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The cook, the crook, and the real estate tycoon: a novel of contemporary China
By Howard Goldblatt, Sylvia Li-chun Lin, Liu Zhenyun. 2015
Liu Yuejin, a worksite cook and a thief, has his pack with money stolen. While searching for it, he discovers…
another bag which contains a USB card detailing corruption of high officials and putting him in danger. Translated from the original 2007 Chinese edition. Violence, strong language, and some explicit descriptions of sex. 2015Chinese mythology: an introduction
By Anne M. Birrell. 1999
English translations of some three hundred representative myths from more than one hundred classical Chinese texts. Selections are grouped thematically…
covering topics such as creation, gods, divine birth, love, heroes, the natural world, and immortality. Includes introduction and explanatory notes analyzing the context and significance of each narrative. 1993Battles, Betrayals, and Brotherhood: Early Chinese Plays on the Three Kingdoms
By Wilt L. Idema, Stephen H. West. 2005
No cycle of historical legends has enjoyed greater or more enduring popularity in China than that of the Three Kingdoms,…
which recounts the dramatic story of the civil wars (c. AD 180-220) that divided the old Han empire into the Shu-Han, Wei, and Wu states, and the eventual reunification of the realm under the Western Jin in AD 280.The Penguin's Song
By Marilyn Booth, Hassan Daoud. 2014
"I loved this book when I read it in Arabic. The Penguin's Song is a classic novel of the Lebanese…
civil war."--Rabih Alameddine, author of An Unnecessary Woman"In The Penguin's Song, a city falls, a father dies, two women walk the same road over and over, a boy with a broken body dreams of love. Like Agota Kristof's Notebook Trilogy, this spare yet lyrical parable tells us more about exile, loss and the wearing away of hope than most us want to know. I love this beautiful book."--Rebecca Brown, author of American Romances and The End of Youth"Daoud's novel is an elegiac account of loneliness and separation. . . . This is a haunting story inhabited by the ghosts of past lives and demolished buildings, where desires are left unfulfilled and loneliness sweeps through every soul."--Publishers Weekly"Daoud's claustrophobic novel hauntingly conveys one family's isolation after being relocated during the Lebanese civil war. . . . Daoud's evocation of history as it is experienced is excellent. His characters live through momentous events, but their struggles to survive land them in a kind of purgatory. A novel that defies expectations as it summons up the displacement and dehumanization that can come with war."--Kirkus Reviews" . . . deftly explores how people cope with the aftermath of war and the tremendous struggle of rebuilding not only with bricks and concrete but with heart, hopes, and dreams."--Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH, and Library Journal"Nothing about reading Hassan Daoud's novels is easy, but the effort is always rewarded. The complex but mundane beauty of his prose is skillfully rendered in Marilyn Booth's translation, The Penguin's Song, a novel as much about the dreary loneliness of daily life as it is about the Lebanese civil war and its aftermath. Slowly paced, heavy with the burden of waiting, Daoud's text unfolds painstakingly, page after page. The horror of war, the pain of isolation, the longing of unfulfilled desire, and the power of the printed word all shine through in this finely-crafted narrative."--Michelle Hartman, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill UniversityAs war wreaks havoc on the historic heart of Beirut, tenants of the old city are pushed to the margins and obliged to live on the surrounding hillsides, where it seems they will stay forever, waiting. The dream of return becomes a way of life in the unending time of war."The Penguin" is a physically deformed young man who lives with his aging mother and father in one of the "temporary" buildings. His father spends his days on the balcony of their apartment, looking at the far-off city and pining for his lost way of life. Mother and father both find their purpose each day in worrying about the future for their son, while he spends his time in an erotic fantasy world, centered on a young woman who lives in the apartment below. Poverty and family crisis go hand in hand as the young man struggles with his isolation and unfulfilled sexual longing.Voted "The Best Arabic Novel of the Year" when it was first published, The Penguin's Song is a finely wrought parable of how one can live out an entire life in the dream of returning to another.A Quiet Place
By Seicho Matsumoto, Louise Heal Kawai. 2016
"A master crime writer . . . Seicho Matsumoto's thrillers dissect Japanese society."-The New York Times Book Review"A stellar psychological…
thriller with a surprising and immensely satisfying resolution that flows naturally from the book's complex characterizations.Readers will agree that Matsumoto (1909-1992) deserves his reputation as Japan's Georges Simenon.-Publishers Weekly.While on a business trip to Kobe, Tsuneo Asai receives the news that his wife Eiko has died of a heart attack. Eiko had a heart condition so the news of her death wasn't totally unexpected. But the circumstances of her demise left Tsuneo, a softly-spoken government bureaucrat, perplexed. How did it come about that his wife-who was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetings-ended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighborhood?When Tsuneo goes to apologize to the boutique owner for the trouble caused by his wife's death he discovers the villa Tachibana near by, a house known to be a meeting place for secret lovers. As he digs deeper into his wife's recent past, he must eventually conclude that she led a double life... Seicho Matsumoto was Japan's most successful thriller writer. His first detective novel, Points and Lines, sold over a million copies in Japan. Vessel of Sand, published in English as Inspector Imanishi Investigates in 1989, sold over four million copies and became a movie box-office hit.Mulan: Five Versions of a Classic Chinese Legend, with Related Texts
By Wilt L. Idema, Shiamin Kwa. 2010
The legend of Mulan--the daughter who disguises herself as a man, dons her father's armor, and heads off to war…
in his place--remains one of the most popular Chinese folktales despite (or because of) its lack of supernatural demonstrations or interventions.This volume offers lively translations of the earliest recorded version of the legend and several later iterations of the tale (including the screenplay of the hugely successful 1939 Chinese film Mulan Joins the Army), illustrating the many ways that reinterpretations of this basic story reflect centuries of changes in Chinese cultural, political, and sexual attitudes.An Introduction traces the evolution of the Mulan legend and its significance in the history of Chinese popular culture. Annotation explaining terms and references unfamiliar to Western readers, a glossary, and a comprehensive bibliography further enhance the value of this volume for both scholars and students.Tales of the Samurai: More Samurai Tales Of The Tokugawa Ii
By James S. de Benneville. 1986
A young lord undertakes the restoration of his family's fortunes and honor in this gripping retelling of a 15th-century Japanese…
epic. Gripping and evocative, it recounts the rebellions, plots, and battles that culminate in a vendetta's thrilling resolution. James S. de Benneville's Western-style narrative offers an exceptionally faithful retelling. 44 black-and-white illustrations.Indian Fairy Tales
By Joseph Jacobs. 2009
Soils and national characteristics differ, but fairy tales are the same in plot and incidents the world over. So proved…
the leading British folklorist Joseph Jacobs (1854-1916) with this now classic volume of 29 traditional tales from India, including some of the oldest recorded tales known."The Lion and the Crane," "How the Raja's Son Won the Princess Labam," "The Broken Pot," "The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal," "The Talkative Tortoise," "The Ass in the Lion's Skin," "Why the Fish Laughed," "Sun, Moon, and Wind Go Out to Dinner," "The Prince and the Fakir," and all the other stories make delightful reading or listening for youngsters who are tired of the same familiar old favorites. John D. Batten's nine full-page plates and his 37 other drawings are reproduced from the original edition.Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds: A Collection of Short Medieval Japanese Tales (Translations from the Asian Classics)
By Haruo Shirane, Keller Kimbrough. 2018
Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds is a collection of twenty-five medieval Japanese tales of border crossings and the fantastic, featuring…
demons, samurai, talking animals, amorous plants, and journeys to supernatural realms. The most comprehensive compendium of short medieval Japanese fiction in English, Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds illuminates a rich world of literary, Buddhist, and visual culture largely unknown today outside of Japan.These stories, called otogizōshi, or Muromachi tales (named after the Muromachi period, 1337 to 1573), date from approximately the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries. Often richly illustrated in a painted-scroll format, these vernacular stories frequently express Buddhist beliefs and provide the practical knowledge and moral education required to navigate medieval Japanese society. The otogizōshi represent a major turning point in the history of Japanese literature. They bring together many earlier types of narrative—court tales, military accounts, anecdotes, and stories about the divine origins of shrines and temples––joining book genres with parlor arts and the culture of itinerant storytellers and performers. The works presented here are organized into three thematically overlapping sections titled, “Monsters, Warriors, and Journeys to Other Worlds,” “Buddhist Tales,” and “Interspecies Affairs.” Each translation is prefaced by a short introduction, and the book features images from the original scroll paintings, illustrated manuscripts, and printed books.Twilight in a Knotted World
By Mr Sidhhartha Sarma. 2020
The soil of central India hides more than the bones of long-dead giants. The East India Company is master of…
almost the entire subcontinent, but real power is now with the Crown. Far from the great games of the empire, Captain William Henry Sleeman is content to administer Jabalpur district and dig for remnants of petrified bones with his charming and knowledgeable wife. Until he is tasked with investigating the activities of an obscure group of criminals who are said to strangle their victims. As Sleeman uncovers the many layers of the Phansigar problem, he finds a language unlike any other, and a set of beliefs, lore and superstitions seemingly drawn from the soul of the countryside. He finds orchards of corpses, and a hierarchy of stranglers, but also ordinary men driven to murder. He hears subtle murmurs of discontentment at the changes which have come to a land believed by some to be unchanging. He finds auguries of a conflict to come. And behind it all, the legend of a mysterious, beautiful man, whose capture might be the key to understanding the Phansigars. Sleeman&’s inquiries will make him confront the nature of his beloved adopted homeland and of the mighty people in Calcutta who he serves. Through the prism of caste, the consequent web of intricate social and cultural relationships, and the nature of travel in the hinterland, he will see the real face of India and come across its uncomfortable, bleak truths. But to unravel such truths is not easy…From a former Israeli spy, comes the most realistic and authentic thriller of the year. The Times Number One BestsellerWinner…
of the CWA International Dagger.A Times, Telegraph and FT pick for Summer Reads 2019"The year's best espionage thriller" Daily Telegraph Best Books of 2019"Breathlessly exciting" Marcel Berlins, The Times."Races along with pace and verve" Adam LeBor, Financial Times"A genuinely thrilling espionage novel" John Williams, Mail on Sunday"A deeply enjoyable espionage thriller" Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph.When an Israeli tech exec disappears from Charles de Gaulle airport with a woman in red, logic dictates youthful indiscretion. But Israel is on a state of high alert nonetheless. Colonel Zeev Abadi, the new head of Unit 8200's Special Section, just happens to have arrived on the same flight.For Commissaire Léger of the Paris Police, all coincidences are suspect. When a second young Israeli from the flight is kidnapped, this time at gunpoint from his hotel room, his suspicions are confirmed - and a diplomatic crisis looms. As the race to identify the victims and the reasons behind their abductions intensifies, a covert Chinese commando team watches from the rooftops, while hour by hour the morgue receives fresh bodies from around Paris.This could be one long night in the City of Lights.Translated from the Hebrew by Daniela ZamirFrom a former Israeli spy, comes the most realistic and authentic thriller of the year. The Times Number One BestsellerWinner…
of the CWA International Dagger.A Times, Telegraph and FT pick for Summer Reads 2019"The year's best espionage thriller" Daily Telegraph Best Books of 2019"Breathlessly exciting" Marcel Berlins, The Times."Races along with pace and verve" Adam LeBor, Financial Times"A genuinely thrilling espionage novel" John Williams, Mail on Sunday"A deeply enjoyable espionage thriller" Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph.When an Israeli tech exec disappears from Charles de Gaulle airport with a woman in red, logic dictates youthful indiscretion. But Israel is on a state of high alert nonetheless. Colonel Zeev Abadi, the new head of Unit 8200's Special Section, just happens to have arrived on the same flight.For Commissaire Léger of the Paris Police, all coincidences are suspect. When a second young Israeli from the flight is kidnapped, this time at gunpoint from his hotel room, his suspicions are confirmed - and a diplomatic crisis looms. As the race to identify the victims and the reasons behind their abductions intensifies, a covert Chinese commando team watches from the rooftops, while hour by hour the morgue receives fresh bodies from around Paris.This could be one long night in the City of Lights.Translated from the Hebrew by Daniela ZamirThe Ghost Marriage: A China Novella (China Thrillers #7)
By Peter May. 2017
LI YAN AND MARGARET CAMPBELL RETURN IN A NEW SHORT STORY, YEARS AFTER THE DRAMATIC CONCLUSION OF CHINESE WHISPERS. 'I…
saw your missing girl at a ghost wedding last week. She was the bride.'It has been a whirlwind few years for Li Yan and Margaret Campbell. Nowadays, both are busy juggling their huge professional workloads - Li as the newly promoted chief of Beijing's serious crime squad, and Campbell as lecturer at the University of Public Security - with the day-to-day raising of their young son, Li Jon.When a desperate mother appeals to Campbell's own maternal instincts, Li agrees to look into the disappearance of a 17-year-old Beijing girl, Jiang Meilin.Yet Li's investigation soon turns from a favour into a full-scale murder enquiry. And when he receives an anonymous note he learns Jiang Meilin's death is tied to a dangerous underground trade, and a dark marital rite from China's past.THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR'A TENSE AND ATMOSPHERIC THRILLER WITH A HEART-STOPPING ENDING' TANGLED WEB'POWERFUL AND AUTHENTIC' GLASGOW HERALDThe…
Beijing Ripper makes a personal vendetta against Detective Li Yan in the sixth and final episode in the China seriesGRUESOME MURDERSHis victims are young, beautiful and coldly mutilated. He calls himself the Beijing Ripper. Li Yan, head of Beijing's serious crime squad, must stop him.FEARSOME LETTERSJust as pathologist Margaret Campbell finds an insight into the killer's sick signature, Li receives a letter from the killer, betraying his cruel intentions.CHINESE WHISPERSThere's no way Li can misinterpret the Ripper's motives: he wants to tear Li and Campbell's lives apart, and write the darkest chapter in Beijing's history.LOVED THE CHINA THRILLERS? Try book 1 of the Enzo novels, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE.LOVE PETER MAY? Buy his new thriller, A SILENT DEATHPETER MAY: OVER 3 MILLION COPIES SOLD'A TERRIFIC WRITER' MARK BILLINGHAM'WONDERFULLY COMPELLING' KATE MOSSEIn the second novel in the China…
series, Li Yan and Margaret Campbell are reluctantly reunited, on the trail of a killer reenacting a series of gruesome ritualsTHE SECOND OPINIONThe Chinese police have once more been forced to enlist the services of American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell: this time to investigate a series of four horrific ritual executions that have taken place in Beijing.THE THIRD DEGREEDetective Li Yan is determined to discover just how one of the victims in particular, an American diplomat, became caught up in the slaying. And he is arguably even more determined to have nothing to do with Campbell.THE FOURTH SACRIFICEThe polarity that once attracted Yan and Campbell eventually pulls them back into partnership. Yet the closer they are drawn to the truth, the nearer they come to a killer prepared to use extreme force to conceal it.LOVED THE FOURTH SACRIFICE? Read the third book in the series, THE KILLING ROOM.LOVE PETER MAY? Buy his new thriller, A SILENT DEATH.The Key to Midnight: A gripping thriller of heart-stopping suspense
By Dean Koontz. 1995
The past can be a very dangerous place when it is locked into a nightmare... The Key to Midnight is…
a page-turning thriller from Dean Koontz that delves into the darkest of dreams. Perfect for fans of Stephen King and Harlan Coben. 'Dean Koontz writes page-turners, middle-of-the-night-sneak-up-behind-you suspense thrillers. He touches our hearts and tingles our spines' - Washington Post Book WorldWho is Joanna Rand?Alex Hunter hasn't come to Japan to fall in love. But Joanna Rand is the most beautiful, exciting woman he has ever met.But Joanna is not who she thinks she is. Ten years before, and halfway across the world, a brutally bizarre experiment recreated her mind. A violation so hideous that her dreams are filled with terror and her memories are a lie.If they are ever to be free, Alex and Joanna have to reopen the dangerous door into the nightmare past. Somehow they have to find the key to midnight... What readers are saying about The Key to Midnight: 'This is a story of suspense, action and intrigue set to the backdrop of international espionage... Koontz delivers his usual blend of mystery and action that keeps those pages turning''This is an intriguing tale, a mystery and a romance but shot through with an underlying psychological horror and also a political undertone, too''As always, so, so readable, and so, so well written'The Third Day
By Chochana Boukhobza. 2010
A leading Israeli musician and her protégé return to Jerusalem for three days to perform with the Philharmonic Orchestra. Both…
women - one a gifted young cellist, one a Holocaust survivor saved by her extraordinary musical talent - have been in America for some time, are quickly caught up in tangled threads from former lives. Elisheva is reunited with her godson, Daniel; Rachel must face both her distant father and Erytan, a former lover, whose lingering power over her now threatens all she has worked for. Elisheva is coaching Rachel for the solo performance, but something else has drawn her to Jerusalem. Another old friend has lured a Nazi eugenicist, the Butcher of Majdanek, to Israel from Venezuela. The Butcher performed torturous experiments on Elisheva, determining not only her fate but also that of her closest friends. On the third day of her stay, the day of the concert, she will take her revenge. Set in the late 1980s, The Third Day is a vivid portrait of life in Jerusalem and a sensitive meditation on the power of music and the sacrifices it demands. And at its heart is a gripping narrative of retribution that brings the novel's many moving strands towards a tense and shattering conclusion.The Defections
By Hannah Michell. 2014
'Stunning' The Times'Excellent' Independent on Sunday'Compelling, haunting and thrilling' David PeaceSeoul, South KoreaMia is an outsider. Half-English, half-Korean, a translator…
at the British Embassy; she treads a boundary between her roots and the acceptance she desires from the English - especially her boss, Thomas: a married diplomat.Thomas's career is jeopardized by an outrageous indiscretion until Mia comes to his rescue. At first grateful, his feelings are soon complicated by a commission to investigate the background of the woman who has captivated him.Hyun-min is a defector from North Korea, taken in by Mia's family. But he has a secret. One that could shatter Mia's family, her life and the fragile borders around them all.The second in the series of the Dabble and Harris thrillers! Set in the mid-twentieth century, this adventure series is…
perfect for fans of action-packed, historical fiction.'A rollicking good read' IAN RANKINIndia, 1937. Intrepid reporter Sir Percival Harris is hunting tigers with his friend, Professor Ernest Drabble. Harris soon bags a man-eater - but later finds himself caught up in a hunt of a different kind...Harris is due to interview the Maharaja of Bikaner, a friend to the Raj, for his London newspaper - and he and Drabble soon find themselves accompanied by a local journalist, Miss Heinz. But is the lady all she seems? And the Maharaja himself is proving elusive...Meanwhile, the movement for Indian independence is becoming stronger, and Drabble and Harris witness some of the conflict first-hand. But even more drama comes on arrival at Bikaner when the friends find themselves confined to their quarters... and embroiled in an assassination plot!Just who is the enemy in the Maharaja's palace? What is the connection to a mysterious man Drabble meets in Delhi? And what secret plans do the British colonial officers have up their sleeves?Praise for Alec Marsh's Drabble and Harris thrillers...'An immensely readable treat!' ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH'Told with humour and flair, Enemy of the Raj is a highly enjoyable, riveting read'ABIR MUKHERJEE'A thoroughly engaging and enjoyable diversion'NEW STATESMAN on Enemy of the Raj 'Tremendous stuff! With the arrival of Alec Marsh's first Drabble and Harris thriller, John Buchan must be stirring uneasily in his grave'STANLEY JOHNSONThe second in the series of the Dabble and Harris thrillers! Set in the mid-twentieth century, this adventure series is…
perfect for fans of action-packed, historical fiction.'A rollicking good read' IAN RANKINIndia, 1937. Intrepid reporter Sir Percival Harris is hunting tigers with his friend, Professor Ernest Drabble. Harris soon bags a man-eater - but later finds himself caught up in a hunt of a different kind...Harris is due to interview the Maharaja of Bikaner, a friend to the Raj, for his London newspaper - and he and Drabble soon find themselves accompanied by a local journalist, Miss Heinz. But is the lady all she seems? And the Maharaja himself is proving elusive...Meanwhile, the movement for Indian independence is becoming stronger, and Drabble and Harris witness some of the conflict first-hand. But even more drama comes on arrival at Bikaner when the friends find themselves confined to their quarters... and embroiled in an assassination plot!Just who is the enemy in the Maharaja's palace? What is the connection to a mysterious man Drabble meets in Delhi? And what secret plans do the British colonial officers have up their sleeves?Praise for Alec Marsh's Drabble and Harris thrillers...'An immensely readable treat!' ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH'Told with humour and flair, Enemy of the Raj is a highly enjoyable, riveting read'ABIR MUKHERJEE'A thoroughly engaging and enjoyable diversion'NEW STATESMAN on Enemy of the Raj 'Tremendous stuff! With the arrival of Alec Marsh's first Drabble and Harris thriller, John Buchan must be stirring uneasily in his grave'STANLEY JOHNSON