Christien Jonkheer Książki

De geschikte jongen speelt zich af in en rondom de fictieve Indiase stad Brahmpur, gelegen aan de Ganges. Het is voorjaar 1951: mevrouw Rupa Mehra schakelt vrienden en kennissen in om haar te helpen een goede echtgenoot te vinden voor haar jongste dochter Lata. Met dit simpele motief als voorwendsel voert Vikram Seth vier families ten tonele, drie met een hindoe- en een met een moslimachtergrond: de Kapoors, de Mehra's, de Chatterji's en de Khans. Hij brengt het postkoloniaal India tot leven, dat aan de vooravond van zijn eerste algemene verkiezingen probeert om verschillende culturen en religies met elkaar te verzoenen. De geschikte jongen is tegelijk satire en sociale geschiedenis, een grootse roman die zich uitstrekt van de landelijke politiek tot het kleine huwelijksgeritsel van een moeder, die tegelijk het verhaal vertelt over een pasgeboren natie en over een verliefde jonge vrouw.

""When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."" So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank's mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank's father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy--exasperating, irresponsible, and beguiling--does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father's tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies. Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors--yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance, and remarkable forgiveness. "Angela's Ashes, " imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.

Ludo's mother, Sibylla, is obsessed with Kurosawa's famous film, "The Seven Samurai" and it plays as a bizarre running backdrop to his childhood. His search for his real father ends in disappointment but he does find out more than he needs about his mother's shaky past.

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER #1 CANADIAN BESTSELLER #1 UK BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR The international publishing sensation of 1997 -- translated into 18 languages -- a magical, sophisticated tour de force now available in a stunning Vintage Canada edition. The God of Small Things heralds a voice so powerful and original that it burns itself into the reader's memory. Set mainly in Kerala, India, in 1969, it is the story of Rahel and her twin brother Estha, who learn that their whole world can change in a single day, that love and life can be lost in a moment. Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they seek to craft a childhood for themselves amid the wreckage that constitutes their family. Sweet and heartbreaking, ribald and profound, this is a novel to set beside those of Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

A panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000. This was the age of Canute, William the Conqueror and Pope Gregory VII, of Vikings, monks and serfs, of the earliest castles and the invention of knighthood, and of the primal conflict between church and state.

"Into the narrow social world of New York in the 1870s comes Countess Ellen Olenska, surrounded by shocked whispers about her failed marriage to a rich Polish Count. A woman who leaves her husband can never be accepted in polite society. Newland Arthur is engaged to young May Welland, but the beautiful and mysterious Countess needs his help. He becomes her friend and defender, but friendship with an unhappy, lonely woman is a dangerous path for a young man to follow - especially a young man who is soon to be married." --Back cover

The author's memoir of his journey from impoverished Irish immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur.

"They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time.” This chilling opening sets the stage for a narrative steeped in violence and its roots within an all-black small town in rural Oklahoma. In her first novel after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature, Toni Morrison delivers a powerful exploration of a community's tumultuous history. The story unfolds in 1976, as nine men from Ruby, a town of 360 residents, attack the nearby Convent and its women, defending their "one all-black town worth the pain." Tracing Ruby's origins from 1890 to the day of the assault, the narrative delves into the complexities of a people acutely aware of their past and the looming threat of external evil. Founded by descendants of freed slaves, Ruby embodies a patriarchal society steeped in righteousness and fear. Meanwhile, a group of women seeking refuge from despair has formed just seventeen miles away. The assault on the Convent becomes an outlet for the men's pain and rage. Through lyrical prose that resonates with the grandeur of an epic poem, Morrison challenges entrenched beliefs, intertwining folklore, history, and myth in a profound meditation on race, religion, gender, and the enduring impact of a distant past.

The Underpainter is a novel of interwoven lives in which the world of art collides with the realm of human emotion. It is the story of Austin Fraser, an American painter now in his later years, who is haunted by memories of those whose lives most deeply touched his own, including a young Canadian soldier and china painter and the beautiful model who becomes Austin’s mistress. Spanning decades, the setting moves from upstate New York to the northern shores of two Great Lakes; from France in World War One to New York City in the ’20s and ’30s. Brilliantly depicting landscape and the geography of the imagination, The Underpainter is Jane Urquhart’s most accomplished novel to date. From the Hardcover edition.

W Alexandria, Mississippi, w Dzień Matki, mały Robin Dufresnes zostaje powieszony na drzewie w ogródku rodziców. Dwanaście lat później zagadka jego śmierci pozostaje nierozwiązana. Harriet, która była niemowlęciem w chwili śmierci brata, postanawia odnaleźć mordercę i przywrócić rodzinę, która rozpadła się po tej tragedii. Uzbrojona w wiedzę z książek przygodowych, Harriet w towarzystwie najlepszego przyjaciela wyrusza na poszukiwanie zemsty w niebezpiecznym półświatku amerykańskiego Południa. To amerykańska powieść gotycka, epicka opowieść o zemście, utracie niewinności i sprawiedliwości, którą pragnie się wymierzyć samemu. Książka wciąga czytelnika niczym baśń, ale nie pozwala zapomnieć, że opisana rzeczywistość jest fikcją. Harriet to czarująca i złożona postać, a styl autorki jest obrazowy i potoczysty. Atmosfera powieści przypomina sen, a psychologiczna wiarygodność postaci sprawia, że to wielka historia, która zabiera czytelnika w niezapomniane miejsca. Tartt buduje swoje postaci z ogromną pewnością siebie, co czyni tę opowieść wyjątkową w literackim kanonie.

Een Amerikaanse journaliste wordt beschuldigd van euthanasie op haar moeder.