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Spain 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. 2005Mille jours à Venise: récit (Bibliothèque étrangère)
By Marlena Blasi. 2009
Ce n'est pas un conte, c'est une histoire vraie. L'enthousiaste et désarmante Marlena, bouleversée par sa rencontre avec son "bel…
étranger", va liquider en quelques semaines tout ce qu'elle avait en Amérique, une jolie maison, un charmant restaurant, une brillante carrière de critique gastronomique et de "chef", pour aller vivre avec lui à Venise. Certes, il y aura pas mal d'obstacles à surmonter, la langue qu'elle ne parle pas, l'appartement sinistre de son mari, la solitude, l'ennui, car elle n'a ni amis ni travail là-bas. Mais Marlena a de la ressource et elle va nous entraîner dans le récit plein d'humour de ses découvertes, de ses mécomptes, puis de son bonheur à se sentir peu à peu "acceptée". Jusqu'au jour où l'imprévisible Fernando lui réservera une drôle de surprise... -- 4e de couvThe 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 reviewerA Shortcut to Paradise
By Teresa Solana, Peter Bush. 2007
A writer is murdered at the Ritz on the night she wins an important literary prize, battered to death with…
the trophy she has just won. A satire of the Catalan literary scene dressed up as a hilarious murder mystery.The Sound of One Hand Killing
By Peter Bush, Teresa Solana. 2011
The director of an exclusive New Age meditation centre in a fancy Barcelona neighborhood is murdered, a case for twin…
detectives Borja and Eduard. The murder of a CIA agent simultaneously drags them into an international conspiracy that transports them to China and back. This hilarious mystery novel is a remorseless satire of those practicing pseudo-science and pseudo-spirituality.A 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.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 House with the Stained-Glass Window (MacLehose Press Editions #7)
By Zanna Sloniowska, Antonia Lloyd Jones. 2015
"The House with the Stained-Glass Window is remarkable, a gripping, Lvivian evocation of a city and a family across a…
long and painful century, at once personal and political, a novel of life and survival across the ages" PHILIPPE SANDS, author of East West StreetIn 1989, Marianna, the beautiful star soprano at the Lviv opera, is shot dead in the street as she leads the Ukrainian citizens in their protest against Soviet power. Only eleven years old at the time, her daughter tells the story of their family before and after that critical moment - including, ten years later, her own passionate affair with an older, married man. Just like their home city of Lviv, which stands at the crossroads of nations and cultures, the women in this family have had turbulent lives, scarred by war and political turmoil, but also by their own inability to show each other their feelings. Lyrically told, this is the story of a young girl's emotional, sexual, artistic and political awakening as she matures under the influence of her relatives, her mother's former lover, her city and its fortunes.Translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-JonesCrazy Tales of Blood and Guts
By Peter Bush, Teresa Solana. 2013
Fascinating short stories that include a rather bloody satire on installation art, including the Edgar Award-nominated story "Still Life No.41",…
a wonderful story of gruesome revenge involving a wayward son-in-law, a surprising and hilarious tale of a pre-historic serial killer who invents God and psychoanalysis, and, inevitably, a vampire story told with venom and humor.These stories remind one of the best short stories by Stephen King, such as those in the 'Just after Sunset' compilation. They can be horrific but are never without a devastating sense of humor. As in the adult short stories of Roald Dahl (the 'Kiss Kiss' collection in particular, with its tales of family and other violence) there is great ingenuity, surprising and satisfying endings, and, since it's Solana, deep cutting satire of contemporary fads and mores.Someone Else
By Adriana Hunter, Tonino Benacquista. 2005
"Breathless pace. Touches effortlessly on identity, love, alcohol, and the cynicism of the business world."--Les EchosWho hasn't wanted to become…
"someone else"? Over a drink in Paris, two men give each other three years to see which one can more radically alter his life. Blin becomes a private detective. He takes on a new identity, even a surgically altered face. Gredzinski, a self-effacing corporate executive, discovers liquor that evening and rapidly yields to the sensuality and self-confidence induced by alcoholism. Things get complicated when Blin is hired by an ex-lover to find himself and when Gredzinski secretly follows his girlfriend to her home. A helter-skelter tale of humor and suspense.Winner of the literary prize RTL-Lire.Blackout
By Howard Curtis, Gianluca Morozzi. 2004
"A spine-tingling novel that keeps you mesmerized from beginning to end."--InfiniteStorie"Morozzi has a light touch. He has an uncanny ability…
to convey mood swings, excitement and plot twists with ever increasing velocity."--Gazzetta di Parma"A chilling and claustrophobic thriller with an unpredictable ending. Morozzi joins the best in the genre."--LINUSBologna in August: unbearable heat, an empty city. Claudia is a young student in a hurry to return home from her work as a waitress and get out of the skimpy uniform she hates. Tomas is a young man on his way to elope to Amsterdam with his girlfriend, Francesca. Aldo is a husband and father with an uncanny resemblance to Elvis Presley, anxious to get to an apartment filled with guilty secrets. All three have an urgent need to be somewhere else. Instead, they are trapped in an elevator in a deserted building on a holiday weekend. They are like three wasps in an upturned glass . . . and one of the trio is a serial killer.This dark, twist-packed psychological thriller in the style of Phonebooth has been adapted as a US film to be released in the fall of 2008, starring Amber Tamblyn and directed by cult Mexican auteur Rigoberto Castañeda.Gianluca Morozzi was born in Bologna in 1971, where he lives today. He is well-known as a cutting-edge satirist and music critic, often compared to Nick Hornby and Ben Elton. Blackout is his first thriller.The Snowman
By Anthea Bell, Jörg Fauser. 2004
"Prose that penetrates the reader's mind like speed, fast paced, without an ounce of fat."--WeltwocheHe's found five pounds of top--quality…
Peruvian cocaine in a suit-case. Pur-sued by the police and drug traffickers the luckless Blum falls prey to the frenzied paranoia of the cocaine addict and dealer. This is a fast-paced thriller written with acerbic humour, a hardboiled evocation of drug-fuelled existence and a penetrating observation of those at the edge of German society.Having broken his addiction to on heroin at the age of thirty, Jörg Fauser spent much of the rest of his life dependent on alcohol. He died aged forty-three in 1987, run over by a truck at four am on a German highway.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.Can you hear me?: A viciously gripping holiday read set during a scorching Italian summer
By Elena Varvello. 2017
'Utterly gripped me from beginning to end' Victoria Hislop | 'Move over Ferrante, there's a new Elena in town' Independent…
| 'There is much beauty and sadness in this slim novel' The Times | 'A novel of crime and darkness that eschews straightforward domestic noir' Guardian **The Times bestseller. Longlisted for the CWA International Dagger. Shortlisted for the TA First Translation Prize.**In the August of 1978, the summer I met Anna Trabuio, my father took a girl into the woods...I was sixteen.He had been gone a long time already, but that was it - not even a year after he lost his job and that boy disappeared - that was when everything broke.1978. Ponte, a small community in Northern Italy. An unbearably hot summer like many others.Elia Furenti is sixteen, living an unremarkable life of moderate unhappiness, until the day the beautiful, damaged Anna returns to Ponte and firmly propels Elia to the edge of adulthood. But then everything starts to unravel.Elia's father, Ettore, is let go from his job and loses himself in the darkest corners of his mind.A young boy is murdered.And a girl climbs into a van and vanishes in the deep, dark woods...Translated by Alex Valente | Winner of an English PEN AwardLonglisted for the CWA International Dagger Award 2018A 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 LifeSummer Light, and Then Comes the Night
By Jón Kalman Stefánsson. 2005
AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER AND WINNER OF THE ICELANDIC LITERATURE PRIZE"The Icelandic Dickens" Irish Examiner"Stefánsson shares the elemental grandeur of Cormac…
McCarthy" EILEEN BATTERSBY, T.L.S. Supplement"A wonderful, exceptional writer . . . A timeless storyteller" CARSTEN JENSEN"Sometimes, in small places, life becomes bigger" Sometimes a distance from the world's tumult opens our hearts and our dreams. In a village of four hundred souls, the infinite light of an Icelandic summer makes its inhabitants want to explore, and the eternal night of winter lights up the magic of the stars. The village becomes a microcosm of the age-old conflict between human desire and destiny, between the limits of reality and the wings of the imagination. With humour, with poetry, and with a tenderness for human weaknesses, Stefánsson explores the question of why we live at all.Translated from the Icelandic by Philip RoughtonThe Rock Blaster
By Henning Mankell. 1973
An early gem from the creator of the Kurt Wallander series, charting the life of a principled man through tragedy,…
heartbreak, true love and the battle for a nation's soul."A very engaging portrait . . . There is a powerful lack of sentimentality to the telling of the story [and] a lovely and genuinely moving love story at the heart of the book." Liam Heylin, Irish ExaminerAt 3 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon in 1911, Oskar Johansson is caught in a blast in an industrial accident. The local newspaper reports him dead, but they are mistaken.Because Oskar Johansson is a born survivor.Though crippled, Oskar finds the strength to go on living and working. The Rock Blaster charts his long professional life - his hopes and dreams, sorrows and joys. His relationship with the woman whose love saved him, with the labour movement that gave him a cause to believe in, and with his children, who do not share his ideals.Henning Mankell's first published novel is steeped in the burning desire for social justice that informed his bestselling crime novels. Remarkably assured for a debut, it is written with scalpel-like precision, at once poetic and insightful in its depiction of a true working-class hero.Translated from the Swedish by George GouldingThe Oblique Place
By Caterina Pascual Söderbaum. 2018
"Caterina Pascual Söderbaum has left a major European literary work of art as her legacy" STEVE SEM-SANDBERG, author of Emperor…
of LiesThe Oblique Place is a captivating journey of the imagination, a prize-winning novel that probes the ruinous legacies of Fascist Europe in the twentieth century.The discovery of photographs in an album - of her Spanish grandfather who joined Hitler's Wehrmacht and her father in the uniform of Franco's army- leads Caterina Pascual Söderbaum to explore her family's links to some of the most abhorrent passages of twentieth-century history. Her mother turns out to be related to Kristina Söderbaum, a celebrated Swedish film star of the Third Reich, adored by Goebbels.She travels with husband and child to the shores of the idyllic Attersee in Austria, where the officers of the extermination camps spent their holidays. The journey continues from Schloss Hartheim, where the staff of the Nazi euthanasia programme forgot, with the help of alcohol and sex, the horrors that took place there, to the Villa Saint-Jean, where malnourished children from France's internment camps were sent to recover. This imaginative rediscovery of her own family's disturbing history is fused with vividly captured episodes from other lives and times, and the threads of evil that she lays bare are described in language so beautiful, so subtle and painterly, that her odyssey is at once shattering and mesmerising.Translated from the Swedish by Frank PerryThe 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.