,? Gilman also wrote Herland, a cunning, wry novel that imagines a peaceful, progressive, environmentally conscious country from which men have been absent for two thousand years. Both are included in this volume, along with a selection of Gilman?s major short stories and her poems. .At the age of eighty-five my grandfather Napoleon decided he needed to try something new . . . Everything starts…
to go south when Napoleon leaves his wife. An eighty-five-year-old former boxer with a restless, youthful spirit, Napoleon decides to say to hell with it all! He wants a new life. With his ten-year-old grandson Leonard Sunshine, he embarks on a moving adventure, a rebellion against everything that takes the fun out of life. Above all, Leonard is determined to spare his grandfather the fate of the elderly - his final years spent exiled in a retirement home. The chaotic duo adopt a dog, drive a fake taxi, escape to the seaside, sabotage door-to-door salesmen and plot to kidnap a famous radio star. From the heart of Paris to the coast of Normandy, The Last Adventure of Napoleon Sunshine is a moving, life-affirming and melancholy tale of new beginnings and the importance of family.A Summer Reunion: The perfect beach book to read on holiday this summer
By Fanny Blake. 2019
'A lovely holiday read about female friendships past and present. Warm and engaging' Catherine AlliottOne perfect villa, four old friends,…
and a holiday that will change everything...Amy, Linda, Kate and Jane were best friends at school. Now, years later, they have grown apart. When Amy discovers her husband has been stealing from her successful interiors business, and with a milestone birthday looming, she decides it is the time to reach out to her old friends once again. So, she decides to invite the other three to her beautiful villa in Mallorca for a reunion weekend. As the four friends gather, secrets are unearthed, old scores settled and new friendships forged. Will this holiday bring them together or tear them apart? And will each of them grasp their second chance for happiness...?'A warm and uplifting read. I really enjoyed it' Rosanna Ley, author of The Lemon Tree Hotel'A skilfully woven story of old friendships, secrets and lies set against the sun-soaked backdrop of Mallorca. The ideal summer read' Sarah Morgan, author of One Summer in Paris'A fantastic read from one of our favourite authors' Bella'An insightful look at female friendship with a beautiful sunny backdrop' Sunday Express'A great summer read, with relatable characters, an engaging plot and a satisfying ending' WI LifeThe Italian Escape: A feel-good holiday romance set in Italy - the PERFECT beach read for summer 2021
By Catherine Mangan. 2020
Sparkling sea, sun, delicious food and Aperol Spritz - escape to Italy with the perfect summer romance . . .…
Niamh Kelly's life hasn't turned out quite as she'd expected. She's thirty-three, still living at home and was recently dumped . . . by her boss. So when her sister invites her to tag along on a work trip to the sun-drenched Italian coast, Niamh jumps at the chance, eager to escape into a world of sparkling prosecco, delicious food, and breath-taking beaches.Upon her arrival, Niamh immediately falls in love with the beautiful Italian town they're staying in and realises she never wants to leave, deciding instead to stay and open up a quaint coffee shop nestled in charming old town streets - even if she has no idea what she's doing. But when a family tragedy and a tricky tourist season threaten her new business, Niamh isn't so sure she can stick it out. With help from her new-found Italian friends - and the possibility of romance on the horizon - can she make her new life in the sun a success?A glorious and uplifting escapist novel set against the stunning backdrop of the Italian coast. The perfect holiday read for fans of Rosanna Ley, Rachel Hore and Karen SwanEarly readers LOVE The Italian Escape:'This book is the perfect escape. Curl up and enjoy''Beautifully written . . . I just wanted the experience to go on for longer''I really enjoyed this book . . . recommended holiday reading'The Cheffe: A Culinary Novel
By Marie NDiaye. 2016
The Cheffe is born into a very poor family in Sainte-Bazeille in south-western France, but when she takes a job…
working in the kitchen of a couple in the Landes region, it does not take long before it becomes clear that the Cheffe has an unusual, remarkable talent for cooking. She dreams in recipes, she's always imagining food combinations and cooking times, she hunts down elusive flavours and aromas, and she soon usurps the couple's cook.But for all her genius, the Cheffe remains very secretive about the rest of her life. She becomes pregnant, but will not reveal her daughter's father. She shares nothing of her feelings or emotions. And when the demands of her work and caring for her child become too much, she leaves her baby in the care of her family, and sets out to open her own restaurant, which will soon win rave reviews and be lauded by all.But her relationship with her daughter will never be easy, and before long, it will threaten to destroy everything the Cheffe has spent her life perfecting.Madame Bovary of the Suburbs
By Sophie Divry. 2014
The story of a woman's life, from childhood to death, somewhere in provincial France, from the 1950s to just shy…
of 2025. She has doting parents, does well at school, finds a loving husband after one abortive attempt at passion, buys a big house with a moonlit terrace, makes decent money, has children, changes jobs, retires, grows old and dies. All in the comfort that the middle-classes have grown accustomed to. But she's bored. She takes up all sorts of outlets to try to make something happen in her life: adultery, charity work, esotericism, manic house-cleaning, motherhood and various hobbies - each one abandoned faster than the last. But no matter what she does, her life remains unfocussed and unfulfilled. Nothing truly satisfies her, because deep down - just like the town where she lives - the landscape is non-descript, flat, horizontal.Sophie Divry dramatises the philosophical conflict between freedom and comfort that marks women's lives in a materialistic world. Our heroine is an endearing, contemporary Emma Bovary, and Divry's prose will remind readers of the best of Houellebecq, the cold, implacable historian who paints a precise portrait of an era and those who inhabit it and in doing so renders existence indelibly absurd.Translated from the French by Alison AndersonFollow Me: Treat yourself to a short and satisfying love story
By Sheila O'Flanagan. 2011
FOLLOW ME is a fabulously warm, witty and romantic novella from the No. 1 bestselling author Sheila O'Flanagan. A wonderful…
read, perfect for fans of Kerry Lonsdale and Liane Moriarty.Pippa Jones seems to have it all. The only thing that the high-flying career girl is missing is love. When she spots a gorgeous man who seems to be following her everywhere she goes, she wonders if fate is trying to throw them together. But with her job on the line can she afford to make time for this handsome, mysterious stranger?A Foolish Virgin
By Ida Simons. 2014
It is the middle of the roaring twenties, and Gittel is living The Hague with her parents, whose blazing rows…
are the traditional preserve of Sundays and public holidays. What luck, then, that Gittel is Jewish, and must submit to "the double helping of public holidays that is the lot of Jewish families".After every matrimonial slanging match, Gittel's mother runs off to her parents' home in Antwerp - with her daugher in tow. Much to her delight, Gittel makes the acquaintance of the well-to-do Mardell family, who allow her to practise on their Steinway. Gittel feels that she is taken seriously by Mr Mardell, the head of the household, and by thirty-year-old Lucie, whom she adores. When these friendships turn out to be nothing but an illusion, Gittel learns her first lessons about trust and betrayal. Her second comes soon after, when her father, whose talents for business leave much to be desired, attempts to make a quick killing in Berlin on the eve of the Wall Street Crash.Though this intimate portrayal of familial strife is set in the shadow of the Holocaust, Simons says little about the horror that awaits her characters, yet she succeeds in giving the reader the sense that the novel is about more than a young girl's loss of innocence. In a fluid, almost casual style, she has written a masterly and timeless ode to a relatively carefree interlude in a dark and dramatic period.Translated from the Dutch by Liz WatersCry, Mother Spain
By Lydie Salvayre. 2014
Aged fifteen, as Franco's forces begin their murderous purges and cities across Spain rise up against the old order, Montse…
has never heard the word fascista before. In any case, the villagers say facha (the ch is a real Spanish ch, by the way, with a real spit).Montse lives in a small village, high in the hills, where few people can read or write and fewer still ever leave. If everything goes according to her mother's plan, Montse will never leave either. She will become a good, humble maid for the local landowners, muchísimas gracias, with every Sunday off to dance the jota in the church square.But Montse's world is changing. Her brother José has just returned from Lérida with a red and black scarf and a new, dangerous vocabulary and his words are beginning to open up new realms to his little sister. She might not understand half of what he says, but how can anyone become a maid in the Burgos family when their head is ringing with shouts of Revolución, Comunidad and Libertad?The war, it seems, has arrived in the nick of time.The Return
By Dulce Maria Cardoso. 2011
Everyone has gone away... We too should no longer be here.Luanda, 1975. The Angolan War of Independence has been raging…
for at least a decade, but with the collapse of the Salazar dictatorship, defeat for the Portuguese is now in sight. Thousands of settlers are fleeing back to Portugal to escape the brutality of the Angolan rebels.Rui is fifteen years old. He has lived in Luanda all his life and has never even visited the far-away homeland - although he has heard many stories. But now his family are finally accepting that they too must return, and Rui is filled with a mixture of excitement and dread at the prospect. But just as they are leaving for the airport, his father is taken away by the rebels, and the family must leave without him.Not knowing if the father is alive or dead - or if they will ever find out what has become of him, Rui, his mother and sister try to rebuild their lives in their new home. This turns out to be a five star hotel in a quiet, seaside suburb of Lisbon, where returnee families are crammed into luxurious rooms by the dozen. These palatial surroundings are a cruel contrast with the reality of returnee life. The hotel becomes a curious form of purgatory as the families wait to discover what will become of them - ever conscious of the fact that they are hardly welcome back in their homeland. Rui has his own personal struggle with his new life: growing up, dropping out of school, facing discrimination, and the ever-present worry over his mother's deteriorating health and his father's fate.And then one night Rui's father returns from the dead.Translated from the Portuguese by Ángel Gurría-QuintanaMadame Bovary of the Suburbs
By Sophie Divry. 2014
The story of a woman's life, from childhood to death, somewhere in provincial France, from the 1950s to just shy…
of 2025. She has doting parents, does well at school, finds a loving husband after one abortive attempt at passion, buys a big house with a moonlit terrace, makes decent money, has children, changes jobs, retires, grows old and dies. All in the comfort that the middle-classes have grown accustomed to. But she's bored. She takes up all sorts of outlets to try to make something happen in her life: adultery, charity work, esotericism, manic house-cleaning, motherhood and various hobbies - each one abandoned faster than the last. But no matter what she does, her life remains unfocussed and unfulfilled. Nothing truly satisfies her, because deep down - just like the town where she lives - the landscape is non-descript, flat, horizontal.Sophie Divry dramatises the philosophical conflict between freedom and comfort that marks women's lives in a materialistic world. Our heroine is an endearing, contemporary Emma Bovary, and Divry's prose will remind readers of the best of Houellebecq, the cold, implacable historian who paints a precise portrait of an era and those who inhabit it and in doing so renders existence indelibly absurd.Translated from the French by Alison AndersonA Few of the Girls
By Maeve Binchy. 2015
'The Irish do love telling stories, and we are suspicious of people who don't have long, complicated conversations. There used…
to be a rule in etiquette books that you should invite four talkers and four listeners to a dinner party. That doesn't work in Ireland, because nobody knows four listeners' Maeve Binchy Maeve Binchy's bestselling novels not only tell wonderful stories, they also give an insight in to how Ireland has changed over the decades, and how people remain the same: they still fall in love, sometimes unsuitably; they still have hopes and dreams; they have deep, long-standing friendships, and some that fall apart. From her earliest writing to her most recent, Maeve's work has included wonderfully nostalgic pieces and also sharp, often witty writing which is insightful and topical. But at the heart of all Maeve's fiction are the people and their relationships with each other. A FEW OF THE GIRLS is a glorious collection of the very best of her writing, full of the warmth, charm and humour that has always been essentially Maeve.And Then Came Paulette
By Barbara Constantine. 2014
A charming tale of family, friendship, love and loneliness, a feel-good bestseller that put the smiles back on French faces.…
When his son's family move away (with one last argument on their lips), widower Ferdinand is left with only a sadistic kitten for company on a farm that was built for a family. Just as loneliness starts to bite, he discovers his neighbour Marceline has long been shivering beneath a leaky roof. He welcomes her to his farm, temporarily of course, and also provides a home for her dog, and for Cornelius, her gluttonous donkey. As each begrudgingly adjusts to the other's quirks, yet more new arrivals appear. It seems that Ferdinand isn't the only one who was all alone, and the dusty farm becomes a haven for lost souls of every age to share their sorrows and set about rediscovering their joie de vivre. But amidst the newfound hustle and bustle, one final uninvited guest threatens to upset the apple cart once and for all...