Title search results
Showing 1 - 20 of 61 items
The Chocolate Maker's Wife: A Novel
By Karen Brooks. 2019
Australian bestselling novelist Karen Brooks rewrites women back into history with this breathtaking novel set in 17th century London—a lush,…
fascinating story of the beautiful woman who is drawn into a world of riches, power, intrigue…and chocolate.Damnation has never been so sweet...Rosamund Tomkins, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman, spends most of her young life in drudgery at a country inn. To her, the Restoration under Charles II, is but a distant threat as she works under the watchful eye of her brutal, abusive stepfather . . . until the day she is nearly run over by the coach of Sir Everard Blithman.Sir Everard, a canny merchant, offers Rosamund an “opportunity like no other,” allowing her to escape into a very different life, becoming the linchpin that will drive the success of his fledgling business: a luxurious London chocolate house where wealthy and well-connected men come to see and be seen, to gossip and plot, while indulging in the sweet and heady drink.Rosamund adapts and thrives in her new surroundings, quickly becoming the most talked-about woman in society, desired and respected in equal measure.But Sir Everard’s plans for Rosamund and the chocolate house involve family secrets that span the Atlantic Ocean, and which have already brought death and dishonor to the Blithman name. Rosamund knows nothing of the mortal peril that comes with her new title, nor of the forces spinning a web of conspiracy buried in the past, until she meets a man whose return tightens their grip upon her, threatening to destroy everything she loves and damn her to a dire fate.As she fights for her life and those she loves through the ravages of the Plague and London’s Great Fire, Rosamund’s breathtaking tale is one marked by cruelty and revenge; passion and redemption—and the sinfully sweet temptation of chocolate.The Long Song: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize (Nhb Modern Plays Ser.)
By Andrea Levy. 2010
Now a major BBC TV drama, starring Tamara Lawrance, Lenny Henry and Hayley Atwell.A Sunday Times bestseller (2011), shortlisted for…
the Man Booker Prize, The Long Song by Andrea Levy is a hauntingly beautiful, heartbreaking and unputdownable novel of the last days of slavery in Jamaica, for those who loved Homegoing, The Underground Railroad, or the film 12 Years a Slave.'A marvel of luminous storytelling' Financial TimesYou do not know me yet. My son Thomas, who is publishing this book, tells me, it is customary at this place in a novel to give the reader a little taste of the story that is held within these pages. As your storyteller, I am to convey that this tale is set in Jamaica during the last turbulent years of slavery and the early years of freedom that followed.July is a slave girl who lives upon a sugar plantation named Amity and it is her life that is the subject of this tale. She was there when the Baptist War raged in 1831, and she was present when slavery was declared no more. My son says I must convey how the story tells also of July's mama Kitty, of the negroes that worked the plantation land, of Caroline Mortimer the white woman who owned the plantation and many more persons besides - far too many for me to list here. But what befalls them all is carefully chronicled upon these pages for you to peruse.Perhaps, my son suggests, I might write that it is a thrilling journey through that time in the company of people who lived it. All this he wishes me to pen so the reader can decide if this is a novel they might care to consider. Cha, I tell my son, what fuss-fuss. Come, let them just read it for themselves.The Descartes Highlands
By Eric Gamalinda. 2014
One of the Philippine Daily Inquirer's Top 10 Books of 2014A NewPages Book Stand Editor's Pick"Darkly spellbinding...With a keen eye…
for splendor amid the grotesque, Gamalinda writes with a poet's heart and a philosopher's mind, while enthralling readers with emotional, gritty storytelling."--Booklist"A mesmerizing story full of mystery...intricate...beautiful writing."--Publishers Weekly"It's Gamalinda's best and most accessible novel yet, deserving to be read by as many people as possible."--Philippine Daily Inquirer"It felt so easy to get swept up in this novel. The language is beautiful....a beautifully written book."--NewPages"The wait for Gamalinda's first US based publication was well worth [it]...An indispensable, powerful portrayal of broken families trapped in the centripetal forces of transnational capital and postcolonial politics."--Asian American Literature Fans"Gamalinda...does indeed write fearlessly...in rich, unflinching prose. This storytelling stayed with me...I was compelled to keep reading by the strength of the writing (it's not for nothing that Gamalinda is the recipient of the Philippine National Book Award, a Palanca Memorial Award, and a Philippine Centennial Prize)."--Galatea Ressurects #24"I recommend this book to those with large, giving hearts, who can afford to spend the emotional capital demanded here."--Basso Profundo"The Descartes Highlands is a psychologically taut drama that unravels right in front of you...I guarantee that you will be richly rewarded."--Zachary Mule"Behind Eric Gamalinda's jagged, ice-pick prose is an urgent need to connect and to understand. Are we more than the sum of our histories? What is this accident of being? Why is there anything at all? Written at the edge of a sinkhole and determined to resist its pull, The Descartes Highlands is about nothing less than the whole bewildering dream that is human consciousness."--David Hollander, author of L.I.E."No one writes like Eric Gamalinda, though we wish we all could. The Descartes Highlands, an amazing work of brutal candor girded by a philosopher's calm, entwines our present despair with the horrific pasts we will not escape. One of the most dazzling novelists writing in America today, Eric Gamalinda has an almost classical Greek faith in the redemptive power of art. This novel delivers a commitment to beauty as unflinching as the bleak truths it tells--about globalization, about colonialism, about our human madness--offering in turn what seems our only, paradoxical hope: the pained telling of our story--a gorgeous and bitter feast."--Gina Apostol, author of Gun Dealers' DaughterTwo men, each unaware of the other, share a common family secret: they were sold for adoption by their American father shortly after their births in the Philippines. Three alternating stories interweave the experiences of father Andrew Breszky and the two sons who try to connect and piece together the puzzle of their reckless, impulsive father. One lives in New York and the other grows up in the south of France, later traveling all over Asia as a documentary filmmaker. Both will discover that their relationships somehow echo that of the young man whose history eludes them.Celebrated Filipino writer Eric Gamalinda's international debut novel is a contemporary work of ideas that combines mystery, film noir, and existential philosophy. Highly intricate and written in a style reminiscent of the maverick narrative techniques of such filmmakers as Andrei Tarkovsky and Béla Tarr, and with some of the philosophical underpinnings of Michel Houellebecq or Javier Marías. Named after the region of the moon where Apollo 16 landed in the same year these men were born, The Descartes Highlands demonstrates that for lives marked by unrelieved loneliness, the only hope lies in the redemptive power of love.Wandering warrior
By Da Chen. 2003
Young Luka, destined to become the future emperor of China, is trained in the ways of the kung fu wandering…
warriors by his guardian--the wise monk Atami. But when Atami is captured by their enemies, Luka has to fight for his own survival. For grades 6-9 and older readers. 2003Reading Architecture: Literary Imagination and Architectural Experience
By Angeliki Sioli, Yoonchun Jung. 2018
Why write instead of draw when it comes to architecture? Why rely on literary pieces instead of architectural treatises and…
writings when it comes to the of study buildings and urban environments? Why rely on literary techniques and accounts instead of architectural practices and analysis when it comes to academic research and educational projects? Why trust authors and writers instead of sociologists or scientists when it comes to planning for the future of cities? This book builds on the existing interdisciplinary bibliography on architecture and literature, but prioritizes literature’s capacity to talk about the lived experience of place and the premise that literary language can often express the inexpressible. It sheds light on the importance of a literary instead of a pictorial imagination for architects and it looks into four contemporary architectural subjects through a wide variety of literary works. Drawing on novels that engage cities from around the world, the book reveals aspects of urban space to which other means of architectural representation are blind. Whether through novels that employ historical buildings or sites interpreted through specific literary methods, it suggests a range of methodologies for contemporary architectural academic research. By exploring the power of narrative language in conveying the experience of lived space, it discusses its potential for architectural design and pedagogy. Questioning the massive architectural production of today’s globalized capital-driven world, it turns to literature for ways to understand, resist or suggest alternative paths for architectural practice. Despite literature’s fictional character, the essays of this volume reveal true dimensions of and for places beyond their historical, social and political reality; dimensions of utmost importance for architects, urban planners, historians and theoreticians nowadays.Song for Night
By Chris Abani. 2007
Part Inferno, part Paradise Lost, and part Sunjiata epic, Song for Night is the story of a West African boy…
soldier’s lyrical, terrifying, yet beautiful journey through the nightmare landscape of a brutal war in search of his lost platoon. The reader is led by the voiceless protagonist who, as part of a land mine-clearing platoon, had his vocal chords cut, a move to keep these children from screaming when blown up, and thereby distracting the other minesweepers. The book is written in a ghostly voice, with each chapter headed by a line of the unique sign language these children invented. This book is unlike anything else ever written about an African war.The Lunatic
By Anthony C. Winkler. 2007
In this outrageously out-of-order, hilarious novel, the reader discovers that lunacy is by no means restricted to the village madman,…
and that goodness and forgiveness may be rarer qualities, found in unexpected places.Aloysius is tolerated by neighbors but forced to eke out a living by doing odd jobs, using the hospitable woodlands for shelter. He is starved of human companionship; instead he has running conversations with trees and plants. Then love, or a peculiar version of it, comes to Aloysius in the form of a solidly built German lady, Inga Schmidt, who has come to Jamaica to photograph the flora and fauna.The Night of the Rambler: A Novel
By Montague Kobbé. 2013
"Colorful detours into native lore, such as a rich Dutchman's fabled courtship of a local beauty, strike grace notes that…
echo Marquez...readers...will be rewarded with the little-known tale of how the underdog country demanded its own place in the 20th century."--Publishers WeeklyBest Book of 2013 Selection, The Airship/Black Balloon Publishing"With tremendous humanity and humor, the novel articulates these themes through the power of the relationships and the urgency each character demonstrates in this quest for self-determination."--The Caribbean Writer"This is a book about revolution and the underdog, about a small, isolated island fighting for recognition, opportunity and justice; it is a compelling tale about a curious historical episode, but also a vital look at priorities, perspective and the right to live in dignity, issues that, much like Anguilla's rebellion of 1967, are all too easily forgotten."--The Island Review"[Readers] will be rewarded with deeper insight into the political and economic turmoil engulfing that region."--Historical Novel Society"Revolution and historic change--words that can remain detached concepts unless we can somehow connect them with their human face and the lives behind them. This is what first-time novelist Montague Kobbé achieves in marvelous style and depth in The Night of the Rambler--weaving a Caribbean tapestry of places, wider events, the individuals shaped by them, and how they ultimately come together to shape events themselves in the times leading to a revolution on Anguilla in 1967."--Maco Magazine"Vivid...funny, and thoughtful. Much like the revolution it covers, it's compelling."--Columbia College Chicago/The Review Lab"However unusual this revolution is, it is a prelude to Anguilla's eventual divorce from St. Kitts and Nevis, before becoming a separate British territory; its unconventional LOL factor could diversify an elective college course on revolutions with something bloody peaceful."--New PagesOn June 9, 1967, sixteen men from Anguilla, a forgotten island in the Caribbean, set sail aboard a thirty-five-foot sloop, the Rambler, to make the night-time journey to St. Kitts, where they intended to carry out a coup d'état and install a new government sympathetic to their separatist cause. Set against the turbulent background of world politics in the sixties, The Night of the Rambler tells the story of a misinformed and misconceived plan, carried out incompetently by a group of scarcely trained and ill-equipped amateurs who escape calamity by mere coincidence. And yet, somehow, the main purpose of their mission, the furtherance of Anguilla's struggle to dissociate itself from the newly formed state of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla and to return to the British colonial fold, is significantly strengthened by this, quite possibly the most outrageous episode in the history of revolutions.Loosely based on the historical facts surrounding the Anguilla Revolution of 1967, The Night of the Rambler unfolds across the fifteen hours that lapse between the moment when the "rebels" board the motorboat that will take them across the strait to St. Kitts, and the break of dawn the following day, when it becomes obvious that the unaccomplished mission will have to be aborted. The novel consciously moves away from the "historical" category, purposely altering at will the sequence of "facts" narrated, collating fully fictional episodes with vaguely accurate anecdotes and replacing the protagonists with fictional characters. At turns highly dramatic and hilarious, Kobbé brings deep honesty to the often-unexamined righteousness of revolution.With echoes of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and Mario Vargas Llosa's Conversation in the Cathedral, The Night of the Rambler touches upon the universal topics of freedom and self-determination with humor and sensibility, creating an alternative reality that is informed by real lifA Shtetl and Other Yiddish Novellas
By Ruth Wisse. 1986
The five short novellas which comprise this anthology were written between 1890 and World War I. All share a common…
setting--the Eastern European Jewish town or shtetl, and all deal in different ways with a single topic--the Jewish confrontation with modernity. The authors of these novellas are among the greatest masters of Yiddish prose. In their work, today's reader will discover a literary tradition of considerable scope, energy, and variety and will come face to face with an exceptionally memorable cast of characters and with a human community now irrevocably lost. In her general introduction, Professor Wisse traces the development of modern Yiddish literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and describes the many shifts that took place between the Yiddish writers and the world about which they wrote. She also furnishes a brief introduction for each novella, giving the historical and biographical background and offering a critical interpretation of the work.Tales in Context: Sefer ha-ma'asim in Medieval Northern France (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology)
By Elisheva Baumgarten, Rella Kushelevsky. 2017
In the thirteenth century, an anonymous scribe compiled sixty-nine tales that became Sefer ha-ma’asim, the earliest compilation of Hebrew tales…
known to us in Western Europe. The author writes that the stories encompass “descriptions of herbs that cure leprosy, a fairy princess with golden tresses using magic charms to heal her lover’s wounds and restore him to life; a fire-breathing dragon . . . a two-headed creature and a giant’s daughter for whom the rind of a watermelon containing twelve spies is no more than a speck of dust.” In Tales in Context: Sefer ha-ma’asim in Medieval Northern France, Rella Kushelevsky enlightens the stories’ meanings and reflects the circumstances and environment for Jewish lives in medieval France. Although a selection of tales was previously published, this is the first publication of a Hebrew-English annotated edition in its entirety, revealing fresh insight. The first part of Kushelevsky’s work, “Cultural, Literary and Comparative Perspectives,” presents the thesis that Sefer ha-ma’asim is a product of its time and place, and should therefore be studied within its literary and cultural surroundings, Jewish and vernacular, in northern France. An investigation of the scribe's techniques in reworking his Jewish and non-Jewish sources into a medieval discourse supports this claim. The second part of the manuscript consists of the tales themselves, in Hebrew and English translation, including brief comparative comments or citations. The third part, “An Analytical and Comparative Overview,” offers an analysis of each tale as an individual unit, contextualized within its medieval framework and against the background of its parallels. Elisheva Baumgarten's epilogue adds social and historical background to Sefer ha-ma’asim and discusses new ways in which it and other story compilations may be used by historians for an inquiry into the everyday life of medieval Jews. The tales in Sefer ha-ma’asim will be of special value to scholars of folklore and medieval European history and literature, as well as those looking to enrich their studies and shelves.The Twilight Zone: A Novel
By Nona Fernández. 2016
* Finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature *An engrossing, incantatory novel about the legacy of historical crimes…
by the author of Space InvadersIt is 1984 in Chile, in the middle of the Pinochet dictatorship. A member of the secret police walks into the office of a dissident magazine and finds a reporter, who records his testimony. The narrator of Nona Fernández’s mesmerizing and terrifying novel The Twilight Zone is a child when she first sees this man’s face on the magazine’s cover with the words “I Tortured People.” His complicity in the worst crimes of the regime and his commitment to speaking about them haunt the narrator into her adulthood and career as a writer and documentarian. Like a secret service agent from the future, through extraordinary feats of the imagination, Fernández follows the “man who tortured people” to places that archives can’t reach, into the sinister twilight zone of history where morning routines, a game of chess, Yuri Gagarin, and the eponymous TV show of the novel’s title coexist with the brutal yet commonplace machinations of the regime.How do crimes vanish in plain sight? How does one resist a repressive regime? And who gets to shape the truths we live by and take for granted? The Twilight Zone pulls us into the dark portals of the past, reminding us that the work of the writer in the face of historical erasure is to imagine so deeply that these absences can be, for a time, spectacularly illuminated.1967 (Exploring Civil Rights)
By Jay Leslie. 2023
Learn about the key events of the civil rights movement in the latest installment of this exciting and informative series.The…
year 1967 was pivotal to the civil rights movement. In April, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech to thousands inside a New York church condemning the Vietnam War and asking for a peaceful end. In June, the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia would determine whether interracial couples could legally marry in the United States. The five-day long Detroit Riot against the Black community in July would end up being one of the most violent in our country’s history. And in October, Thurgood Marshall would become the first African American justice appointed to the Supreme Court, securing his place as one of the most influential figures in the fight for civil rights.This detailed account explains why 1967 was such a critical year in the civil rights movement.ABOUT THE SERIES:The years from 1967 to 1978 were critical to the civil rights movement. Resistance was often met with violence against Black Americans struggling to end discrimination and segregation. Yet the courage of those yearning for equal opportunities under the law continued to persevere and set the stage for even more progress in the coming decades. Discover how this specific time period brought about change and how it still affects us as a society today.With stunning photographs throughout and rich back matter, each book focuses on a specific year and chronologically follows the detailed events that occurred and the changes that took place.Beni's War
By Tammar Stein. 2020
It's Yom Kippur Eve in 1973, and twelve-year-old Beni thinks his biggest problem is settling in at his new school…
in the Golan, where his family moved at the end of the Six-Day War. But on Yom Kippur, shocking news comes over the radio: a stunning strike on Israel has begun, led by a coalition of Arab states. In the blink of an eye, Beni's older brother Motti is off to war, leaving Beni behind with his mother and father. As bombs drop around Beni and his family, they flee to safety, every day hoping for news of Motti and the developments of the war. Beni must find a way to aid the war effort in his own way, proving that he too can be a hero, even as he learns along the way that there is dignity in every person, including the people he considers the enemy.In This World of Ultraviolet Light: Stories
By Raul Palma. 2023
"These are new Cubans. Twenty-first-century Marielitos. Balseros, as the bartender had referred to them. I know, because my mom tells…
me that these are the kinds of Cubans I need to stay away from."In eight captivating stories, In This World of Ultraviolet Light—winner of the 2021 Don Belton Prize—navigates tensions between Cubans, Cuban Americans, and the larger Latinx community. Though these stories span many locations—from a mulch manufacturing facility on the edge of Big Cypress National Preserve to the borderlands between Georgia and the Carolinas—they are overshadowed by an obsession with Miami as a place that exists in the popular imagination. Beyond beaches and palm trees, Raul Palma goes off the beaten path to portray everyday people clinging to their city and struggling to find cultural grounding. As Anjali Sachdeva writes, "This is fiction to steal the breath of any reader, from any background."Boldly interrogating identity, the discomfort of connection, and the entanglement of love and cruelty, In This World of Ultraviolet Light is a nuanced collection of stories that won't let you go.Mama Africa!: How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song
By Kathryn Erskine. 2017
An inspiring picture-book biography of iconic singer and activist Miriam Makeba by National Book Award winner Kathryn Erskine.Miriam Makeba, a…
Grammy Award–winning South African singer, rose to fame in the hearts of her people at the pinnacle of apartheid—a brutal system of segregation similar to American Jim Crow laws. Mama Africa, as they called her, raised her voice to help combat these injustices at jazz clubs in Johannesburg; in exile, at a rally beside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and before the United Nations. Set defiantly in the present tense, this biography offers readers an intimate view of Makeba’s fight for equality. Kathryn Erskine’s call-and-response style text and Charly Palmer’s bold illustrations come together in a raw, riveting duet of protest song and praise poem. A testament to how a single voice helped to shake up the world—and can continue to do so.Fruit of the Lemon
By Andrea Levy. 1999
The third and most ambitious novel from this unique and acclaimed writer, FRUIT OF THE LEMON establishes Andrea Levy alongside…
Arundhati Roy and Meera Syal in the first rank of British fiction.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.(P) 2022 Headline Publishing Group LtdHear o Israel: a story of the Warsaw Ghetto
By Lloyd Bloom, Terry W Treseder, Terry W. Treseder. 1990
Isaac, a twelve-year-old boy in the Warsaw ghetto, tells this gripping, troubling story. It begins at his brother Simon's bar…
mitzvah soon after the Nazis invade Poland. Isaac describes his father's unwavering faith in God; Simon's disaffection from his faith; the deaths of most of the family from starvation; and the final moments before Isaac's death at Treblinka. Violence. For junior and senior high and older readersOn the Way Back
By Montague Kobbé. 2016
Praise for Montague Kobbé:"Colorful detours into native lore, such as a rich Dutchman's fabled courtship of a local beauty, strike…
grace notes that echo Márquez."--Publishers Weekly on The Night of the Rambler"Riveting, deeply thoughtful, and constantly inventive."--Joe Meno on The Night of the RamblerNathaniel Jones, a middle-aged businessman from England, travels to the Caribbean island of Anguilla to spend a fortnight on holiday when he's captivated by a brilliant and beautiful member of the local community, Sheila Rawlingson. After a secret, intense hundred-day courtship, Nathaniel proposes to Sheila, whose agreement to marry this white man is seen as a betrayal by her family and fellow Anguillans.Recognizing the value Anguillan society places on economic projects, Nathaniel attempts to set up an airline business to gain the support and favor of the Rawlingsons. Nathaniel sends for his son, Dragon Jones, to travel to Anguilla and cofound Dragon Wings, the nation's first commercial airline. Nathaniel, Dragon, and Sheila turn to her uncle for financial backing. Sheila's uncle, however, foils Nathaniel's best-laid plans at every turn. Kobbé's hilarious social novel brilliantly echoes A Confederacy of Dunces and Herman Wouk's Don't Stop the Carnival.The Four Symbols: The Black Sun Trilogy, 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, whilst 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 . . .(P) 2020 Hodder & Stoughton LtdBlack, blue & gray: African Americans in the Civil War
By James Haskins, Jim Haskins. 1998
Examines the gradual acceptance of African American soldiers in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War. Includes excerpts…
from letters, documented accounts, and government transcripts. The last chapter describes how historians for many years ignored the role of African American troops in the war. For grades 5-8