Orphaned, penniless, Jacob Jankowski jumps a freight train in the dark, and in that instant, transforms his future. By morning, he's landed a job with the Flying Squadron of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. By nightfall, he's in love. In an America made colourless by prohibition and the Depression, the circus is a refuge of sequins and sensuality. But behind the glamour lies a darker world, where both animals and men are dispensable. Where falling in love is the most dangerous act of all ...
Life of Pi meets Lord of the Flies in The Dolphin People , a darkly comic “postmodern novel par excellence” ( Sydney Morning Herald ) from Torsten Krol, the author of the critically acclaimed Callisto . While fleeing Germany after World War II, a family arrives in Venezuela and encounters a Stone Age Amazon tribe that mistakes them for dolphins in human form. But the ruse can only protect them for so long in this madcap, imaginative tale.
A young man arrives in the Ukraine with a tattered photograph, a bad translator, a man haunted by memories and an undersexed guide dog - he is looking for the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. What they find turns all their worlds upside down.
A ghetto nerd living with his Dominican family in New Jersey, Oscar's sweet but disastrously overweight. He dreams of becoming the next J. R. R. Tolkien and he keeps falling hopelessly in love. With dazzling energy and insight Díaz immerses us in the tumultuous lives of Oscar; his runaway sister Lola; their beautiful mother Belicia; and in the family's uproarious journey from the Dominican Republic to the US and back.'The Best Novel of the 21st Century to Date' - BBC Culture.
Following the curves of history in the first half of the twentieth century, Fall on Your Knees takes us from haunted Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, through the battlefields of World War I, to the emerging jazz scene in New York City, and into the lives of four unforgettable sisters. The mythically charged family - James, a father of intelligence and immense ambition ; Materia, his Lebanese child-bride ; and their daughters: Kathleen, the eldest, a beautiful talent preparing for a career as an opera diva ; Frances, incorrigible liar and hell-bent bad girl ; Mercedes, obsessive Catholic and protector of the flock ; and Lily, the adored invalid who takes us on a quest for truth and redemption - is supported by a richly textured cast of characters. Fall on Your Knees is a story of inescapable family bonds, of terrible secrets, of miracles, racial strife, attempted murder, birth and death, and forbidden love
A wickedly observed novel about falling in love at the end of your life, by the Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Finkler Question. *NOMINATED FOR THE WINGATE LITERARY PRIZE 2019* At the age of ninety-something, Beryl Dusinbery is forgetting everything - including her own children. She spends her days stitching morbid samplers and tormenting her two long-suffering carers, Nastya and Euphoria, with tangled stories of her husbands and love affairs. Shimi Carmelli can do up his own buttons, walks without the aid of a frame and speaks without spitting. Among the widows of North London, he's whispered about as the last of the eligible bachelors. Unlike Beryl, he forgets nothing - especially not the shame of a childhood incident that has hung over him like an oppressive cloud ever since. There's very little life remaining for either of them, but perhaps just enough to heal some of the hurt inflicted along the way, and find new meaning in what's left. Told with Jacobson's trademark wit and style, Live a Littleis in equal parts funny, irreverent and tender - a novel to make you consider all the paths not taken, and whether you could still change course.
'Deeper, funnier, sadder and truer than a work of fiction has any right to be' Independent on Sunday 'Both a page-turner and a work of art ... an almost perfectly written novel' Evening Standard This is the story of the Berglunds, their son Joey, their daughter Jessica and their friend Richard Katz. It is about how we use and abuse our freedom; about the beginning and ending of love; teenage lust; the unexpectedness of adult life; why we compete with our friends; how we betray those closest to us; and why things almost never work out as they 'should'. It is a story about the human heart, and what it leads us to do to ourselves and each other.
Finalista Nagrody Narodowej Książki, „Żółte ptaki” to poruszająca historia dwóch młodych żołnierzy, którzy próbują przetrwać w Iraku. „Wojna próbowała nas zabić wiosną.” Tak zaczyna się ta mocna opowieść o przyjaźni i stracie. W Al Tafar, Irak, dwudziestoletni szeregowy Bartle i osiemnastoletni szeregowy Murphy walczą o życie, gdy ich pluton rozpoczyna krwawą bitwę o miasto. Związani obietnicą Bartle'a, by bezpiecznie przywrócić Murphy'ego do domu, obaj zostają wrzuceni w wojnę, na którą nie są przygotowani. W nieskończonych dniach, które następują, młodzi żołnierze robią wszystko, aby chronić się nawzajem przed siłami otaczającymi ich z każdej strony: powstańcami, fizycznym zmęczeniem i psychicznym stresem wynikającym z ciągłego zagrożenia. Gdy rzeczywistość zaczyna się zacierać w niejasny koszmar, Murphy coraz bardziej oddala się od otaczającego go świata, a Bartle podejmuje decyzje, których nigdy by sobie nie wyobraził. Z głębokim wglądem emocjonalnym, zwłaszcza w skutki ukrytej wojny dla matek i rodzin w domu, „Żółte ptaki” to przełomowa powieść, która ma szansę stać się klasykiem.
Zoals alle tieners uit heden en verleden hunkert Liza Normal naar roem. Helaas voor haar is ze echter geen meisje dat voor het succes. In de wieg is gelegd. Eerder voor het tegendeel. Gehinderd door de vulkanische ambities van haar moeder en haar eigen gebrek aan smaak beleeft Liza de ene afgang na de andere; zeperds, dompers en rampzalige liefdes. Het enige wat in haar voordeel werkt is het feit dat ze een veel beter mens is dan het sterretje dat ze zou willen zijn. Liza is onverwoestbaar. En als ze zich ten slotte verzoent met haar bestaan in de marge, breekt het uur aan van haar zoete wraak op de Hollywoodmythen die haar al die tijd tot wanhoop hebben gedreven.
Dave travels to India with Liz hoping to get her into bed. Liz travels with Dave wanting a companion for her voyage of self-discovery. This novel is a satire about backpackers.
A magnum opus for our morally complex times from the author ofFreedom. Purity Tyler, known to all as Pip, is an outspoken, forthright young woman struggling to make a life for herself. She sleeps in an rickety commune in Oakland. She's in love with an unavailable older man and is saddled with staggering college debt. She has a crazy mother and doesn't know who her father is. A chance encounter leads her to an internship in South America with the world-famous Sunlight Project, the president of which is Andreas Wolf, a charismatic genius who grew up privileged but disaffected in the German Democratic Republic. Like numerous women before her, she becomes obsessed with Andreas, and they have an intense, unsettling relationship. Eventually, he finds her work back in the United States. What lies underneath is a wild tale of hidden identities, secret wealth, neurotic fidelity, sociopathy, and murder. The truth of Pip's parentage lies at the centre of this maelstrom, but before it is resolved Franzen takes us from the rain-drenched forests of northern California, to paranoid East Berlin before the fall of the Wall, to the paradisiacal mountain valleys of Bolivia, exposing us to the vagaries of radical politics, the problematic seductions of the internet, and the no-holds-barred war between the sexes. Featuring an unforgettable cast of inimitable Franzenian characters, Purity is deeply troubling, richly moving, and hilarious.
Dwie przyjaciółki marzą o karierze tancerek, choć tylko jedna z nich – Tracey – ma prawdziwy talent. Drugą pasjonuje rytm, zachwycają ciemnoskóre ciała i czarna muzyka, fascynuje prawdziwa wolność. Skomplikowana, napędzana rywalizacją przyjaźń niespodziewanie się kończy. Dziewczyny nigdy już nie będą ze sobą blisko, ale też nigdy o sobie nie zapomną. Po latach Tracey udaje się spełnić marzenie z dzieciństwa, ale boryka się z dorosłym życiem, podczas gdy jej przyjaciółka, jako asystentka słynnej gwiazdy, wkracza w świat blichtru i sukcesu. W podróży między Londynem, Nowym Jorkiem i zachodnią Afryką odkrywa, że życie to nieustanny taniec, którego rytm dyktują zmieniające się czasy. Wibrującą muzyką, roztańczoną powieść o przyjaźni, pasji i poszukiwaniu korzeni nazwano najlepszą książką Zadie Smith. Zadie Smith – jedna z najważniejszych współczesnych pisarek. Każda jej książka trafia zarówno na listy bestsellerów, jak i do zestawień najważniejszych książek roku. Autorka m.in. "Białych zębów", "O pięknie", "Londyn NW". Mieszka w Londynie i Nowym Jorku.
A sharp and provocative new essay collection from the award-winning author of Freedom and The Corrections In The End of the End of the Earth, which gathers essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, Jonathan Franzen returns with renewed vigor to the themes--both human and literary--that have long preoccupied him. Whether exploring his complex relationship with his uncle, recounting his young adulthood in New York, or offering an illuminating look at the global seabird crisis, these pieces contain all the wit and disabused realism that we've come to expect from Franzen. Taken together, these essays trace the progress of a unique and mature mind wrestling with itself, with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day, made more pressing by the current political milieu. The End of the End of the Earth is remarkable, provocative, and necessary.
No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells a true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment--the one we pretend is normal five days a week.
This sheet map, covering the whole of Lancashire, uses a large scale of 1 inch to 1.6 miles. It contains detailed coverage of the region's road network, including country lanes and rural lanes and tracks. Major footpaths, junctions, roundabouts and slip roads are also shown. Additional detail includes thousands of individually marked farms, houses and hamlets. Airports, airports, stations, ferries, houses, marinas and other places of interest are featured. Also included are town plans of Blackpool, Lancaster and Preston. Designed for both professional and leisure users, it is printed on one side to allow hanging as a wall map.
Znajdź mnie to kontynuacja bestsellerowych Tamtych dni, tamtych nocy. W nowej powieści Andre Aciman przedstawia historię znanych już czytelnikom bohaterów, jednak po 20 latach od wydarzeń z pierwszej książki. Tym razem autor nieco bardziej przybliża czytelnikom losy Samuela, czyli ojca Elio i szanowanego profesora. Mężczyzna po rozwodzie ze swoją żoną wyjeżdża z Florencji do Rzymu, gdzie spotyka się ze swoim synem, Elio. Elio nie jest już małym chłopcem, a szanowanym artystą. Dzięki swojej pasji, stał się uznanym pianistą. O jego koncertach piszą zaś na łamach popularnych czasopism. Oliver nie zakończył zaś przygód z uczelnią. Po udanych studiach, został profesorem na angielskim uniwersytecie. Ma też pozornie poukładane życie osobiste.
A twelfth-century Sicilian cat burglar snatches a sack of artefacts from the king's geographer's library, and the tools and talismans of transmutation - and eternal life - are soon scattered all over the world. The bizarre and dangerous circumstances under which these alchemical objects change hands are testament to their extraordinary value, but it is not until nine hundred years later that a young reporter on a local paper, Paul Tomm, stumbles upon evidence that someone is collecting them again. Investigating the suspicious death of a local professor, Tomm finds the dead man's heavily fortified office stuffed with books on alchemy and clues that the man's life was as suspicious as his death ...
In Whitehall, het regeringscentrum in Londen, leveren de verschillende politieke partijen rond de verkiezingen in het midden van de jaren vijftig een harde, niet altijd eerlijke strijd.
Only R.W.B. Lewis-the renowned biographer and author of The City of Florence-could write so insightfully about Dante Alighieri, Florence's famous son. In Dante he traces the life and complex development-emotional, artistic, philosophical-of this supreme poet-historian, from his wanderings through Tuscan hills and splendid churches to his days as a young soldier fighting for democracy, and to his civic leadership and years of embittered exile from the city that would fiercely reclaim him a century later.Lewis reveals the boy who first encounters the mythic Beatrice, the lyric poet obsessed with love and death, the grand master of dramatic narrative and allegory, and his monumental search for ultimate truth in The Divine Comedy. It is in this masterpiece of self-discovery and redemption that Lewis finds Dante's own autobiography-and the sum of all his shifting passions and epiphanies.
