“The Sea”
In this luminous new novel about love, loss, and the unpredictable power of memory, John Banville introduces us to Max Morden, a middle-aged Irishman who has gone back to the seaside town where he spent his summer holidays as a child to cope with the recent loss of his wife. It is also a return […]
“The Secrets of Married Women”
When Jill’s husband discovers he can never have children, it tears a hole in their marriage that Jill doesn’t know how to repair. Frustrated, she seeks comfort in her friends: fierce Leigh, with her high-powered career and doting family, and sweet, uncomplicated Wendy, who has a rock-solid marriage any woman would envy. Leigh and Wendy’s […]
“The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire”
The fifth and final volume in Doris Lessing’s visionary novel cycle “Canopus in Argos: Archives”. It is a mix of fable, futuristic fantasy and pseudo-documentary accounts of 20th-century history.
“The Silent Cry”
Two brothers, Takashi and Mitsu, return from Tokyo to the village of their childhood. Selling their family home leads them to an inescapable confrontation with their family history. Their attempt to escape the influence of the city ends in failure as they realize that its tentacles extend to everything in the countryside, including their own […]
“The Sirian Experiments”
The report by Ambien II, of the Five Shortlisted for the 1981 Booker Prize, The Sirian Experiments is the third volume in Doris Lessing´s celebrated space fiction series, “Canopus in Argos: Archives”. In this interlinked quintet of novels, she creates a new, extraordinary cosmos where the fate of the Earth is influenced by the rivalries […]
“The Stars My Destination”
SF Masterworks Introduction by Graham Sleight Education: none. Skills: none. Merits: none. Recommendations: none. That is the official verdict on Gully Foyle, unskilled space crewman. But Gully has managed to survive for 170 days in the airless purgatory of deep space after the wreck of his ship, and has escaped to Earth carrying a murderous […]
“The Story of the Stone: Golden Days Volume 1”
`The Story of the Stone` (c. 1760) is one of the greatest novels of Chinese literature. The first part of the story, The Golden Days, begins the tale of Bao-yu, a gentle young boy who prefers girls to Confucian studies, and his two cousins: Bao-chai, his parents’ choice of a wife for him, and the […]
“The Subterrene war: Book One. Germline”
Germline (n.) a secret military program to develop genetically engineered super-soldiers (slang). War is Oscar Wendell´s ticket to greatness. A reporter for the Stars and Stripes, he has a pass to the front lines of a brutal conflict over natural resources, where genetics – the germline soldiers – battle heavily armed troops deep beneath the […]
“The Swindler and Lazarillo de Tormes. Two Spanish Picaresque Novels”
The unlikely heroes of the Spanish picaresque novels make their way – by whatever means they can – through a colourful and seamy underworld populated by unsavoury beggars, corrupt priests, eccentrics, whores and criminals. Both Lazarillo de Tormesand Pablos the swindler are determined to attain the trappings of the gentleman, but have little time for […]
“The Ten Thousand Things”
“A work of art in itself. A thoroughly enjoyable literary sojourn by a master of historical fiction.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A sweeping historical novel that deserves to be compared to the classic Chinese novels that partly inspired it, The Ten Thousand Things is nothing short of a literary event. Set on the cusp […]
“The Testaments”
The Sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. The Testaments is a modern masterpiece, a powerful novel that can be read on its own or as a companion to Margaret Atwood’s classic, The Handmaid’s Tale. More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip […]
“The Three-Body Problem”
Winner 2015 Hugo award for best novel 1967: Ye Wenjie witness Red Guards beat her father to death during China´s Cultural Revolution. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of mankind. Four decades later, Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal […]
“The Venetian Betrayal”
In 323 B.C.E, having conquered Persia, Alexander the Great set his sights on Arabia, then suddenly succumbed to a strange fever. Locating his final resting place – unknown to this day – remains a tantalizing goal for both archaeologists and treasure hunters. Now the quest for this coveted prize is about to heat up. And […]
“The Wildfire Season”
Bestselling author of Lost Girls. Haunted. Scarred. Alone. And the nightmare’s just beginning… The Wildfire Season is a remarkable tour de force – an edgy psychological thriller, a supernatural chiller, a terrifying tale of untamed nature and a poignant love story. The vast tracts of wilderness of the Canadian north are beautiful but dangerous – […]
“The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle”
“This wind-up bird is there every morning in the trees of the neighbourhood to wind things up. Us, our quiet little world, everything”. His wife is growing more distant every day. Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has recently been receiving. As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada’s […]
“The Wordsworth Book of Sonnets”
This broad selection of sonnets from the fourtheenth century to the twentieth century is arranged thematically, and ranges from the love sonnets of the early masters to those about despair, faith, the spirit of place and death. As well as the great sonnets of Petrarch and Shakespeare, Donne and Milton, it includes deeply moving examples […]
“Three Men on the Bummel”
Complete and unabridged. Some time after their eventful trip on the river, chronicled in Three Men in a Boat, the same three men suffer a renewed attack of itchy feet and decide to take off on a “bummel”. Their jaunt takes them away from the confines of domestic routine and, with a tandem and a […]
“Through A Glass, Darkly”
It is a luminous spring day in Venice, as Brunetti and Vianello come to the rescue of Vianello’s friend Marco Ribetti, who has been arrested while protesting against chemical pollution of the Venetian lagoon, only to be faced by the fury of Marco’s father-in-law, owner of a glass factory on the island of Murano. But […]
“Uncommon Type”
A small-town newspaper columnist with old-fashioned views of the modern world. A World War II veteran grappling with his emotional and physical scars. A second-rate actor plunged into sudden stardom and a whirlwind press junket. Four friends traveling to the moon in a rocketship built in the backyard. These are just some of the stories […]
“Undead and Unwed”
It´s been a helluva week for Betsy Taylor. First, she loses her job. Then, to top things off. she´s killed in a car accident. But what really bites (besides waking up in the morgue dressed in a pink suit and cheap shoes courtesy of her stepmother) is that she can´t seem to stay dead. Every […]
