In 1377, on the frontier between the crumbling Byzantine empire and the advancing Ottoman Turks, a mysterious work crew begins to construct a three-arched bridge, despite warnings of war. A superbly realized work of historical fiction and at once a Kafkaesque parable of the barbarism currently sweeping its author's Albanian homeland.

Nicola Barker, Man Booker Prize–shortlisted author of Darkmans and The Yips and winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and Hawthornden Prize, gathers her finest short fiction in this irresistible collection Audacious, original, clever, poignant—these are just a few words that describe the writing of Nicola Barker, an award-winning author who has been compared to Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, and Margaret Atwood. Now nineteen of her finest short stories have been compiled into one startling, delightfully readable volume. It takes young Carrie twenty-one years and a chance meeting with an eighty-three-year-old widow to realize she fell victim to her husband’s “three button trick.” The main character in “Wesley” must work through his troubled childhood in a series of episodes involving masses of eels, an imaginary friend named Joy, and an unmentionable incident with an emu-owl. Whether describing erotic encounters behind clothing racks or a kleptomaniac with his organs on the wrong side, these stories never fail to surprise us, entertain us, and make us think. “Nicola Barker’s is a singular world, a hectic place of uncommon characters and naughty, memorable prose . . . Her style is fast, funny, profound, and sharp.” —Newsday “An astounding writer.” —Seattle Weekly “Barker’s subjects are often raw and irreverently sexy, while her endings are sometimes abrupt, but she never fails to surprise and delight with incisive writing and piercing wit, to say nothing of all the vivid characters inhabiting these rambunctious and witty stories.” —Publishers Weekly Nicola Barker’s eight previous novels include Darkmans (short-listed for the 2007 Man Booker and Ondaatje prizes, and winner of the Hawthornden Prize), Wide Open (winner of the 2000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award), and Clear (long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2004). She has also written two prize-winning collections of short stories, and her work has been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in East London.

Three novellas-including Obsession, Platinum, and Cadena de Amor-examine the Philippine experience through the lives of three female characters, a prostitute, a student activist, and a politician.

An unforgettable novel of an American suburb devastated by a fiendish madman — the most ambitious and important work yet by “the 21st century answer to William Burroughs” (Publishers Weekly).Blake Butler’s fiction has dazzled readers with its dystopian dreamscapes and swaggering command of language. Now, in his most topical and visceral novel yet, he ushers us into the consciousness of two men in the shadow of a bloodbath: Gretch Gravey, a cryptic psychopath with a small army of burnout followers, and E. N. Flood, the troubled police detective tasked with unpacking and understanding his mind.A mingled simulacrum of Charles Manson, David Koresh, and Thomas Harris’s Buffalo Bill, Gravey is a sinister yet alluring God figure who enlists young metalhead followers to kidnap neighboring women and bring them to his house — where he murders them and buries their bodies in a basement crypt. Through parallel narratives, Three Hundred Million lures readers into the cloven mind of Gravey — and Darrel, his sinister alter ego — even as Flood’s secret journal chronicles his own descent into his own, eerily similar psychosis.A portrait of American violence that conjures the shadows of Ariel Castro, David Koresh, and Adam Lanza, Three Hundred Million is a brutal and mesmerizing masterwork, a portrait of contemporary America that is difficult to turn away from, or to forget.

A quietly devastating novel about the pain of hidden secrets and the cost of surrendered love.Cecilia and Claudio are doctors at the same hospital. They eat lunch together, sharing conversation and confidences. Each is recovering from a relationship that has ended but is not yet over: she is a vulnerable young woman with a complicated family situation and two small children; he continues to live in the same building with his senile mother and his ex-wife and her new family. Though they are drawn together magnetically, life has taught them to treat that attraction with suspicion.But a chance encounter with Cecilia’s sister, Silvia, shifts the precarious balance of the relationship between the two doctors. Claudio begins to see the difficulties inherent in his approach toward life — his weary “Why not?” rather than indicating a hunger for life and experiences, is simply a default setting; saying no would require an energy and focus he lacks. And just when Cecilia comes to the realization that she loves Claudio and is ready to commit to a genuine relationship, fate steps in once again.In lucid, melancholy prose, supplely rendered into English by Anne Milano Appel, Andrea Canobbio sketches a fable of love poisoned by indecision and ambivalence in Three Light-Years, laying bare the dangers of playing it safe when it comes to matters of the heart.

In this new novel, the first by a black woman ever to win the coveted Prix Goncourt, Marie NDiaye creates a luminous narrative triptych as harrowing as it is beautiful.This is the story of three women who say no: Norah, a French-born lawyer who finds herself in Senegal, summoned by her estranged, tyrannical father to save another victim of his paternity; Fanta, who leaves a modest but contented life as a teacher in Dakar to follow her white boyfriend back to France, where his delusional depression and sense of failure poison everything; and Khady, a penniless widow put out by her husband’s family with nothing but the name of a distant cousin (the aforementioned Fanta) who lives in France, a place Khady can scarcely conceive of but toward which she must now take desperate flight.With lyrical intensity, Marie NDiaye masterfully evokes the relentless denial of dignity, to say nothing of happiness, in these lives caught between Africa and Europe. We see with stunning emotional exactitude how ordinary women discover unimagined reserves of strength, even as their humanity is chipped away. Three Strong Women admits us to an immigrant experience rarely if ever examined in fiction, but even more into the depths of the suffering heart.

Living in a tin shack, on a great plain, with only the wind for company; what could be better? But with Mary Petrie rapidly turning your house into a home, and the charismatic Michael Hawkins enticing your neighbours away, suddenly there are choices to be made. Should you stay? Or join the exodus?

Thrown is a hilarious picaresque about a sixteenth-century doctor and his faithful sidekick who travel Spain "curing" every ailment possible with the use of tobacco in a variety of forms — the leaves made into a poultice, the smoke piped into the anus, etc. Behind the hilarious antics is a commentary on the power of money and the evils of charlatanism.

Lidia Yuknavitch has an unmatched gift for capturing stories of people on the margins-vulnerable humans leading lives of challenge and transcendence. Now, Yuknavitch offers an imaginative masterpiece: the story of Laisve, a motherless girl from the late 21st century who is learning her power as a carrier, a person who can harness the power of meaningful objects to carry her through time. Sifting through the detritus of a fallen city known as the Brook, she discovers a talisman that will mysteriously connect her with a series of characters from the past two centuries: a French sculptor; a woman of the American underworld; a dictator's daughter; an accused murderer; and a squad of laborers at work on a national monument. Through intricately braided storylines, Laisve must dodge enforcement raids and find her way to the present day, and then, finally, to the early days of her imperfect country, to forge a connection that might save their lives-and their shared dream of freedom.A dazzling novel of body, spirit, and survival, Thrust will leave no reader unchanged.

From the author of the beloved novel The Giant’s House—finalist for the National Book Award — comes a beautiful new story collection, her first in twenty years. Laced through with the humor, the empathy, and the rare and magical descriptive powers that have led Elizabeth McCracken’s fiction to be hailed as “exquisite” (The New York Times Book Review), “funny and heartbreaking” (The Boston Globe), and “a true marvel” (San Francisco Chronicle), these nine vibrant stories navigate the fragile space between love and loneliness. In “Property,” selected by Geraldine Brooks for The Best American Short Stories, a young scholar, grieving the sudden death of his wife, decides to refurbish the Maine rental house they were to share together by removing his landlord’s possessions. In “Peter Elroy: A Documentary by Ian Casey,” the household of a successful filmmaker is visited years later by his famous first subject, whose trust he betrayed. In “The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston,” the manager of a grocery store becomes fixated on the famous case of a missing local woman, and on the fate of the teenage son she left behind. And in the unforgettable title story, a family makes a quixotic decision to flee to Paris for a summer, only to find their lives altered in an unimaginable way by their teenage daughter’s risky behavior.In Elizabeth McCracken’s universe, heartache is always interwoven with strange, charmed moments of joy — an unexpected conversation with small children, the gift of a parrot with a bad French accent — that remind us of the wonder and mystery of being alive. Thunderstruck & Other Stories shows this inimitable writer working at the full height of her powers.

Here John Turner was cast away in a heavy snow storm in the night in or about the year 1755. The print of a woman’s shoe was found by his side in the snow where he lay dead. This enigmatic memorial stone, high on the bank of a prehistoric Pennine track in Cheshire, is a mystery that lives on in the hill farms today. John Turner was a packman. With his train of horses he carried salt and silk, travelling distances incomprehensible to his ancient community. In this visionary tale, John brings ideas as well as gifts, which have come, from market town to market town, from places as distant as the campfires of the Silk Road. John Turner’s death in the eighteenth century leaves an emotional charge which, in the twenty-first century, Ian and Sal find affects their relationship, challenging the perceptions they have of themselves and of each other. Thursbitch is rooted in a verifiable place. It is an evocation of the lives and the language of all people who are called to the valley of Thursbitch.

Award-winning author Javier Marías examines a household living in unhappy the shadow of history, and explores the cruel, tender punishments we exact on those we love.As a young man, Juan de Vere takes a job that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Eduardo Muriel is a famous film director — urbane, discreet, irreproachable — an irresistible idol to a young man. Muriel's wife Beatriz is a soft, ripe woman who slips through her husband's home like an unwanted ghost, finding solace in other beds. And on the periphery of all their lives stands Dr Jorge Van Vechten, a shadowy family friend implicated in unsavoury rumours that Muriel cannot bear to pursue himself — rumours he asks Juan to investigate instead. But as Juan draws closer to the truth, he uncovers more questions, ones his employer has not asked and would rather not answer. Why does Muriel hate Beatriz? How did Beatriz meet Van Vechten? And what happened during the war?As Juan learns more about his employers, he begins to understand the conflicting pulls of desire, power and guilt that govern their lives — and his own. Marias presents a study of the infinitely permeable boundaries between private and public selves, between observer and participant, between the deceptions we suffer from others and those we enact upon ourselves.'No one else, anywhere, is writing quite like this' Daily Telegraph on The Infatuations

Продолжение производственного романа из жизни африканских авантюристов. Жизнь героев, удачно сорвавших куш в первой части, начинает было налаживаться, но тут из их тёмного прошлого звучит голос с характерным акцентом: «Должо-о-ок!..».

Производственный роман из жизни африканских авантюристов. Алмазные прииски, негры с автоматами, саванна, преступления, малярия и прочая обыденность. Все герои и большая часть событий имеют реальных прототипов.

Nini and Jameelah are fourteen.The summer has just begun and Berlin is their playground. Smelling of salt and suncream, sticky-lipped and heavy-eyed from drinking Tiger Milk all day, they head for the red light district. They've decided it's time to grow up — and practice makes perfect, doesn't it?Tender and funny, shocking and tragic, this is an explosive literary debut about leaving childhood behind, ready or not.

Lester Ferris, sergeant of the British Army, is a good man in need of a rest. He's spent a lot of his life being shot at, and Afghanistan was the last stop on his road to exhaustion. He has no family, he's nearly forty, burned out and about to be retired.The island of Mancreu is the ideal place for Lester to serve out his time. It's a former British colony in legal limbo, soon to be destroyed because of its very special version of toxic pollution — a down-at-heel, mildly larcenous backwater. Of course, that also makes Mancreu perfect for shady business, hence the Black Fleet of illicit ships lurking in the bay: listening stations, offshore hospitals, money laundering operations, drug factories and deniable torture centres. None of which should be a problem, because Lester's brief is to sit tight and turn a blind eye.But Lester Ferris has made a friend: a brilliant, internet-addled street kid with a comic book fixation who will need a home when the island dies — who might, Lester hopes, become an adopted son. Now, as Mancreu's small society tumbles into violence, the boy needs Lester to be more than just an observer.In the name of paternal love, Lester Ferris will do almost anything. And he's a soldier with a knack for bad places: 'almost anything' could be a very great deal — even becoming some sort of hero. But this is Mancreu, and everything here is upside down. Just exactly what sort of hero will the boy need?

Havjers MariassTik balta sirdsĢimenes pusdienu laikā Teresa, kura nesen apprecējusies, aiziet uz vannasistabu, atpogā blūzi un iešauj sev sirdī. Kāpēc viņa atņem sev dzīvību tik drīz pēc medusmēneša? Pēc daudziem gadiem šis noslēpums nedod mieru tikko laulību noslēgušajam Huanam, kura tēvs savulaik bijis precējies ar Teresu. Huans, tuvodamies patiesības izzināšanai, sāk izvērtēt savas attiecības un vērtības un pārdomāt, vai maz ir būtiski uzzināt, kas patiesībā noticis.“Tik balta sirds ” ir romāns par patiesību un likteni, par pateikto un noklusēto, par laulību, slepkavību un aizdomām, par sirdīm, kas ir baltas savā nezināšanā, bet pamazām iemanto krāsu, uzzinot to, ko nemaz nevēlas zināt.Havjers Mariass (Javier Manas), spāņu rakstnieks, kas tiek dēvēts par vienu no dižākajiem dzīvajiem pasaules autoriem, dzimis Madridē 1951. gadā. Viņa darbi tulkoti vairāk nekā 30 valodās un novērtēti ar neskaitāmām - gan dzimtās Spānijas, gan starptautiskām — literārām prēmijām. Tieši romāns “Tik balta sirds” padarīja Havjeru Mariasu par vienu no pasaulē ietekmīgākajiem spāņu autoriem.Havjers Mariass ir viens no dižākajiem dzīvajiem pasaules autoriem. Es nespēju nosaukt nevienu mūsdienu rakstnieku, kas kaut attāli tuvotos vina līmenim... Ģeniāls romāns, izcils mākslas darbs.Marseis Reihs Ranickis,Das Literarische QuartettH. Mariass lieto valodu kā patologanatoms - skalpeli, ar kuru slāni pa slānim nogriež miesas kārtas, lai atsegtu visdīvainākās sugas pārstāvja - cilvēka - dziļākos noslēpumus.V. G. ZēbaldsHavjers Mariass lasītāju savalgo ar spraigo un meistarīgo stāstījumu.The Independent on SundayH. Mariasa rakstības stils liecina par briesmīgu viltību un velnišķīgu pacietību... Te ir sasniegta miniatūrista precizitāte.Le Nouvel ObservateurHavjers Mariass raksta eleganti un asprātīgi, radot meistarisku spriedzi, un tomēr, par spīti šiem apgalvojumiem, tieši viņa romāna dzelmē esošā absolūtā ontoloģiskā nedrošība padara to vienlaikus tik mainīgu un tik patiesu.The Times Literary SupplementVisizsmalcinātākais un talantīgākais mūsdienu spāņu rakstnieks.Boston Sunday GlobeZvaigzne ABC, 2014.no spāņu val. tulk. Dace Meiere.

Mr. Bones, the canine hero of Paul Auster’s astonishing new book, is the sidekick and confidant of Willy G. Christmas, a brilliant and troubled homeless man from Brooklyn. As Willy’s body slowly expires, he sets off with Mr. Bones for Baltimore in search of his high school English teacher and a new home for his companion. Mr. Bones is our witness during their journey, and out of his thoughts, Paul Auster has spun one of the richest, most compelling tales in American fiction.