Una consevadora mujer de clase media vela el cadáver de su marido, prematuramente fallecido. Mediante un soliloquio, la esposa recuerda los muchos aspectos insatisfactorios de su vida en común. La Biblia de cabecera de Mario está subrayada con pasajes y a partir de estas citas, Carmen va desgranando sus pensamientos reprochándole su integridad moral y su falta de ambición.

Con esta edición revisada de los Relatos sobre la falta de sustancia culmina la publicación en esta colección de toda la obra narrativa, hasta la fecha, de Álvaro Pombo, reconocido actualmente como una de las revelaciones mayores de la literatura española de la última década.

Svetlana AleksijevičaCinka zēniSvetlanas Aleksijevičas grāmata “Cinka zēni" stāsta par 10 gadus ilgajām Padomju armijas cīņām Afganistānā. Autore jau ilgus ga­dus raksta savā, pašas izveidotajā žanrā, kuru viņa sauc par balsu romānu. Grāmatā apkopotos stāstus pavēstījuši vairāk nekā 100 cil­vēki: oficieri un karavīri, kas karoja šajā neizprotamajā karā, kritušo atraitnes un mātes.No krievu valodas tulkojusi Lāse VilkaNoskanējis grāmatu un  failu izveidojis Imants Ločmelis imantslochmelis@inbox.lvСветлана Алексиевич Цинковые Мальчики© 2007 by Svetlana Alexievich Translation copyright © 2014Natajjas Kugajevskas vāka mākslinieciskais noformējumsAtbildīgā redaktore Kristīne Kirkila Literārā redaktore Marita Freija Tehniskā redaktore Irēna Soide Korektore Ruta Šterna Maketētājs Ingus Feldmanis© Lāse Vilka, tulkojums latviešu valodā © Nataļja Kugajevska, vāka mākslinieciskais noformējumsISBN 978-9934-11-470-0Jumava 2014

The hero of Zakes Mda's beloved Ways of Dying, Toloki, sets down with a family in Middle America and uncovers the story of the runaway slaves who were their ancestors.Toloki, the professional mourner, has come to live in America. Lured to Athens, Ohio, by an academic at the local university, Toloki makes friends with an angry young man he meets at a Halloween parade and soon falls in love with the young man's sister. Toloki endears himself to a local quilting group and his quilting provides a portal to the past, a story of two escaped slaves seeking freedom in Ohio.Making their way north from Virginia with nothing but their mother's quilts for a map, the boys hope to find a promised land where blacks can live as free men. Their story alternates with Toloki's, as the two narratives cast a new light on America in the twenty-first century and on an undiscovered legacy of the Underground Railroad.

A dazzling collection of award-winning stories with the emotional punch, sharp wit, and disarming charm of Rebecca Lee, Karen Russell, Neil Smith, and Jessica Grant.Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! Step right up and prepare to be dazzled by this delightful debut from Claire Battershill, winner of the CBC Literary Award, co-winner of the Canadian Authors Association’s Emerging Writer Award, and finalist for the inaugural PEN International/New Voices Award. As they transport us from a crowded airport departure lounge to the stillness of the British Museum, and from the spectacle of the Winter Olympics to the modesty of a local Miniatureland, these radiant stories explore the often surprising things we’re willing to do for love and human connection. Fed up with his long history of failed blind dates, a shy English bureaucrat gives himself thirty-one days to find love on the Internet. A father buys his daughter a blue plastic tent to ready her for outdoor adventure, but neither is prepared when the tent becomes a neighbourhood sensation. The world of competitive sports provides the backdrop for a young man’s coming of age in “Two-Man Luge: A Love Story.” And in the award-winning title story, the granddaughter of a former circus performer (who played the role of a man-wrestling bear) finds herself grappling with the capriciousness of life and love.At once witty, tender-hearted, and profound, these stories are filled with a memorable and all-too-human cast of characters on the cusp of enormous change — whether they’re ready or not. Written in spare yet startling language, Circus is a beautiful reminder that sometimes everyday life can be the greatest show on Earth.

Una abuela, una madre, una hija. A lo largo de esta saga, tan verídica como espeluznante, tres mujeres luchan por sobrevivir en una China sometida a guerras, invasiones y revoluciones. La abuela de la autora nació en 1909, época en la que China era aún una sociedad feudal. Sus pies permanecieron vendados desde niña, y a los quince años de edad se convirtió en concubina de uno de los numerosos señores de la guerra.

Citadelle est un livre particulier dans le sens où il n'a jamais été achevé ni retouché (ou très peu) par Saint-Exupéry. L'œuvre est restée à l'état de brouillon dactylographié imparfait avant d'être mis en forme, tant bien que mal, par l'éditeur. Saint-Exupéry aborde ici tous ses thèmes récurrents déjà visités dans ses précédents écrits: l'Amour, l'Apprentissage, la Création, Dieu, les Hommes, les Voyages, etc.

In subtle, sensuous prose, the stories in Sara Majka's debut collection explore distance in all its forms: the emotional spaces that open up between family members, friends, and lovers; the gaps that emerge between who we were and who we are; the gulf between our private and public selves. At the center of the collection is a series of stories narrated by a young American woman in the wake of a divorce; wry and shy but never less than open to the world, she recalls the places and people she has been close to, the dreams she has pursued and those she has left unfulfilled. Interspersed with these intimate first-person stories are stand-alone pieces where the tight focus on the narrator's life gives way to closely observed accounts of the lives of others. A book about belonging, and how much of yourself to give up in the pursuit of that, Cities I've Never Lived In offers stories that reveal, with great sadness and great humor, the ways we are most of all citizens of the places where we cannot be.Cities I've Never Lived In is the second book in Graywolf's collaboration with the literary magazine A Public Space.ADVANCE PRAISE FOR Cities I've Never Lived In“A human and eloquent exploration of isolation.” —Publishers Weekly“These stories are a marvel that will break your heart. . Majka’s debut is breath-stopping.” —A.N. Devers, Longreads"These stories are sparse and fierce and move elegantly to the very heart of the reader. The voice remains with me, has left an emotional trace like a person I lived with and loved and often recall.” —Catherine Lacey, author of Nobody is Ever Missing“A collection that leaves you longing — as one longs to return to much loved, much missed homes and communities and cities — for places that you, the reader have never been. Prodigal with insight into why and how people love and leave, and love again. Humane, dazzling, and knowing.”— Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners“Like Alice Munro and Raymond Carver, Sara Majka writes stories of people on society’s ragged edge — in money trouble, work trouble, heart trouble — and does so with tremendous subtlety and a grave sophistication all her own. Every one of the spare sentences in this book is heavy with implication and insight. It’s impossible to read these stories too closely.” —Salvatore Scibona, author of The End“I cannot remember a book that more perfectly achieves the sensation of, as Majka describes, ‘being nowhere, or in someone else’s life, or between lives.’ With each subsequent story, the feeling intensified until, as only the very best writing can do, I felt transformed by the experience. Cities I’ve Never Lived In is a momentous book, and Majka is a writer operating at a very high level of insight.” —Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang“Cities I’ve Never Lived In is like no other book I’ve read: graceful and poignant, original and wise. Its stories unfold in the bars, thrift stores, and rented rooms of a Maine you won’t find in tourist guidebooks or outdoor catalogs, but their deeper territory is the human heart: loss and loneliness, desire and grief, and the strange beauty to be found in desolation. Like the memories that haunt her watchful, wounded characters, Sara Majka’s exquisite prose stayed with me long after I had turned the last page of this terrific debut.” —Mia Alvar, author of In the Country“This is a beautiful and destabilizing book filled with ghosts. Majka is a writer I’d read anything by.” —Diane Cook, author of Man Vs. Nature“The characters in Sara Majka’s haunting collection drift through cities and landscapes like refugees from feeling, searching for something they can’t begin to name. These stories confound all our expectations: they fade in and out like memories or dreams, at once indelible and impossible to grasp. Again and again they broke my heart. Majka is a daring and enormously gifted writer, and this is a thrilling, devastating debut.” —Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You

VOLUME THREE OF THE BORDER TRILOGY In Cities of the Plain, two men marked by the boyhood adventures of All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing now stand together, between their vivid pasts and uncertain futures, to confront a country changing beyond recognition. In the fall of 1952, John Grady Cole and Billy Parham are cowboys on a New Mexico ranch encroached upon from the north by the military. On the southern horizon are the mountains of Mexico, where one of the men is drawn again and again, in this story of friendships and passion, to a love as dangerous as it is inevitable. 'In a lovely and terrible landscape of natural beauty and impending loss we find John Grady; a young cowboy of the old school, trusted by men and horses, and a fragile young woman, whose salvation becomes his obsession. McCarthy makes the sweeping plains a miracle' Scotsman 'This haunting, deeply felt novel completes one of the literary masterworks of the 1990s' Daily Telegraph 'The completed trilogy emerges as a landmark in American literature' Guardian

There shouldn’t be a Citrus County. Teenage romance should be difficult, but not this difficult. Boys like Toby should cause trouble but not this much. The moon should glow gently over children safe in their beds. Uncles in their rockers should be kind. Teachers should guide and inspire. Manatees should laze and palm trees sway and snakes keep to their shady spots under the azalea thickets. The air shouldn’t smell like a swamp. The stars should twinkle. Shelby should be her own hero, the first hero of Citrus County. She should rescue her sister from underground, rescue Toby from his life. Her destiny should be a hero’s destiny.

Недовольный всем, что вышло из-под его пера, Алессандро Барикко погрузился в современность и освоил профессию градостроителя. Так возник «City» — роман-город, с кварталами — сюжетными линиями и улицами-персонажами. Как и полагается уважающему себя городу, в нем есть все для увлекательной жизни: боксеры, футболисты, профессора, парикмахер, генерал, гениальный подросток, девушка на первом плане. А если этого покажется мало, — за углом демонстрируют захватывающий вестерн. Барикко не изменяет своему обыкновению — приговаривать к смерти полюбившихся ему героев. Так легче расставаться с ними...

Недовольный всем, что вышло из-под его пера, Алессандро Барикко погрузился в современность и освоил профессию градостроителя. Так возник «City» — роман-город, с кварталами — сюжетными линиями и улицами-персонажами. Как и полагается уважающему себя городу, в нем есть все для увлекательной жизни: боксеры, футболисты, профессора, парикмахер, генерал, гениальный подросток, девушка на первом плане. А если этого покажется мало, — за углом демонстрируют захватывающий вестерн. Барикко не изменяет своему обыкновению — приговаривать к смерти полюбившихся ему героев. Так легче расставаться с ними...

A late-night phone call from a stranger involves Quinn, a mystery writer, in a baffling murder case stranger than his novels.

A poignant story of three young adults trying to make a future for themselves in war-torn Damascus

When Hammoudi, a young surgeon based in Paris, returns to Syria to renew his passport, he only expects to stay there a few days. But the authorities refuse to let him leave, and Hammoudi finds himself caught up in the fight against the regime. Meanwhile, budding actress Amal has also joined the protests against the government and her own father, by whom she feels betrayed. Realizing that they will never again be safe in their homeland, Amal and her boyfriend Youssef decide to flee to Europe in a desperate bid to survive.

But the path to safety brings its own risks, and Amal and Youssef once again narrowly escape death when their overcrowded ship sinks. Eventually they reach Germany, but soon discover that in this new life--where they are perceived as nothing but refugees--their struggle is far from over.

City of Jasmine is an intimate and striking novel that offers real insight into the horrors and inhumanity of war, whilst also focusing on the humanity of the protagonists, marking Olga Grjasnowa as one of the most talented and admired young authors working in Germany today.

Winner of the Egon Hostovský Prize as the best Czech book of the year, this epic novel powerfully captures the sense of dislocation that followed the Czechs’ newfound freedom in 1989. More than just the story of its young protagonist — who is part businessman, part gang member, part drifter — it is a novel that includes terrifying dream scenes, Czech and American Indian legends, a nightmarish Eastern European flea market, comic scenes about the literary world, and an oddly tender story of the love between the protagonist and his spiritual sister.

Funny, sad, bleak, weird, toxic — the future of America as the Free Market runs rampant,the environment skids into disarray, and civilization dissolves into surreal chaos. These wacky, brilliant, hilarious and entirely original stories cue us in on George Saunder's skewed vision of the legacy we are creating. Against the backdrop of our devolvement, our own worst tendencies and greatest virtues are weirdly illuminated.

A recent legacy made Cassandra Palmer heir to the title of Pythia, the world's chief clairvoyant. It's a position that usually comes with years of training, but Cassie's circumstances are a little…unusual. Now she's stuck with a whopping amount of power that every vamp, fey, and mage in town wants to either monopolize or eradicate – and that she herself doesn't dare use.What's more, she's just discovered that a certain arrogant master vampire has a geis on her-a magical claim that warns off any would-be suitors, and might also explain the rather… intense attraction between them. But Cassie's had it with being jerked around, and anyone who tries it from now on is going to find out that she makes a very bad enemy…***Claimed By Shadow is the follow up to Karen Chance’s exciting debut novel Touch The Dark. The story in Claimed By Shadow follows on straight from where Touch The Dark left off and although the author does a good job of filling in the back story during the first couple of chapters, because the story is somewhat complex I would recommend that readers unfamiliar with this series start by reading Touch The Dark first – rather than jumping straight in with Claimed By Shadow. (Touch The Dark is an excellent read – I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed!)Claimed By Shadow starts about a week after where Touch The Dark finished, with Cassie still in Las Vegas and still trying to find a way to extract herself from her many problems, before someone kills her and solves all her problems for her. There is no shortage of would-be assassins. Tony, the Mafioso vampire that she turned into the Feds is still gunning for her – even though he is in hiding. The Vampire Senate want Cassie to be their tame Pythia; if she won’t do their bidding they will have no qualms about eliminating her. The Circle (the ruling council of good magic users) wants her out of the way so that someone of their own choice can inherit the Pythia’s power – and that’s just for starters!Myra, the previous heir to the power of the Pythia will stop at nothing to eliminate Cassie so she can claim the title of Pythia back for herself. As Myra can travel through time her attempts to kill Cassie are not limited to the present and she hatches a plan to kill Mircea (the vampire who has protected Cassie since he discovered that she the potential to be a Pythia) in his past there by altering the timeline for Cassie’s life. If Mircea is dead, he will not be around to protect Cassie in the time before she obtains the Pythia’s power and Cassie will never come into power. Confused yet?The problem with time travel in any novel is that the mixed up timelines can soon become confusing, Claimed By Shadow suffers a bit with this and when you add a trip to Faerie into the mix it’s enough to make any brain go into information overload (well, it did mine anyway!) There is a huge amount of information to take in, plus several twists and turns in the storyline, so the reader has to pay attention or risk losing the plot.Luckily there is plenty to hold the readers attention. The action that starts in the second chapter doesn’t let up until the last page of the book as Cassie and her small band of allies fight their way from present day Las Vegas, through Victorian London into the Faerie kingdom and back again. The characters are multi-faceted and engaging, you just can’t help but like Pritkin the war mage and even his golem seems endearing.The vampires in Claimed By Shadow are by turns super-sexy and super-scary and Cassie’s ambivalence towards them strikes just the right note in the face of their highly suspect morals and motivations.Claimed By Shadow is an original, richly imagined tale and a solid follow-up to Touch The Dark, making this novel a must for urban fantasy fans.

Set against the divergent landscape of British Columbia — from the splendours of nature to its immense dangers, from urban grease and grit to dry, desert towns — Clear Skies, No Wind, 100% Visibility examines human beings and their many frailties with breathtaking insight and accuracy.

Théodora Armstrong peoples her stories with characters as richly various — and as compelling — as her settings. A soon-to-be father and haute cuisine chef mercilessly berates his staff while facing his lack of preparedness for parenthood. A young girl revels in the dark drama of the murder of a girl from her neighbourhood. A novice air-traffic specialist must come to terms with his first loss — the death of a pilot — on his watch. And the dangers of deep canyons and powerful currents spur on the reckless behaviour of teenagers as they test the limits of bravery, friendship, and sex.

With startling intimacy and language stripped bare, Clear Skies, No Wind, 100% Visibility announces the arrival of Théodora Armstrong as a striking new literary voice.

On September 5, 2003, illusionist David Blaine entered a small Perspex box adjacent to London's Thames River and began starving himself. Forty-four days later, on October 19, he left the box, fifty pounds lighter. That much, at least, is clear. And the rest? The crowds? The chaos? The hype? The rage? The fights? The lust? The filth? The bullshit? The hypocrisy?Nicola Barker fearlessly crams all that and more into this ribald and outrageous peep show of a novel, her most irreverent, caustic, up-to-the-minute work yet, laying bare the heart of our contemporary world, a world of illusion, delusion, celebrity, and hunger.