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The Amputated Memory
By Marjolijn De Jager, Michelle Mielly, Werewere Liking. 2007
"....An expansive, eclectic, and innovative novel."--Women's Review of BooksA modern-day Things Fall Apart, The Amputated Memory explores the ways in…
which an African woman's memory preserves, and strategically forgets, moments in her tumultuous past as well as the cultural past of her country, in the hopes of making a healthier future possible.Pinned between the political ambitions of her philandering father, the colonial and global influences of encroaching and exploitative governments, and the traditions of her Cameroon village, Halla Njokè recalls childhood traumas and reconstructs forgotten experiences to reclaim her sense of self. Winner of the Noma Award--previous honorees include Mamphela Ramphele, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Ken Saro-Wiwa--The Amputated Memory was called by the Noma jury "a truly remarkable achievement . . . a deeply felt presentation of the female condition in Africa; and a celebration of women as the country's memory."Since 1978, Cameroon-born artiste extraordinaireWerewere Liking has been living in the Ivory Coast, where she established the Village Ki-Yi, a self-supporting center for the performing and fine arts. A singer, dancer, actor, playwright, songwriter, and author of two titles previously published in the United States, Liking has been honored across the globe for her writing and theater work; she has performed at such venues as The Kennedy Center.Marjolijn de Jager teaches French, Dutch, and literary translation at New York University and works as an independent literary translator, most recently on Assia Djebar's Children of the New World.Michelle Mielly received her PhD from Harvard University and is now teaching in the Department of Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University.The Present Moment
By Valerie Kibera, Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye. 1987
Published in conjunction with the award-winning Coming to Birth, this novel is the first U.S. release of a major force…
in East African literature. Of her ability to both empathize with her characters and capture their complex levels, the Weekly Review said, "Macgoye's major virtue as a writer and social critic is the inclusiveness of her vision. Nothing human is alien to her. She refuses to bestow virtue or villainy along ideological or gender lines."The Present Moment tells the story of seven unforgettable Kenyan women as it traces more than sixty years of turbulent national history. Like their country, these women are divided by ethnicity, language, class, and religion. But around the charcoal fire at the Refuge, the old-age home they share, they uncover the hidden personal histories that connect them as women: stories of their struggles for self-determination; of conflict, violence, and loss, but also of survival. As they reflect upon their tragedies, they also become aware of the community they have formed--a community of collective history, strength, humor, and affection. A chronology by Jean Hay provides U.S. readers with context on Kenyan history."Marjorie Macgoye paints a group portrait colored by deep respect, compassion, and admiration."--Commonwealth Today (Great Britain)"With the vividly specific economy of the best poetry . . . [Macgoye] confers a stature and significance on humble lives; or, rather, shows that behind the most unpromising human façades lurk lives of extraordinary courage, enterprise, and resilience."--Sunday Nation (Kenya)Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye is the award-winning author of Coming to Birth, as well as many other novels and volumes of poetry. The first African woman writer to receive the Sinclair Prize in 1986, she lives in Nairobi, Kenya.Valerie Kibera has taught European and African literature at Kenyatta University, Nairobi. She is editor of An Anthology of East African Short Stories.Jean Hay teaches history at the African Studies Center of Boston University.Yekl and the Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories of the New York Ghetto
By Abraham Cahan. 1970
Yekl (1896), the first novel upon which the much acclaimed film Hester Street was based, was probably the first novel…
in English that had a New York East Side immigrant as its hero. Reviewing it, William Dean Howells hailed Cahan as "a new star of realism."The Surfacing
By Cormac James. 2014
'The Surfacing' is set largely on board a ship in the 1850s, searching for Franklin's lost expedition. It's a challenging…
and dangerous endeavour in a very male world - that is until Morgan, the second-in-command of the Impetus, realises there is a pregnant stowaway on board and that he is the father. It is too late to turn back, the ice is closing in, and the child will have to be born into the vast and icy wilderness of the Arctic.Bloody Mary: A Novel
By Sharon Solwitz. 2003
After her debut with the widely praised stories in Blood and Milk, Sharon Solwitz offers us her first, darkly radiant,…
full-length novel. Bloody Mary, which takes its title from the childhood game, tells the story of socially adept, 12-year-old Hadley and her protective mother. They live a privileged life in the Chicago neighborhood of Lakeview, but soon find themselves in a state of chaos and flux.Writing with her signature, edgy prose and ironic humor, Solwitz demonstrates that happiness "isn't our birthright" and that "we have to work for it and even then we can't be sure." We are led to consider our own degree of complicity in the hard times that seem to fall from nowhere."A flair for dark comedy and the ability to turn on a dime are prized qualities for these unpredictable characters; time and again, their intrepid investigations lead them into uncharted territory where bizarre dramatic action seems to be the only possible move. Solwitz's fine-toothed examinations of complex emotional states are dead on...."--The New York Times Book Review Sharon Solwitz's first collection of stories, Blood and Milk, won the 1998 Carl Sandburg Prize from Friends of the Chicago Public Library, the prize for adult fiction from the Society of Midland Authors, and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Her short stories, published in such magazines as TriQuarterly, Mademoiselle, and Ploughshares, have won numerous awards, including the Pushcart Prize, the Katherine Anne Porter Prize, and grants and fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council. Currently, along with her husband, poet Barry Silesky, she has worked as fiction editor of Another Chicago Magazine. She teaches fiction at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana.The Department of Missing Persons: A Novel
By Ruth Zylberman. 2017
A startling debut novel about the burden of Holocaust memory and the implacable zest for life. Thirty-six years after her…
mother was liberated from Bergen-Belsen, the unnamed narrator lives a comfortable life in Paris. Her mother sees ghosts at every turn, longing to find the family that disappeared behind the miasma of the Holocaust, but she cannot reconcile her mother’s trauma to the cheery bustle of daily life that surrounds them. The pain of memories that are not hers haunt her, weighing all too heavily until she is incapacitated by them, unable forge her own future. As our narrator becomes further entrenched in the past, a letter is sent by the Department of Missing Persons suggesting that her grandfather is not dead, though details of his survival and current situation are unknown. Along with her mother, the narrator begins a desperate hunt, fighting through the past and present, love and loss, and her own vulnerabilities to find the truth and rid them both of their lingering ghosts.The Greatest Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Suicide Club, The Body Snatcher, and Other Short Stories
By Herman Graf, Robert Louis Stevenson. 2018
The Best Short Works of One of English Literature’s Most Masterful Storytellers Collected in a Single Volume Known mostly for…
his seminal full-length works, such as the famous classics Treasure Island and Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson’s masterful short fiction is often overshadowed. Now these pioneering works in the English short story tradition are presented here, collected in a single volume. Including the beloved novella "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," which G. K. Chesterton called “a double triumph,” and “The Merry Men,” as well as stories like “The Suicide Club” and “The Rajah’s Diamond” from the acclaimed 1882 collection New Arabian Nights, The Greatest Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson immerses you in Stevenson’s extraordinary worlds—thrilling tales of pure adventure and suspense, glorious evocations of the beauty of the Scottish countryside, and characters painted with the same vigor and energy as his most well-known creations. Showcasing his brilliant and lucid prose, his dramatic skill, and his perfect sense of pace that made him a celebrity during his time and a landmark author in the history of English literature, Stevenson’s enduring stories continue to capture the imagination of the contemporary reader and rightly belong to popular mythology today.Chickaloon Wild
By Ingrid Shaginoff. 2017
Imagine living deep in the Alaska wilderness where survival depends on your ability to hunt, fish, and gather. A place…
where as far as you can see is dense forest, rivers and sparkling lakes, set against a backdrop of majestic, snow covered mountains where the only sounds are those of nature; the caw of a raven, the lonesome howl of a wolf, or the sharp cry of the loon. In this place education means pulling the brush up around your snare to prevent the rabbit from going around it, or knowing to remove the scent glands from the beaver before you roast it. It means recognizing and following a track through thick brush. This is the ways of their Athabascan ancestors and the only way the Shaginoff family knew. With the Colonists moving into the Matanuska Valley as part of the New Deal their world is about to change forever.The Lost Book of Adana Moreau: A Novel
By Michael Zapata. 2020
A Boston Globe Most Anticipated Book of 2020A Most Anticipated Book of 2020 from The Millions“A stunner—equal parts epic and…
intimate, thrilling and elegiac.”—Laura Van den Berg, author of The Third HotelThe mesmerizing story of a Latin American science fiction writer and the lives her lost manuscript unites decades later in post-Katrina New OrleansIn 1929 in New Orleans, a Dominican immigrant named Adana Moreau writes a science fiction novel. The novel earns rave reviews, and Adana begins a sequel. Then she falls gravely ill. Just before she dies, she destroys the only copy of the manuscript.Decades later in Chicago, Saul Drower is cleaning out his dead grandfather’s home when he discovers a mysterious manuscript written by none other than Adana Moreau. With the help of his friend Javier, Saul tracks down an address for Adana’s son in New Orleans, but as Hurricane Katrina strikes they must head to the storm-ravaged city for answers.What results is a brilliantly layered masterpiece an ode to home, storytelling and the possibility of parallel worlds.The New Spice Box: Contemporary Jewish Writing
By Ruth Panofsky. 2020
The New Spice Box includes short fiction, personal essays, and poetry by Jewish writers from a broad range of cultural…
backgrounds. Fresh and relevant, profound and lasting, this anthology features works by acclaimed short story writers David Bezmozgis, Mireille Silcoff, and Ayelet Tsabari; groundbreaking memoirists Bernice Eisenstein and Alison Pick; and award-winning poets Isa Milman, Jacob Scheier, and Adam Sol. The driving force behind The New Spice Box is the desire to uncover the twin touchstones of original expression and writerly craft, and to balance the representation of genres, styles, and authorial perspectives. Here, authors summon the past as they probe their cultural inheritance and move forward into the future. The New Spice Box shows that Jewish literary tradition, Jewish experience, and Jewish identity can be expressed in innumerable ways.The Slaughterman's Daughter: Winner of the Wingate Prize 2021
By Yaniv Iczkovits. 2020
A SUNDAY TIMES MUST READS PICK"Boundless imagination and a vibrant style . . . a heroine of unforgettable grit" DAVID…
GROSSMAN"A story of great beauty and surprise" GARY SHTEYNGARTThe townsfolk of Motal, an isolated, godforsaken town in the Pale of Settlement, are shocked when Fanny Keismann - devoted wife, mother of five, and celebrated cheese-maker - leaves her home at two hours past midnight and vanishes into the night.True, the husbands of Motal have been vanishing for years, but a wife and mother? Whoever heard of such a thing. What on earth possessed her?Could it have anything to do with Fanny's missing brother-in-law, who left her sister almost a year ago and ran away to Minsk, abandoning their family to destitution and despair?Or could Fanny have been lured away by Zizek Breshov, the mysterious ferryman on the Yaselda river, who, in a strange twist of events, seems to have disappeared on the same night?Surely there can be no link between Fanny and the peculiar roadside murder on the way to Telekhany, which has left Colonel Piotr Novak, head of the Russian secret police, scratching his head. Surely a crime like that could have nothing to do with Fanny Keismann, however the people of Motal might mutter about her reputation as a vilde chaya, a wild animal . . .Surely not.Translated from the Hebrew by Orr ScharfThe Windflower (The beloved, classic tale of passion on the high seas)
By Laura London. 1984
The classic tale of passion on the high seas, available in print for the first time in 20 years and…
in ebook for the first time ever... Laura London's beloved novel will be adored by fans of Julie Garwood, Jude Deveraux, Loretta Chase, Johanna Lindsey and Kathleen E. Woodiwiss.Merry Wilding is a lady of breeding, of innocence, and of breathtaking beauty. With high hopes for a holiday in England, she sets sail from New York-but the tide of her life is destined to turn. Mistakenly swept aboard an infamous pirate ship, Merry finds herself at the mercy of a wicked crew...and one sinfully handsome pirate. Soon she's spending her days yearning for escape, and her nights learning the pleasures of captivity.Devon Crandall believes Merry is in league with his greatest enemy. He's determined to slowly urge her secrets from her. But along the way, he discovers her beautifully unbreakable spirit...and a desire unlike any he's ever known. She is hiding something from him, and yet, each day that passes brings her deeper into his heart. When fierce arguments give way to fiercer passion, can a pirate learn to love a woman? Or will true love be lost at sea?Fall in love with the richly romantic, classic love stories of Laura London, as her beloved novels are released in ebook for the first time.The Four Symbols: The Black Sun Series, Book 1 (The Black Sun Series #1)
By Giacometti, Ravenne. 2019
From multi-million copy bestselling authors Giacometti & Ravenne comes a Nazi spy thriller for fans of Dan Brown, Steve Berry…
and Wilbur Smith"I couldn't put it down ... the authors write like Dan Brown!" -Anthony, 5-Star NetGalley reviewer*** RATED 5 STARS BY REAL READERS *** *** GET BOOK 2, GOOD & EVIL, NOW: https://amz.run/3tyl ****** PREORDER BOOK 3, HELLBOUND, NEXT: https://amz.run/3tyk ***A secret Nazi organisation.Four swastikas with occult powers.A spy.What readers think:"I can't wait to read the next book in the series!" -Sens Critique"A spellbinding read from start to finish." -5-Star Amazon Review"There are twists aplenty" -5-Star Netgalley Review"A real page turner." -Art Six Mic"If you like books with lots of action and cliff hangers, this is for you." -5-Star Netgalley Review"The authors' best book so far." -5-Star Amazon Review"A book full of action and mystery." -Au Detour d'un LivreIn a Europe on the verge of collapse, the Nazi organisation Ahnenerbe is pillaging sacred landmarks across the world. Their aim is to collect treasures with occult powers, which will help them establish the Third Reich. The organisation's head, Himmler, has sent SS officers to search a forgotten sanctuary in the Himalayas, while he tries to track down a mysterious painting. Which ancient power do the Nazis believe they hold the key to?Meanwhile, in London, Churchill has discovered that the war against Germany will also be a spiritual one: their light must fight the occult if they are to win . . .Pirata: Part three of the Roman Pirata series (Pirata #3)
By Simon Scarrow, T. J. Andrews. 2019
The third in the new Roman pirate series of ebook novellas from the Sunday Times bestselling authors Simon Scarrow and…
T. J. Andrews.AD 25. As Roman naval squadrons patrol the Adriaticum, a young pirate captain hunts for prey. But his most dangerous enemy may be on his own side ...The young pirate Telemachus has impressed Captain Bulla with his courage and skill, and has been made captain of a small ship, Galatea, with his loyal friend Geras as first mate. Their target: the trade routes of the northern Adriaticum, with the promise of rich and easy pickings. But the exhilaration of command quickly fades as Telemachus and his men struggle to find any ships worth looting. Supplies are running low, and mutiny is brewing. Suspecting treachery by his arch enemy Hector, whose own ship was dispatched to other waters, Telemachus fears not only for his crew, but for his dream of rescuing his brother Nereus from slavery. When Telemachus learns of a rich cargo ship at anchor, he senses his chance for glory. A fortune in ivory and spices is in sight. There's a catch, though: the port is host to an auxiliary garrison of the Roman army. Only the most reckless captain would dare target this prey. Telemachus will need to call on all his cunning and survival skills if he is to win the day, avert mutiny, and exact his revenge on his tormentor ...Episode three in the PIRATA ebook novella series.Pirata: The dramatic novel of the pirates who hunt the seas of the Roman Empire
By Simon Scarrow, T. J. Andrews. 2019
The Sunday Times bestseller!It is AD 25. Pirate ships strike terror in the hearts of those who brave the seas…
of the Roman Empire. When young Telemachus joins the crew of the merchant ship Selene, he's delighted to escape the rough streets of Piraeus. He knows little of the dangers of life at sea. And even past hardship has not prepared him for the terror on board when a pirate ship appears . . . The fight is bloody, but the result is never in doubt. Then the victorious pirate chief, Bulla, offers the beaten men a cruel choice: join us, or die. After surviving a brutal initiation rite, Telemachus impresses his new captain with his resourcefulness and strength, and swiftly rises through the pirate ranks. But dangerous rivals talk of mutiny and murder. While Prefect Canis, notorious commander of the imperial fleet, is relentless in his pursuit of the pirate brotherhood.Could Telemachus be the man to lead the pirates and challenge Rome? PIRATA is also available in five ebook novella parts. What readers are saying about PIRATA'I strongly recommend you read this' Amazon reviewer, 5 stars'A great gripping read' Amazon reviewer, 5 stars'Fast-paced and exiting throughout' Amazon reviewer, 5 starsSix Stories and an Essay
By Andrea Levy. 2014
Andrea Levy, author of the Man Booker shortlisted novel THE LONG SONG and the prize-winning, million-copy bestseller SMALL ISLAND, draws…
together a remarkable collection of short stories from across her writing career, which began twenty years ago with the publication of her first novel, the semi-autobiographical EVERY LIGHT IN THE HOUSE BURNIN'.'None of my books is just about race,' Levy has said.'They're about people and history.' Her novels have triumphantly given voice to the people and stories that might have slipped through the cracks in history. From Jamaican slave society in the nineteenth century, through post-war immigration into Britain, to the children of migrants growing up in '60s London, her books are acclaimed for skilful storytelling and vivid characters. And her unique voice, unflinching but filled with humour, compassion and wisdom, has made her one of the most significant and exciting contemporary authors.This collection opens with an essay about how writing has helped Andrea Levy to explore and understand her heritage. She explains the context of each piece within the chronology of her career and finishes with a new story, written to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. As with her novels, these stories are at once moving and honest, deft and humane, filled with insight, anger at injustice and her trademark lightness of touch.Small Island (Nhb Modern Plays Ser.)
By Andrea Levy. 2004
Small Island by bestselling author Andrea Levy won the Orange Prize for Fiction, as well as the Commonwealth Writers' Prize…
and the Whitbread. It is possibly the definitive fictional account of the experiences of the Empire Windrush generation. Now a major BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Naomie Harris, its enduring appeal will captivate fans of Maya Angelou and Zadie Smith. 'A great read... honest, skilful, thoughtful and important' - GuardianIt is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh's neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn't know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do? Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It's desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door. Gilbert's wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was...Fruit of the Lemon
By Andrea Levy. 1999
A unique novel full of humour, wit and passion from Andrea Levy, critically acclaimed author of the Orange Prize winning…
SMALL ISLAND and the Man Booker shortlisted THE LONG SONG.Faith Jackson fixes herself up with a great job in TV and the perfect flatshare. But neither is that perfect - and nor are her relations with her overbearing, though always loving family. Furious and perplexed when her parents announce their intention to retire back home to Jamaica, Faith makes her own journey there, where she is immediately welcomed by her Aunt Coral, keeper of a rich cargo of family history. Through the weave of her aunt's storytelling a cast of characters unfolds stretching back to Cuba and Panama, Harlem and Scotland, a story that passes through London and sweeps through continents.Repentance
By Eloísa Díaz. 2021
A FINANCIAL TIMES 'SUMMER BOOKS OF 2021' PICK'An accomplished, inventive detective novel thrumming with tension and family secrets' Sanaë Lemoine,…
author of The Margot Affair'An astonishingly assured first novel, both funny and moving'The Times Crime Club'Very impressive... Repentance is an evocative crime thriller with a likeable, self-aware protagonist, but also skilfully explores the darkest period in Argentina's modern history'Financial Times'A powerful crime novel ... Opening old historical wounds that still strongly affect Argentinian society, this is a tale with many layers, many of them painful to evoke and a strong depiction of a country and a period that still simmers between the pages of history books and the crime novel is a perfect way of lancing the boil. Recommended'Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time BUENOS AIRES, 1981.Argentina is in the grip of a brutal military dictatorship.Inspector Joaquín Alzada's work in the Buenos Aires police force exposes him to the many realities of life under a repressive regime: desperate people, terrified people and - worst of all - missing people.Personally, he prefers to stay out of politics, enjoying a simple life with his wife Paula. But when his revolutionary brother Jorge is disappeared, Alzada will stop at nothing to rescue him.TWENTY YEARS LATER...The country is in the midst of yet another devastating economic crisis and riots are building in the streets of Buenos Aires. This time Alzada is determined to keep his head down and wait patiently for his retirement. But when a dead body lands in a skip behind the morgue and a woman from one of the city's wealthiest families goes missing, Alzada is forced to confront his own involvement in one of the darkest periods in Argentinian history - a time ofcollective horror and personal tragedy.Alternating between two key moments in the life of a man and his country, Repentance is a noir with a difference, featuring an unforgettable character on a quest to solve a case that offers both a painful reminder of all he has lost and a last chance at redemption.London Yiddishtown: East End Jewish Life in Yiddish Sketch and Story, 1930–1950: Selected Works of Katie Brown, A. M. Kaizer, and I. A. Lisky
By Katie Brown, I. A. Lisky, A. M. Kaizer. 2021
In London Yiddishtown: East End Jewish Life in Yiddish Sketch and Story, 1930–1950, Vivi Lachs presents a selection of previously…
un-translated short stories and sketches by Katie Brown, A. M. Kaizer, and I. A. Lisky, for the general reader and academic alike. These intriguing and entertaining tales build a picture of a lively East-End community of the 30s and 40s struggling with political, religious, and community concerns. Lachs includes a new history of the Yiddish literary milieu and biographies of the writers, with information gleaned from articles, reviews, and obituaries published in London’s Yiddish daily newspapers and periodicals. Lisky’s impassioned stories concern the East End’s clashing ideologies of communism, Zionism, fascism, and Jewish class difference. He shows anti-fascist activism, political debate in a kosher café, East-End extras on a film set, and a hunger march by the unemployed. Kaizer’s witty and satirical tales explore philanthropy, upward mobility, synagogue politics, and competition between Zionist organizations. They expose the character and foibles of the community and make fun of foolish and hypocritical behavior. Brown’s often hilarious sketches address episodes of daily life, which highlight family shenanigans and generational misunderstandings, and point out how the different attachments to Jewish identity of the immigrant generation and their children created unresolvable fractures. Each section begins with a biography of the writer, before launching into the translated stories with contextual notes. London Yiddishtown offers a significant addition to the literature about London, about the East End, about Jewish history, and about Yiddish. The East End has parallels with New York’s Lower East Side, yet London’s comparatively small enclave, and the particular experience of London in the 1930s and the bombing of the East End during the Blitz make this history unique. It is a captivating read that will entice literary and history buffs of all backgrounds. A Yiddish Book Center Translation.