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The rings of Saturn
By Michael Hulse, W. G. Sebald, Winfried Georg Sebald. 1999
A walking tour of England's southeast coast frames a wide-ranging series of meditations on literature and stories from Britain's imperial…
past. A stay in a Norwich hospital prompts the protagonist to search for naturalist Thomas Browne's skull; a railroad bridge over the river Blyth recalls England's silk trade with China. 1998The Pillars of Hercules: a grand tour of the Mediterranean
By Paul Theroux. 1995
Although the Pillars of Hercules are only fifteen miles apart, it took Theroux approximately eighteen months to travel between them--he…
took the long way, the old Grand Tour route. Theroux visits places such as Barcelona, Nice, Istanbul, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Albania, Greece, and Morocco by car, boat, train, and footThe land and people of Italy (Portraits of the Nations Ser.)
By David Travis. 1992
Italy, a European peninsula bordered on three sides by five seas and criss-crossed by mountains, is a collection of distinct…
regions. Although built on ancient foundations, Italy was not formed as a single nation until 1861, and it became a democracy in 1946. The author examines the history, geography, economy, culture, and people of Italy. For grades 5-8 and older readersSpain or shine (S.A.S.S. : Students Across the Seven Seas)
By Michelle Jellen. 2005
At home in California, sixteen-year-old Elena Holloway feels overshadowed by her siblings. But then she spends a semester in Spain…
living with a Spanish family, studying playwriting, and flirting with Miguel, an attractive local boy. For grades 6-9. 2005A child's Christmas in Wales (New Directions paperbook #972)
By Dylan Thomas. 2003
The crowded grave (Bruno, Chief of Police #4)
By Martin Walker. 2012
Another delectable serving of mystery and the pleasures of the Dordogne from the newest master of suspense, Martin Walker. It'…
s spring in the idyllic village of St. Denis, and for Chief of Police Bruno CourrEges that means lamb stews, bottles of his beloved Pomerol, morning walks with his hound, Gigi— and a new string of regional crimes and international capers. When a local archaeological team looking for Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal remains turns up a corpse with a watch on its wrist and a bullet in its head, it' s up to Bruno to solve the case. But the task will not be easy, not with a meddlesome new magistrate eager to make a strong impression, an ongoing series of attacks by animal rights activists on local foie gras producers, and a nearby summit between France and Spain approaching— not to mention two beautiful, brilliant women vying for Bruno' s affections. Complicating events even further, the professor in charge of the dig is soon reported missing, leading Bruno to suspect that the past and the present are bound up in dangerous ways. As summer approaches, the wine growing cooler and the fruit sweeter, Bruno's investigations take him indelibly deeper into contemporary Europe' s dark history of terrorist and counterterrorist tactics— and toward a dramatic finale. As savory as foie gras, as piquant as vin de noix, and as richly complex as the region' s truffles, The Crowded Grave is a feast for mystery lovers and Francophiles alike.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 reviewerAthenian Blues
By Pol Koutsakis. 2017
Stratos hates being called a hitman He takes care of problems Permanently Problems that people pay handsomely…
to have solved His clients don t want to know the details but Stratos is conscientious He will only take on a job if his research shows that the targets deserve their fate In the midst of the Greek economic crisis Stratos takes on the highest-profile case of his career The most celebrated lawyer in Greece and his beautiful actress wife both bid for his services but which one is telling the truth Helped by his three childhood friends Drag a homicide cop Teri a high-class transgender sex worker and Maria the love of his and Drag s life he realises that truth is always relative Especially when shattered loves and broken families are involvedSpain or Shine
By Michelle Jellen. 2005
Elena is lost in the shuffle between her three overachieving siblings. But now that she’s on her own for a…
whole semester, she intends to keep the spotlight on herself—and Spain is just the place to do it. Once she starts living it up in tapas bars, lying out on the beach (even though it’s November), and having a nice, long siesta smack-dab in the middle of every day, Elena finds that Spain is everything she hoped it would be. She’s even met a to-fawn-over Spaniard, Miguel. But Elena has always been more comfortable writing plays than starring in them, and she’s beginning to realize that keeping out of the spotlight has its perks too. . . . .The Stronger Sex
By Anthea Bell, Hans Werner Kettenbach. 2009
Young lawyer Alex Zabel defends industrialist Herbert Klofft in a case for wrongful dismissal being brought against him by his…
former employee and mistress. She is thirty-four, he seventy-eight, a despot, now wheelchair bound and dying of cancer. Alex must deal with a hopeless case, his growing empathy with a repulsive client and his sexual attraction to Klofft's elderly wife.Nights of Awe
By Harri Nykanen, Kristian London. 2004
'Nykänen's twist on Nordic crime fiction may be the most inventive of the year. Ariel Kafka, a middle-aged bachelor, is…
a detective in Helsinki (think early Harry Hole) and, as far as he knows, the only Jew on the entire Helsinki police force, which is why he's picked to head up the investigation of a series of murders that began with two Arabic-looking men who may have been shouting Jewish obscenities as they died. Set during the days leading up to Yom Kippur, this complex tale moves quickly, as Ari attempts to figure it all out. With pressure from his colleagues, police administration, his brother, and the local Jewish community, can he uncover everything before the holiest day in the Jewish calender? The clever combination of classic Jewish themes with the traditions of Nordic crime makes for a refreshing tale with wide appeal. And the subtle humor, combined with a hero who is not completely depressed and alcoholic, makes it even better. Not just for readers of Nordic fiction, this should also be suggested to those who relate to New York Jewish detectives, including Lenny Briscoe (from Law & Order) and John Munch (from Homicide and Law & Order: SVU), as well as readers who enjoy the black humor of Stuart MacBride.' BooklistHarri Nykänen, born in Helsinki in 1953, was a well-known crime journalist before turning to fiction. He won the Finnish crime writing award The Clue in 1990 and in 2001. His fiction exposes the local underworld through the eyes of the criminal, the terrorist, and, most recently, from the point of view of an eccentric Helsinki police inspector.Involuntary Witness
By Patrick Creagh, Gianrico Carofiglio. 2002
A boy is found murdered in a well near a beach resort A Senegalese peddler is accused in a…
hopeless case soaked in small town racism The Italian judicial process revealed and an affectionate portrait of a deeply humane heroA Man of Genius
By Janet Todd. 2016
"Strange and haunting, a gothic novel with a modern consciousness." Philippa Gregory"A quirky, darkly mischievous novel about love, obsession and…
the burden of charisma, played out against the backdrop of Venice's watery, decadent glory." Sarah Dunant'A mesmerizing story of love and obsession in nineteenth century Venice: dark and utterly compelling."Natasha Solomons"Intriguing and entertaining; a clever, beguiling debut.Todd knows her Venice backwards."Salley Vickers"Revealing, surprising, compelling, gripping." Miriam Margolyes, actressA Man of Genius portrays a psychological journey from safety into obsession and secrecy. It mirrors a physical passage from flamboyant Regency England through a Europe conquered by Napoleon.Ann, a successful writer of cheap Gothic novels, becomes obsessed with Robert James, regarded by many, including himself, as a genius, with his ideas, his talk, and his band of male followers. However, their relationship becomes tortuous, as Robert descends into violence and madness. The pair leaves London for occupied Venice, where Ann tries to cope with the monstrous ego of her lover. Forced to flee with a stranger, she delves into her past, to be jolted by a series of revelations--about her lover, her parentage, the stranger, and herself. Janet Todd is known for her works about Mary Wollstonecraft, Aphra Behn, the Shelley circle, and Jane Austen. Born in Wales, her wandering childhood in the United Kingdom, Bermuda, and Sri Lanka led to work as an academic in Ghana, the United States, and United Kingdom. Her passion has been for women writers, the largely unknown and the famous. A former president of Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, she lives in Cambridge and Venice.A Fine Line
By Howard Curtis, Gianrico Carofiglio. 1961
"A FINE LINE is a terrific novel, a legal thriller that is also full of complex mediations on the life…
of the lawyer and the difficult compromises inherent in any system of criminal justice. A book that is intensely rewarding at many levels."Scott TurowThe fifth in the best-selling Guido Guerrieri series. When Judge Larocca is accused of corruption, Guerrieri goes against his better instincts and takes the case. Helped by Annapaola Doria, a motorbike-riding bisexual private detective who keeps a baseball bat on hand for sticky situations, he investigates the alleged links to the mafia. Of course Guerrieri cannot stop himself from falling for Annapaola's exotic charms.The novel is a suspenseful legal thriller but it is also much more. It is the story of a judge who, to quote Dostoevsky, "lies to himself and listens to his own lies, so gets to the point where he can no longer distinguish the truth, either in himself or around himself."London Triptych
By Jonathan Kemp. 2013
"London itself is as powerful a presence here as the three gay men whose lives it absorbs."?The Times Literary Supplement"Vivid…
and visceral, London Triptych cuts deep to reveal the hidden layers of a secret history."?Jake Arnott, author of The Long FirmRent boys, aristocrats, artists, and criminals populate this sweeping novel in which author Jonathan Kemp skillfully interweaves the lives and loves of three very different men in gay London across the decades.In the 1890s, a young man named Jack apprentices as a rent boy and discovers a life of pleasure and excess that leads to new friendships, most notably with the soon-to-be-infamous Oscar Wilde. A century later in 1998, David tells his own tale of unashamed decadence from prison, recalling life as a young man arriving in the city in the mid-'80s just as the scourge of AIDS hit. Where their paths cross, in the politically sensitive 1950s, when gay men were the target of police and politicians alike, the artist Colin tentatively explores his sexuality while working on his painting "London Triptych."Moodily atmospheric and rich with history, London Triptych is a sexy, resplendent portrait of the politics and pleasures of queer life in one of the world's most fascinating cities.Jonathan Kemp lives in London, where he currently teaches creative writing at Birkbeck College. London Triptych, his first novel, was published in the United Kingdom in 2010 and won the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award.Killing Auntie
By Wiesiek Powaga, Andrzej Bursa. 2015
"The Polish postwar firebrand Andrzej Bursa acquired a reputation as a quick-burning, existentially tormented rebel. . . . Yet Bursa's…
dark humor and deadpan satire . . . keep utter bleakness at bay."-The Independent"A revolution against the banality of everyday life."-Gazeta KrakowskaA young university student named Jurek, with no particular ambitions or talents, is adrift. After his doting aunt asks him to perform a small chore, he decides to kill her for no good reason other than, perhaps, boredom. Killing Auntie follows Jurek as he seeks to dispose of the corpse-a task more difficult than one might imagine-and then falls in love with a girl he meets on a train. Can he tell her what he's done? Will that ruin everything?"I'm convinced-simply-that we are all guilty," says Jurek, and his adventures with nosy neighbors, false-toothed grandmothers, and love-making lynxes shed light on how an entire society becomes involved in the murder and disposal of dear old Auntie. This is a short comedic masterpiece combining elements of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jean-Paul Sartre, Franz Kafka, and Joseph Heller, coming together in the end to produce an unforgettable tale of murder and-just maybe-redemption.Andrzej Bursa was born in 1934 in Krakow, Poland, and died twenty-five years later. In his brief lifetime he composed some of the most original Polish writing of the twentieth century. Killing Auntie is his only novel. His brilliant career and tragic early death established him as a cult figure among restless and disenchanted youth.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.Fever
By Mike Mitchell, Friedrich Glauser. 1896
Praise for Friedrich Glauser's other Sergeant Studer novels:"Thumbprint is a fine example of the craft of detective writing in a…
period which fans will regard as the golden age of crime fiction."-The Sunday Telegraph"In Matto's Realm is both a compelling mystery and an illuminating, finely wrought mainstream novel."-Publishers Weekly"A despairing plot about the reality of madness and life, leavened with strong doses of bittersweet irony. The idiosyncratic investigation of In Matto's Realm and its laconic detective have not aged one iota."-Guardian"With good reason, the German-language prize for detective fiction is named after Glauser. . . . He has Simenon's ability to turn a stereotype into a person, and the moral complexity to appeal to justice over the head of police procedure."-The Times Literary SupplementWhen two women are "accidentally" killed by gas leaks, Sergeant Studer investigates the thinly disguised double murder in Bern and Basel. The trail leads to a geologist dead from a tropical fever in a Moroccan Foreign Legion post and a murky oil deal involving rapacious politicians and their henchmen. With the help of a hashish-induced dream and the common sense of his stay-at-home wife, Studer solves the multiple riddles on offer. But assigning guilt remains an elusive affair.The third in the Sergeant Studer series.The Lie
By Mike Mitchell, Petra Hammesfahr. 2003
"...One shares Susanne's belief that she must try to carry the deception off. Whether she will succeed keeps the reader,…
peering over Susanne's shoulder at all the traps, turning the pages of this remarkable book."--The Independent (UK)Praise for Petra Hammesfahr's The Sinner:"The Sinner is best psychological suspense novel I have read all year."--Daily Telegraph"Dubbed Germany's answer to Patricia Highsmith, Hammesfahr should win new fans with this novel."Publishers Weekly"Demonstrates why she is one of Germany's bestselling writers of crime and psychological thrillers. It's grim, delves deep into the human psyche, and keeps you gripped."The Times (London)Nadia and Susanne look uncannily alike, but one of the women is seriously rich and the other is destitute. When Nadia asks Susanne to spend the weekend with her husband so that she can sneak off with a lover, how can Susanne refuse the outrageous payment on offer? Nadia and her husband barely speak to each other and he will be working most of the weekend. Easy money, or so it seems.One Friday afternoon Susanne drives Nadia's Alfa to her beautiful suburban villa with its indoor pool and glass doors opening onto the sloping lawn. This first stay is followed by others, as an apparently harmless game becomes a deadly web of lies.Petra Hammesfahr, born in 1951, has not had an easy life: she left school at thirteen and became pregnant by an alcoholic husband at seventeen. She published her first novel when she was forty and has since written over twenty crime and suspense novels. Petra also writes scripts for television and film. She has won numerous literary prizes, including the Crime Prize of Wiesbaden and the Rhineland Literary Prize.A Jew Must Die
By Jacques Chessex, Donald Wilson. 1973
Praise for A Jew Must Die:"Chessex, our new Flaubert, has no equal when describing horror without flinching, screaming sotto voce…
and exploring guilt in taut prose."--Le Nouvel Observateur"A masterpiece. Beauty of the world, ubiquity of evil, God's silence, it's all there, delivered like a slap to the face."--Le Point"A great author explores a nightmare not as anachronistic as it might appear."--L'HebdoA novel based on a true story.On April 16, 1942, a handful of Swiss Nazis in Payerne lure Arthur Bloch, a Jewish cattle merchant, into an empty stable and kill him with a crowbar. Europe is in flames, but this is Switzerland, and Payerne, a rural market town of butchers and bankers, is more worried about unemployment and local bankruptcies than the fate of nations across the border. Fernand Ischi, leader of the local Nazi cell, blames it all on the town's Jewish population and wants to set an example, thinking the German embassy would be grateful. Ischi's dream of becoming the local gauleiter is shattered, however, when the milk containers used to dissimulate Bloch's body parts is discovered floating in a lake nearby, leading to his arrest.Jacques Chessex, winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt, is one of Switzerland's greatest authors. He knew the murderers, went to school with their children, and has written a terse, implacable story that has awakened memories in a country that seems to endlessly rediscover dark areas of its past.