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Showing 1 - 20 of 545 items
By Rachel Lindsay. 2018
A graphic memoir about the treatment of mental illness, treating mental illness as a commodity, and the often unavoidable choice…
between sanity and happiness.In her early twenties in New York City, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Rachel Lindsay takes a job in advertising in order to secure healthcare coverage for her treatment. But work takes a strange turn when she is promoted onto the Pfizer account and suddenly finds herself on the other side of the curtain, developing ads for an antidepressant drug. She is the audience of the work she's been pouring over and it highlights just how unhappy and trapped she feels, stuck in an endless cycle of treatment, insurance and medication. Overwhelmed by the stress of her professional life and the self-scrutiny it inspires, she begins to destabilize and while in the midst of a crushing job search, her mania takes hold. Her altered mindset yields a simple solution: to quit her job and pursue life as an artist, an identity she had abandoned in exchange for medical treatment. When her parents intervene, she finds herself hospitalized against her will, and stripped of the control she felt she had finally reclaimed. Over the course of her two weeks in the ward, she struggles in the midst of doctors, nurses, patients and endless rules to find a path out of the hospital and this cycle of treatment. One where she can live the life she wants, finding freedom and autonomy, without sacrificing her dreams in order to stay well.By Adrienne E. Gavin, Carolyn W. de la L. Oulton. 2018
This five-volume series, British Women’s Writing From Brontë to Bloomsbury, 1840-1940, historically contextualizes and traces developments in women’s fiction from…
1840 to 1940. Critically assessing both canonical and lesser-known British women’s writing decade by decade, it redefines the landscape of women’s authorship across a century of dynamic social and cultural change. With each of its volumes devoted to two decades, the series is wide in scope but historically sharply defined. Volume 1: 1840s and 1850s inaugurates the series by historically and culturally contextualizing Victorian women’s writing distinctly within the 1840s and 1850s. Using a range of critical perspectives including political and literary history, feminist approaches, disability studies, and the history of reading, the volume’s 16 original essays consider such developments as the construction of a post-Romantic tradition, the politicization of the domestic sphere, and the development of crime and sensation writing. Centrally, it reassesses key mid-nineteenth-century female authors in the context in which they first published while also recovering neglected women writers who helped to shape the literary landscape of the 1840s and 1850s.By Jeanine Tesori, Peter Brosius, Elissa Adams, Children’s Theatre Company. 2016
Key Change: New Musicals for Young Audiences presents four groundbreaking musicals developed by Children's Theatre Company, widely regarded as the…
leading theatre of its kind in North America. These works embody singular styles and sounds, yet all represent the robust spirit of unique people finding their way in the world. They are all sure to entertain, including the Broadway hit A Year with Frog and Toad. The quirky Tale of a West Texas Marsupial Girl, by Lisa D'Amour, with music by Sxip Shirey, is set in a town unprepared to accept a girl born with a pouch. But eventually, with the help of her friend Sue, everyone comes to understand just how wonderful Marsupial Girl is. Madeline and the Gypsies--adapted by Barry Kornhauser from the popular book by Ludwig Bemelmans, with music by Michael Koerner--gives little Madeline and her friend Pepito a taste of circus life after they get lost at a carnival and Gypsies carry them away. In Buccaneers! (written by Liz Duffy Adams, with music by Ellen Maddow) a girl leads the young pirates who capture her toward a better life through her wits and tenacity. A Year with Frog and Toad chronicles the unlikely friendship of silly Toad and responsible Frog that endures all seasons. Based on the classic books by Arnold Lobel, adapted by Willie Reale, with music by Robert Reale, it made its mark on Broadway and was nominated for three Tony Awards, including Best Musical.Each of these musicals guarantees a distinctive, delightful theatrical experience. Now teachers and children far and wide can read them in one volume and produce them in their own schools, theatres, and communities.By Martha Ronk. 2008
Glass Grapes and Other Stories is the first full-length collection of short stories by distinguished poet and fiction writer Martha…
Ronk. Ronk's work has garnered critical accolades and numerous awards, including, most recently, a 2005 PEN USA Award in poetry, a 2007 NEA Fellowship, and a 2007 National Poetry Series Award. Glass Grapes is a collection of short, experimental stories, usually dominated by an object imbued with fetishistic qualities by an obsessive, self-involved narrator. The language of these stories is repetitive, provocative, imagistic, occasionally comic, and unnerving. Ronk's fiction moves with the same grace, beauty, and attention to language as her most accomplished poetry.By Eugene O'Brien, Deirdre Flynn. 2018
This is the first book on Irish literature to focus on the theme of loss, and how it is represented…
in Irish writing. It focuses on how literature is ideally suited to expressions and understanding of the nature of loss, given its ability to access and express emotions, sensations, feelings, and the visceral and haptic areas of experience. Dealing with feelings and with sensations, poems, novels and drama can allow for cathartic expressions of these emotions, as well as for a fuller understanding of what is involved in loss across all situations. The main notion of loss being dealt with is that of death, but feelings of loss in the wake of immigration and of the loss of certainties that defined notions of identity are also analysed. This volume will be of interest to scholars, students and researchers in Irish Studies, loss, memory, trauma, death, and cultural studies.By Don Rearden. 2011
Winner, Alaskan Novel of the Year, 2011 Shifting from contemporary Eskimo village life to a gripping post-apocalyptic nightmare, The Raven's…
Gift dares to confront the terrifying possibility of an impending catastrophic loss of human life--and love. Lured north to a Yup'ik village on the Alaskan tundra in search of adventure, John Morgan and his wife Anna can barely contain their excitement. But something is about to go terribly wrong. What happens when an epidemic strikes--and no one comes to help? Don Rearden lives in the mountain community of Bear Valley, Alaska, and is an Associate Professor of Developmental Studies at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, where he teaches young writers how to develop their creative voices. textpublishing. com. au 'The Raven's Gift has a winning plot, characters we've never met before, and intriguing details of a world most of us will never venture to--creating a read that opens our eyes and finds the fault lines of a heart in one breathless sitting. ' Jodi Picoult 'Don Rearden has created a kind of allegory for a people and place at risk, a generous and honest portrait of Yup'ik communities. His Alaska is one you won't yet have seen. ' David Vann, author of bestselling novels Legend of a Suicide and Caribou Island 'The book is fantastic, one of the best books about Alaska I have ever read. It calls to mind Cormac McCarthy and Stephen King, but at the same time it is all its own. The Raven's Gift is the story of a couple teaching in a remote Alaskan village when a epidemic sweeps through. People are dying in isolation, and others descending into savage violence. It is a survival story and an edge-of-the-seat thriller. ' Eoywyn Ivy, author of The Snow Child 'The Raven's Gift is a disturbingly believable tale of a world on the edge, given the slight push to send it over. Rearden knows his Alaska, his snow and cold, the isolation in these pages enough to make you pull up the blankets and wonder what you'd do without rescue, without communication, with no one to go to for help, no one coming to the rescue. Like McCarthy's The Road, there are pages in here you might shy away from reading, but hang on, once you start, you'll be along for the ride. ' Pete Fromm author of Indian Creek Chronicles and How This All Started. An epic adventure, a work of mythical proportions, never to be forgotten. ' Daniel Quinn, author of bestselling novels Ishmael and The Story of B 'A post-apocalyptic novel that will set your hair on end. ' Sun Times 'The Raven's Gift is both thriller and love story, a tale full of anthropological suspense and with a stunning geographical tour of Alaska thrown in for good measure It is exciting and fascinating, completely compelling and some of the most original writing I have read in a very long time. Snuggle up on a cold winter's night and enjoy!' ABC Queensland, Weekend BookwormBy Ronyfer, Roberto Ciampi. 2014
Di fronte alla disperazione di raggiungere la libertà e i sogni infranti, migliaia di cubani decidono di abbandonare la loro…
terra natale con qualunque mezzo.Daniel segue le orme di suo padre. Dopo aver perso tutto, decide di andare in esilio in Canada.Per la prima volta nella sua vita, ormai vecchio, malato e stanco scopre l'amore. È grazie a Lorena, un infermiera non più giovanissima che Daniel ritrova la speranza e la fede perduta. Sarà lei, con un soffio, a ridargli la vita e la gioia.Nel tramonto della vita il destino ha in serbo per lui una sorpresa. Un miracolo o una semplice coincidenza del destino?By Arthur Miller. 2004
Arthur Miller’s penultimate play, Resurrection Blues, is a darkly comic satirical allegory that poses the question: What would happen if…
Christ were to appear in the world today? In an unidentified Latin American country, General Felix Barriaux has captured an elusive revolutionary leader. The rebel, known by various names, is rumored to have performed miracles throughout the countryside. The General plans to crucify the mysterious man, and the exclusive television rights to the twenty-four-hour reality-TV event have been sold to an American network for $25 million. An allegory that asserts the interconnectedness of our actions and each person’s culpability in world events, Resurrection Blues is a comedic and tragic satire of precarious morals in our media-saturated age. .By T. M. Mcclellan, Lihe Zhong, Tiejun Zhong. 2014
Though he lived mostly in rural South Taiwan, Zhong Lihe (1915--1960) spent several years in Manchuria and Peking, moving among…
an eclectic mix of ethnicities, classes, and cultures. His ficitonal portraits unfold on Japanese battlefields and in Peking slums, as well as in the remote, impoverished hill-country villages and farms of Zhong Lihe's native Hakka districts. His scenic descriptions are deft and atmospheric, and his psychological explorations are acute. The first anthology to present his work in English, this volume features two novellas, ten short stories, and four short prose works.By Juan Saer, Hilary Dobel. 2016
Saer is one of the best writers of today in any language --Ricardo Piglia What Saer presents marvelously is…
the experience of reality and the characters attempts to write their own narratives within its excess --BookforumIn modern-day Paris Pich n Garay receives a computer disk containing a manuscript--which might be fictional or could be a memoir--by Doctor Real a nineteenth-century physician tasked with leading a group of five mental patients on a trip to a recently constructed asylum Their trip which ends in disaster and fire is a brilliant tragicomedy thanks to the various insanities of the patients among whom is a delusional man who greatly over-estimates his own importance and a nymphomaniac nun who tricks everyone--even the other patients--into sleeping with her Fascinating as a faux historical novel and written in Saer s typically gorgeous Proustian style The Clouds can be read as a metaphor for exile--a huge theme for Saer and a lot of Argentine writers--as well as an examination of madness Juan Jos Saer was the leading Argentinian writer of the post-Borges generation The author of numerous novels and short-story collections including Scars and La Grande Saer was awarded Spain s prestigious Nadal Prize in 1987 for The Event Five of his novels are available from Open Letter Books Hilary Vaughn Dobel has an MFA in poetry and translation from Columbia University She is the author of two manuscripts and in addition to Saer she has translated work by Carlos PintadoBy David French. 2000
It's Memorial Day, 1990, and Margaret Ryan has returned from Vermont to the Ontario cottage country where, thirty-two years before,…
she had vacationed with her disintegrating family at a lakeside resort. For herself and her sister Daisy, it was a time of awakening, a time of discovery. Both of the girls fall in love with two of the local boys. Daisy, on the lookout for action, cruising the dances at the resort, can't deal with what she initiates, and falls victim to her own confusion and naiveté. Not even the neighbour, the eccentric, bourbon-drinking, cigar-smoking Mrs. Crump, who knows all the fairy-tale spells to capture the heart of a lover, can save Daisy from drowning in her own misadventure. At the same time, Margaret, bookish and withdrawn, inhabiting a universe defined by poets and novelists, is seduced in spite of herself. As Margaret, the narrator, watches Maggie, her younger self, relive the innocence and beauty of that summer, the play moves inexorably back to the heartbreak of a headlong surrender to experience, both won and lost in a single day. Cinematic in its feel and pacing, recalling the 1950s genre of Dirty Dancing and My American Cousin, That Summer is a meditation on what endures of fleeting moments over time. Cast of 5 women and 2 men.By Sophocles. 2015
The Trachinian Maidens' (also 'Women of Trachis' or 'The Trachiniae') is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles, in which Deianeira, the…
wife of Heracles, is distraught over her husband's neglect of her family. Unable to cope with the thought of losing him, she decides to use a love charm on him, a magic potion that will win him back.By Lord Dunsany. 2015
Those clever ones are the beggars to make a muddle. Their plans are clever enough, but they don't work, and…
then they make a mess of things much worse than you or me.By Padgett Powell. 2012
Padgett Powell, author of the acclaimed The Interrogative Mood and “one of the few truly important American writers of our…
time” (Sam Lipsyte), returns with a hilarious Southern send-up of Samuel Beckett’s classic Waiting for Godot. Truly a master of envelope-pushing, post-postmodern American fiction, in a class with Nicholas Baker and Lydia Davis, Powell brilliantly blends the sublime, the trivial, and the oddball in You & Me, as two loquacious gents on a porch discuss all manner of subjects, from the mundane to the spiritual to the downright ridiculous. At once outrageously funny and profound, You & Me is yet another brilliant, boundary-bursting masterwork, proving once again that, “there are few writers who understand both the beauty and the absurdity of language as well as Padgett Powell” (Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang) and that, “Padgett Powell is one of the best writers in America, and one of the funniest, tBy Jeffrey Fleishman. 2012
Foreign correspondent James Ryan was there whenever the world changed: in the Middle East, in the Balkans, in the former…
Soviet bloc. But now he can't remember these events; he can't recall anything long-term, except the summer of his fifteenth year following his mother's death. It was the summer his father told him to call him Kurt. The summer the mysterious and enchanting Vera burst into their lonely, quiet lives. The summer his own world opened, then irrevocably changed.James, at fifty-two, suffers from a severe case of early onset Alzheimer's. The novel unravels James's predicament through the clear glimpses he retains of that long ago summer, and through the desperate attempts of his wife and his nurse to bring him back to the present, if only for stolen moments. Each has her motives: his wife trying not to lose the man with whom she shared so much - wars, death, love, loss of a child, history. And his nurse, the half sister he never knew he had, needing James's adolescent memory to understand the biological father and mother she never met. Told from the perspective of a man betrayed by his own mind, Shadow Man is a novel of identity and suspense that travels across continents and deep into the pasts that make us each who we are. It explores the power of memory to heal and to mask, and of the limits of unconditional love. Set in Philly and the eastern shore of yesteryear, in the Middle East, and throughout Eastern Europe, Fleishman's trademark descriptive but spare lyricism shines. Shadow Man is a touching and haunting novel perhaps most similar to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, though it is a work of fiction. From the Trade Paperback edition.By Chantal Bilodeau, Patrice Martin. 2013
Multiple plot lines interweave with twentieth-century literary allusions as hapless bureaucrat P. attempts to secure delivery of a valuable cultural…
relic. Patrice Martin's ticklish tip of the hat to the writing of Franz Kafka also evokes the literary techniques of Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, and Paul Auster.Polymath Patrice Martin is a writer, musician, and politician who is a former clerk in Canada's House of Commons, and currently is a Gatineau city councilor. He confesses his working life in government bureaucracy helped shape this, his first novel.Chantal Bilodeau is a New York-based playwright and translator originally from Montreal, Quebec.By Gregary Racz, Pedro Calderon de la Barca. 2006
The masterwork of Spain's preeminent dramatist--now in a new verse translation Life Is a Dream is a work many hold…
to be the supreme example of Spanish Golden Age drama. Imbued with highly poetic language and humanist ideals, it is an allegory that considers contending themes of free will and predestination, illusion and reality, played out against the backdrop of court intrigue and the restoration of personal honor. In the mountainous barrens of Poland, the rightful heir to the kingdom has been imprisoned since birth in an attempt by his father to thwart fate. Meanwhile, a noblewoman arrives to seek revenge against the man who deceived and forsook her love for the prospect of becoming king of Poland. Richly symbolic and metaphorical, Life Is a Dream explores the deepest mysteries of human experience.By Aeschylus. 2015
Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays can still be read or performed, the others…
being Sophocles and Euripides. He is often described as the father of tragedy: our knowledge of the genre begins with his work and our understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. Only seven of his estimated seventy to ninety plays have survived into modern times. Fragments of some other plays have survived in quotes and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyrus, often giving us surprising insights into his work.By Sophocles. 2015
Oedipus was the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta. Before he was born, his parents consulted the Oracle at…
Delphi. The Oracle prophesied that Oedipus would murder his father and marry his mother. In an attempt to prevent this prophecy's fulfillment, Laius ordered Oedipus's feet to be bound together, and pierced with a stake. Afterwards, the baby was given to a herdsman who was told to kill him. Unable to go through with his orders, he instead gave the child to a second herdsman who took the infant, Oedipus, to the king of Corinth, Polybus. Polybus adopted Oedipus as his son. Oedipus was raised as the crown prince of Corinth. Many years later Oedipus was told that Polybus was not his real father. Seeking the truth, he sought counsel from an Oracle and thus started the greatest tragedy ever written. The middle of the three Theban plays, 'Oedipus at Colonos' (Colonus) describes the end of Oedipus' tragic life, during which the blinded Oedipus discusses his fate as related by the oracle, and claims that he is not fully guilty.By William Dean Howells. 2012
1892. Howells was an American realist author. He wrote for various magazines including Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Magazine. His career…
blossomed after the publication of his first realist novel, A Modern Instance. The Albany Depot begins: Mrs. Roberts, with many proofs of an afternoon's shopping in her hands and arms, appears at the door of the ladies' room, opening from the public hall, and studies the interior with a searching gaze, which develops a few suburban shoppers scattered over the settees, with their bags and packages, and two or three old ladies in the rocking-chairs.