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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.Becoming Abigail
By Chris Abani. 2006
A breathtaking new novella from the award-winning author of GraceLand "Compelling and gorgeously written, this is a coming-of-age novella like…
no other. Chris Abani explores the depths of loss and exploitation with what can only be described as a knowing tenderness. An extraordinary, necessary book."—Cristina Garcia, author of Dreaming in Cuban "Abani's voice brings perspective to every moment, turning pain into a beautiful painterly meditation on loss and aloneness."—Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt “Abani's empathy for Abigail's torn life is matched only by his honesty in portraying it. Nothing at all is held back. A harrowing piece of work.”—Peter Orner, author of The Esther Stories Tough, spirited, and fiercely independent Abigail is brought as a teenager to London from Nigeria by relatives who attempt to force her into prostitution. She flees, struggling to find herself in the shadow of a strong but dead mother. In spare yet haunting and lyrical prose reminiscent of Marguerite Duras, Abani brings to life a young woman who lives with a strength and inner light that will enlighten and uplift the reader.Le dernier roi d'Écosse
By Giles Foden. 2000
Un livre sombre et comique, en tous points conforme à la vérité historique et qui aussi une galerie de portraits.…
On y rencontre des femmes de diplomates qui "bovarysent", des ministres flagorneurs, des paramilitaires sanguinaires... qui gravitent autour de ce "dernier roi d'Ecosse", titre parmi d'autres tout aussi ronflants, que s'est généreusement attribué Idi Amin Dada, ce dictateur ougandaisLe patron de Dallaire parle: révélations sur les dérives d'un général de l'ONU au Rwanda
By Jacques-Roger Booh Booh. 2005
As Flies to Whatless Boys: A Novel
By Robert Antoni. 2013
In 1845 London, an engineer, philosopher, philanthropist, and bold-faced charlatan, John Adolphus Etzler, has invented machines that he thinks will…
transform the division of labor and free all men. He forms a collective called the Tropical Emigration Society (TES), and recruits a variety of London citizens to take his machines and his misguided ideas to form a proto-socialist, utopian community in the British colony of Trinidad. Among his recruits is a young boy (and the book's narrator) named Willy, who falls head-over-heels for the enthralling and wise Marguerite Whitechurch. Coming from the gentry, Marguerite is a world away from Willy's laboring class. As the voyage continues, and their love for one another strengthens, Willy and Marguerite prove themselves to be true socialists, their actions and adventures standing in stark contrast to Etzler's disconnected theories.Robert Antoni's tragic historical novel, accented with West Indian cadence and captivating humor, provides an unforgettable glimpse into nineteenth-century Trinidad & Tobago. Winner of the 2014 OCM Bocas Prize!Young Mr. Keefe
By Stephen Birmingham. 1958
Bestselling author Stephen Birmingham's debut novel Young Mr. Keefe is the deftly plotted story of a young New England man…
who decides to find his fortunes out west, in 1950s California.The Liberated Bride: A Novel
By Hillel Halkin, A. B. Yehoshua. 2001
Yochanan Rivlin, a professor at Haifa University, is a man of boundless and often naïve curiosity. His wife, Hagit, a…
district judge, is tolerant of almost everything but her husband's faults and prevarications. Frequent arguments aside, they are a well-adjusted couple with two grown sons.When one of Rivlin's students-a young Arab bride from a village in the Galilee-is assigned to help with his research in recent Algerian history, a two-pronged mystery develops. As they probe the causes of the bloody Algerian civil war, Rivlin also becomes obsessed with his son's failed marriage.Rivlin's search leads to a number of improbable escapades. In this comedy of manners, at once deeply serious and highly entertaining, Yehoshua brilliantly portrays characters from disparate sectors of Israeli life, united above all by a very human desire for, and fear of, the truth in politics and life.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.Leaving Tabasco: A Novel (Books That Changed the World)
By Carmen Boullosa. 2001
A young woman encounters strange events in her Mexican hometown in this novel by an author who “immerses us…in her…
wickedly funny and imaginative world” (Latina).Leaving Tabasco tells of the coming of age of Delmira Ulloa, raised in an all-female home in Agustini, in the Mexican province of Tabasco. In Agustini it is not unusual to see your grandmother float above the bed when she sleeps, or to purchase torrential rains at a traveling fair, or to watch your family’s elderly serving woman develop stigmata, then disappear completely, to be canonized as a local saint. But as Delmira becomes a woman, she will set out on a search for her missing father, and must make a choice that could mean leaving her home forever, in a tale filled with both depth and delightful mystery that poses questions about just how real the real world is. “To flee Agustini is to leave not just a town but the viscerally primal dreamscape it represents.”— The New York Times Book Review“Vibrant…Each chapter is an adventure.”—The Boston Globe“We happily share with [Delmira] her life, including the infinitely charming town she inhabits [and] her grandmother’s fantastic imagination.”—The Washington Post Book WorldThe 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 lifThis Wound Full of Fish
By Lorena Salazar Masso. 2021
'In this dazzling and moving debut, Lorena Salazar takes us to the heart of the Colombian jungle and shows us,…
with an enveloping and addictive prose, sorority in its purest form and the brutal contrasts of human nature'Fernanda Melchor, author of Hurricane Season'A novel of breathtaking landscapes and an accurate portrait of mothers' fears, and of violence, always latent, like a wild beast lurking in the dark'Pilar Quintana, author of The BitchIn the city of Quibdó, a mother and her child embark on a canoe trip down the mighty Atrato River, the only route that allows them to penetrate the thick Colombian jungle. The journey is long, slowed down by several stops. As the small boat proceeds along the river, surrounded by mangroves, the mother tells a fellow passenger the story of how the little one came into her life and why the two of them are travelling along the Atrato. But as the boat advances, the mother's anxiety grows: she would rather not arrive, or turn around altogether. And in a country at war with itself, there is often something dark lurking in the shadows - something much more devastating that a family reunion. 'A brilliant debut novel' VogueThis Wound Full of Fish
By Lorena Salazar Masso. 2021
'In this dazzling and moving debut, Lorena Salazar takes us to the heart of the Colombian jungle and shows us,…
with an enveloping and addictive prose, sorority in its purest form and the brutal contrasts of human nature'Fernanda Melchor, author of Hurricane Season'A novel of breathtaking landscapes and an accurate portrait of mothers' fears, and of violence, always latent, like a wild beast lurking in the dark'Pilar Quintana, author of The BitchIn the city of Quibdó, a mother and her child embark on a canoe trip down the mighty Atrato River, the only route that allows them to penetrate the thick Colombian jungle. The journey is long, slowed down by several stops. As the small boat proceeds along the river, surrounded by mangroves, the mother tells a fellow passenger the story of how the little one came into her life and why the two of them are travelling along the Atrato. But as the boat advances, the mother's anxiety grows: she would rather not arrive, or turn around altogether. And in a country at war with itself, there is often something dark lurking in the shadows - something much more devastating that a family reunion. 'A brilliant debut novel' VogueAnsay o los infortunios de la gloria
By Martín Caparrós. 2005
En Ansay ó los infortunios de la gloria, Martín Caparrós nos cuenta las aventuras y desventuras de Faustino Ansay, los…
hechos y reflexiones que anota en sus memorias y que el autor crea especialmente. Publicada en el año 1984, Ansay ó los infortunios de la gloria aborda el proceso de independencia nacional iniciado en 1810 desde un punto de vista original: el de Faustino Ansay, un militar español que pasó por las cárceles de la Revolución de Mayo y lo contó en unas memorias que sirven de contrapunto al compendio de mitos, relatos y luchas que crearon la Argentina. Esas memorias se resignifican aquí junto a escritos de Mariano Moreno, las cartas sin respuesta de su esposa María Guadalupe Cuenca, los delirios de un conquistador que nunca fue y la intimidad de un narrador que comenta las dificultades de escribir una novela; un conjunto heterogéneo ensamblado mediante un registro preciso y precioso, heredero de nuestra mejor literatura. Críticas:«En Ansay quedan ya cifradas muchas de las pulsiones que en su narrativa posterior matizaría, ampliaría, reformularía; sin embargo, acaso la más relevante sea la voluntad de hallar un nuevo lenguaje para narrar la historia».Christian Snoey Abadías, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona«Martín Caparrós, uno de los más geniales cronistas contemporáneos, depura de manera exquisita, emocionada, vibrante y distanciada una prosa de un poderío narrativo excepcional».Fernando R. Lafuente, ABC Cultural «Su prosa y su mirada son un reactivo fuerte para almas sensibles o amigas de lo políticamente correcto».Leila Guerriero, El País«Caparrós provoca esa necesidad sonriente de subrayar, compartir en redes, reproducir sus trallazos».Nadal Suau, El Cultural «Caparrós es una manera de ver y entender el mundo».Carles Geli, Babelia «Es una obra rica y ambiciosa, una empresa arriesgada que debe ser conocida».Juan GoytisoloNo velas a tus muertos
By Martín Caparrós. 1992
Aunque fue la segunda en publicarse, No velas a tus muertos es la primera novela escrita por Martín Caparrós durante…
su exilio en Francia y España, entre 1979 y 1981. Aunque fue la segunda en publicarse, No velas a tus muertos es la primera novela escrita por Martín Caparrós durante su exilio en Francia y España. Además de desplegar una gran variedad de recursos técnicos -la escritura del diario íntimo, el fluir de la conciencia o las acotaciones típicas del guion cinematográfico- su atmósfera tan envolvente como certera parece inspirada en la de los mejores cuentos de Julio Cortázar. Entre retaceos sexuales, plenarios de «las orgas», cine arte, «luche y vuelve», canciones de los Beatles y los primeros cigarrillos Particulares, la ópera prima de Caparrós no solo demuestra una madurez y una soltura poco frecuentes, también logra testimoniar, desde la ficción y con ese título lleno de resonancias, uno de los grandes temas de su obra: los setenta y el lugar que, contra todos los obstáculos, antes y durante los años de plomo, los últimos jóvenes intentaron conseguir. Críticas:«No velas a tus muertos es un acercamiento a los hechos desde la ficción, pero con elementos que subrayan su afán testimonial. La voluntad, obra que también toma como referente la militancia política en Buenos Aires en los años setenta, es el anverso y el complemento de la novela»".Laura Destéfanis, Universidad de Granada «Caparróses colosal en esos terrenos resbaladizos donde las cosas dejan de encajar en los moldes correctos».Leila Guerriero, Babelia «Deslumbrante. Obra mayor y definitiva».Joaquín Marco, El Mundo «Martín Caparrós no es de esos que te dicen lo que quieres escuchar. Sería más bien del campo contrario: esos que te tiran a la cara lo que rechazas y escondes».Oriane Jeancourt, Transfuge «Un perturbador sistemático, un sembrador de dudas».Francesca Lazzarato, Il Manifesto «Caparrós es una manera de ver y entender el mundo».Carles Geli, BabeliaThe 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.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 LtdOn 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 Year Without Summer: 1816
By Guinevere Glasfurd. 2020
1815, Sumbawa Island, Indonesia Mount Tambora explodes in a cataclysmic eruption, killing thousands. Sent to investigate, ship surgeon Henry Hoggcan…
barely believe his eyes. Once a paradise, the island is now solid ash, the surrounding sea turned to stone. But worse is yet to come: as the ash cloud rises and covers the sun, the seasons will fail. 1816In Switzerland, Mary Shelley finds dark inspiration. Confined inside by the unseasonable weather, thousands of famine refugees stream past her door. In Vermont, preacher Charles Whitlock begs his followers to keep faith as drought dries their wells and their livestock starve. In Suffolk, the ambitious and lovesick painter John Constable struggles to reconcile the idyllic England he paints with the misery that surrounds him. In the Fens, farm labourer Sarah Hobbs has had enough of going hungry while the farmers flaunt their wealth. And Hope Peter, returned from the Napoleonic wars, finds his family home demolished and a fence gone up in its place. He flees to London, where he falls in with a group of revolutionaries who speak of a better life, whatever the cost. As desperation sets in, Britain becomes beset by riots—rebellion is in the air. The Year Without Summer is the story of the books written, the art made; of the journeys taken, of the love longed for and the lives lost during that fateful year. Six separate lives, connected only by an event many thousands of miles away. Few had heard of Tambora—but none could escape its effects.The Book of Science and Antiquities
By Thomas Keneally. 2018
In a novel of breathtaking reach and inspired imagination, the Booker Prize-winning author of Schindler's Ark tells the stories of…
two men who have much in common. What separates them is 42,000 years.Shade lives with his second wife amid their clan on the shores of a bountiful lake. A peaceable man, he knows that when danger threatens, the Hero ancestors will call on him to kill, or sacrifice himself, to save his people.Over 40,000 years later, Shade's remains are unearthed near the now dry Lake Learned in New South Wales. The sensational discovery fascinates Shelby Apple, a documentary film maker who tracks the controversies it provokes about who the continent's first inhabitants were and where Shade's bones belong.Shelby goes on to follow his own heroes to the battlefields of Eritrea and the Rift Valley where Homo sapiens sprang from. When he, too, faces mortality and looks back on his passions, ideals and sorely tested marriage, Learned Man stands as an enduring spirit, a fellow player in the long, ever-evolving story of humankind.