TWAIN & STANLEY ENTER PARADISE, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos, is a luminous work of fiction inspired by the real-life, 37-year friendship between two towering figures of the late nineteenth century, famed writer and humorist Mark Twain and legendary explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley.Hijuelos was fascinated by the Twain-Stanley connection and eventually began researching and writing a novel that used the scant historical record of their relationship as a starting point for a more detailed fictional account. It was a labor of love for Hijuelos, who worked on the project for more than ten years, publishing other novels along the way but always returning to Twain and Stanley; indeed, he was still revising the manuscript the day before his sudden passing in 2013.The resulting novel is a richly woven tapestry of people and events that is unique among the author's works, both in theme and structure. Hijuelos ingeniously blends correspondence, memoir, and third-person omniscience to explore the intersection of these Victorian giants in a long vanished world.From their early days as journalists in the American West, to their admiration and support of each other's writing, their mutual hatred of slavery, their social life together in the dazzling literary circles of the period, and even a mysterious journey to Cuba to search for Stanley's adoptive father, TWAIN & STANLEY ENTER PARADISE superbly channels two vibrant but very different figures. It is also a study of Twain's complex bond with Mrs. Stanley, the bohemian portrait artist Dorothy Tennant, who introduces Twain and his wife to the world of séances and mediums after the tragic death of their daughter.A compelling and deeply felt historical fantasia that utilizes the full range of Hijuelos' gifts, TWAIN & STANLEY ENTER PARADISE stands as an unforgettable coda to a brilliant writing career.

Christmas has always been a sad time for young widow Holly Brown, so when she's asked to look after a remote house on the Lancashire moors, the opportunity to hide herself away is irresistible — the perfect excuse to forget about the festivities. Sculptor, Jude Martland, is determined that this year there will be no Christmas after his brother runs off with his fiancee and he is keen to avoid the family home. However, he will have to return by the twelfth night of the festivities, when the hamlet of Little Mumming hold their historic festivities and all of his family are required to attend. Meanwhile, Holly is finding that if she wants to avoid Christmas, she has come to the wrong place. When Jude unexpectedly returns on Christmas Eve he is far from delighted to discover that Holly seems to be holding the very family party he had hoped to avoid. Suddenly, the blizzards come out of nowhere and the whole village is snowed in. With no escape, Holly and Jude get much more than they bargained for — it looks like the twelve days of Christmas are going to be very interesting indeed!

These twelve stories feature people under pressure: how do they react when there is an opportunity to seize, a crucial problem to solve, a danger to avoid? Each tale has its twist, each its diversion — a red herring to uncover, while the last one provides a choice of endings.

In 1958, Kadare was selected to pursue his writing and literary studies as a graduate student in Moscow at the prestigious Gorky Institute for World Literature. Twilight of the Eastern Gods is Kadare's fictionalized recreation of his time spent at this "factory of the intellect," a place created to produce a new generation of poets, novelists, and playwrights, all adhering to the state-sanctioned "socialist realist" aesthetic.During his time at the Gorky Institute, a kind of miniature Soviet Union where writers from deepest Siberia, Kazakhstan, and the Caucasus all came to study, Kadare was caught up in the furore over Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize win, when the Soviet Union demanded that Pasternak refuse the foreign, bourgeois award, or be sentenced to exile. Kadare’s time at the Institute, the drunken nights, corrupt professors, and enforced aesthetics are fictionalized in a novel that entwines Russian and Albanian myth with history. Twilight of the Eastern Gods is a portrait of a city and a story of youth, disenchantment, and the incredible importance of the written word.

It’s been a year since the torturous notes from A stopped and the mystery of Alison DiLaurentis’s disappearance was finally put to rest. Now seniors in high school, Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily are older, but they’re not any wiser. The Pretty Little Liars have more secrets than ever - twisted secrets that could destroy the perfect lives they’ve worked so hard to rebuild. Aria’s jealous of her boyfriend’s new exchange student. Spencer’s getting a little too cozy with her soon-to-be-stepbrother. Hanna’s one scandalous photo away from ruining her dad’s Senate campaign. And Emily will do anything to get a swim scholarship. Worst of all: Last spring break in Jamaica, they did something unforgivable. The girls are desperate to forget that fateful night, but they should know better than anyone that all secrets wash ashore … eventually.

Back in the 90’s, the corrupt post-Soviet Ukraine with its faltering economy, is thrown into a devastating depression. Times are hard. Opportunities are scarce. Three eager young sisters – Natalia, Lena and Julia – dream of a better life and weigh their options: do they stay and struggle like their parents, or join scores of their compatriots in the sex trade in glittering western European cities, who earn in a night what they’d take several months to earn at home? Naive and tempted by the allure of ‘quick’ money, the girls set off on an adventure that changes their lives forever… For sensible, resilient and calculating Lena and Natalia, the transition to the underworld of Luxembourg’s deceptive champagne bars is eye-opening, but smooth. But for fragile, brittle Julia, haunted by a childhood assault, the change is more than just vocational. Struggling to adapt, she turns to alcohol and drugs, exposing herself to increasing danger and depravity; and, ultimately, betrayal, when a deceitful client, who claims to love her, drugs her and cleans her out. Despite her sisters’ best efforts to intervene, she finds herself in Istanbul – culturally a world apart – in an attempt to make back the money and self-respect she’s lost. Vulnerable without the protection of Luxembourg’s champagne bars, she descends into a hell of drugs and high-risk sex until, at the novel’s terrible climax, a kidnapping, brutal assault and one-sided justice system lead to her imprisonment and a threat of deportation. How will Natalia and Lena save Julia? Inspired by real-life events, Twisted is a fascinating story about vulnerability, courage and the art of making a living in the sex trade…‘TWISTED’ IS THE FIRST BOOK OF A TRILOGY. THE SECOND ONE – ‘CRAVED’ IS COMING OUT VERY SOON! To stay updated follow Lola on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/twistedlolasmirnovaor Twitter – @BookTwisted.

The powerful new love story from multi-million-copy bestselling author Nicholas Sparks, Two by Two is a story of heartbreak, strength and unconditional love.Sometimes the end is just the beginning…Russell Green has it all: a loving family, a successful career and a beautiful house. But underneath his seemingly perfect world, cracks are beginning to appear… and no one is more surprised than Russ when the life he took for granted is turned upside down.Finding himself single-handedly caring for his young daughter, while trying to launch his own business, the only thing Russ knows is that he must shelter his little girl from the consequences of these changes.As Russ embarks on this daunting and unexpected new chapter of his life, a chance encounter will challenge him to find a happiness beyond anything he could ever have imagined.

From the author of the international bestseller A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian comes a tender and hilarious novel about a crew of migrant workers from three continents who are forced to flee their English strawberry field for a journey across all of England in pursuit of their various dreams of a better future.Somewhere in the heart of the green and pleasant land called England is a valley filled with strawberries. A group of migrant workers, who hail from Eastern Europe, China, and Africa have come here to harvest them for delivery to British supermarkets, and end up living in two small trailer homes, a men’s trailer and a woman’s trailer. They are all seeking a better life (and in their different ways they are also, of course, looking for love) and they’ve come to England, some legally, some illegally, to find it. They are supervised-some would say exploited-by Farmer Leaping, a red-faced Englishman who treats everyone equally except for the Polish woman named Yola, the boss of the crew, who favors him with her charms in exchange for something a little extra on the side. But the two are discreet, and all is harmonious in this cozy vale-until the evening when Farmer Leaping’s wife comes upon him and Yola and does what any woman would do in this situation: She runs him down in her red sports car. By the time the police arrive the migrant workers have piled into one of the trailer homes and hightailed it out of their little arcadia, thus setting off one of the most enchanting, merry, and moving picaresque journeys across the length and breadth of England since Chaucer’s pilgrims set off to Canterbury.Along the way, the workers’ fantasies about England keep rudely bumping into the ignominious, brutal, and sometimes dangerous realities of life on the margins for Ĺ˝migrĹ˝s in the new globalized labor market. Some of them meet terrible ends, some give up and go back home, but for those who manage to hang in for the full course of this madcap ride, the rewards-like the strawberries-prove awfully sweet-especially for the young Ukrainians from opposite sides of the tracks, Andriy and Irina, whose initial mutual irritation blossoms into love.

A heartwarming novel about the surprise of second chances in the autumn of your life.Gor is keeping busy. He has a magic show to rehearse, his new assistant to get in line and a dacha in dire need of weeding. But he keeps being distracted by a tapping on his window – four floors up. Is old age finally catching up with him?Tolya has woken from a long illness to find his memory gone. Tidied away in a sanatorium, with only the view of a pine tree for entertainment, he is delighted when young doctor Vlad decides to make a project of him. With a keen listener by his side, and the aid of smuggled home-made sugary delights, Tolya’s boyhood memories return, revealing dark secrets…Two Cousins of Azov is a tender and wonderful story of two men who, in the autumn of their years, have the chance to learn that memories can heal, as well as haunt.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCq_k4SFI3A

In this set of novellas, a few facts are constant. Sergio is a young intellectual, poor and proud of his new membership in the Communist Party. Maurizio is handsome, rich, successful with women, and morally ambiguous. Sergio’s young, sensual lover becomes collateral damage in the struggle between these two men. All three of these unfinished stories, found packed in a suitcase after Alberto Moravia’s death, share this narrative premise. But from there, each story unfolds in a unique way. The first patiently explores the slow unfurling of Sergio’s resentment toward Maurizio. The second reveals the calculated bargain Maurizio offers in exchange for his conversion to Sergio’s beloved Communism. And the third switches dramatically to the first person, laying bare Sergio’s conflicted soul.Anyone interested in literature will relish the opportunity to watch Moravia at work, tinkering with his story and working at it from three unique perspectives.

This captivating novel shimmers with dark intensity and wicked wit. In a stunning synthesis of eroticism, rage, pathos, and humor, Gaitskill's "fine storyteller's pace and brilliant metaphors" (The New York Times Book Review) create a haunting and unforgettable journey into the dark side of contemporary life and the deepest recesses of the soul.

The volume’s title story, published here in English for the first time, tells of the epic and tragic clash between two Torah scholars in a lost world “three or four generations ago.” Agnon at his best — distilling the classical texts of Jewish study into a modern midrashic matrix. Includes revised translations of: “Tehilla,” “In the Heart of the Seas,” and “In the Prime of her Life,” all with new introductions and annotations.

Two newly revised translations from the Hebrew, with new and illustrated annotations, of two novellas by Nobel Laureate S.Y. Agnon. Two stories clearly in dialogue with one another, sharing elements of moonstruck sleepwalkers, disengaged academics, and the typically Agnonian unfulfilled love.In Betrothed, Jacob Rechnitz, a marine biologist arrives in pre-World War I Jaffa on the Mediterranean coast of the Land of Israel. His scholarly pursuits and gentle dalliance with six girls is interrupted by the arrival of his benefactor Ehrlich and his daughter Shoshanah, who is destined to rouse Jacob from his waking slumber through the power of their childhood betrothal oath.The idyllic peace of Betrothed is counterpointed in Edo and Enam by restlessness leading to tragedy. The scholars Ginat and Gamzu are wanderers; men like the narrator himself, gambling on travel for some magical answer to their problems. Ironically, Gamzu’s wife Gemulah, a sleepwalker, puts an end to their quest in a manner as tragic as it is unexpected.

Sutton Mercer watches from the afterlife as her long-lost twin, Emma Paxton, takes over her identity to solve her murder. But after ruling out her early leads, Emma still hasn’t found Sutton’s killer. A lot of people wanted her dead—but one name keeps popping up: Thayer Vega. When the gorgeous and mysterious Thayer returns to town, Emma has to move fast to figure out whether he’s back for revenge…or if he already got it.Set in a town where friends can turn into dangerous enemies and everyone harbors dark secrets, The Lying Game is a juicy new series that fans of the #1 New York Times bestselling Pretty Little Liars series—and the hit ABC Family show—will love.

In the near future, after a storm strikes New York City, the strangenesses begin. A down-to-earth gardener finds that his feet no longer touch the ground. A graphic novelist awakens in his bedroom to a mysterious entity that resembles his own sub — Stan Lee creation. Abandoned at the mayor’s office, a baby identifies corruption with her mere presence, marking the guilty with blemishes and boils. A seductive gold digger is soon tapped to combat forces beyond imagining.Unbeknownst to them, they are all descended from the whimsical, capricious, wanton creatures known as the jinn, who live in a world separated from ours by a veil. Centuries ago, Dunia, a princess of the jinn, fell in love with a mortal man of reason. Together they produced an astonishing number of children, unaware of their fantastical powers, who spread across generations in the human world.Once the line between worlds is breached on a grand scale, Dunia’s children and others will play a role in an epic war between light and dark spanning a thousand and one nights — or two years, eight months, and twenty-eight nights. It is a time of enormous upheaval, where beliefs are challenged, words act like poison, silence is a disease, and a noise may contain a hidden curse.

Twenty-three surreal fictions-stories, character assassinations, and mini-travelogues-from one of the most heralded writers of the American South There are many things that repulse "Dr. Ordinary." "Kansas" is notable for its distinct lack of farmland. "Wayne's Fate" is most unfortunate, not merely for Wayne but for the roofer pal who stands by watching his good buddy lose his head. "Miss Resignation" simply cannot win at Bingo. And there is nothing "Typical" about the unemployed steelworker and self-described "piece of crud" who strides through this collection's title story. Welcome to the world of Padgett Powell, one of the most original American literary voices in recent memory. Typical is both a bravura demonstration of Powell's passion for words, and an offbeat, perceptive view of contemporary life-an enthralling work by a one-of-a-kind wordsmith, and a redefinition of what short fiction can be. "A sparkling collection." — Time "Powell takes short stories to places where I've rarely seen them go." — Chicago Tribune "Powerful. . Powell has an almost unequaled ability to bring Southern colloquial speech to the page." — The New York Times "Lyrically intense and full of the surreal juxtapositions you find in the flotsam of floodwaters: stories at once edgy and exuberant." — Kirkus Reviews Padgett Powell is the author of six novels, includingThe Interrogative Mood and You & Me. His novel Edisto was a finalist for the National Book Award. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Little Star, and the Paris Review, and he is the recipient of the Rome Fellowship in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the Whiting Writers' Award. He lives in Gainesville, Florida, where he teaches writing at MFA@FLA, the writing program of the University of Florida.

Тервиллиджер — режиссер нового фильма о динозаврах — пытается создать подходящий образ Tyrannosaurus Rex, который угодил бы продюсеру. В итоге в чертах динозавра появляется все больше от лица продюсера. Что из этого вышло — читайте.

Castellanos Moya’s most thrilling book to date, about the senselessness of tyranny.The tyrant of Horacio Castellanos Moya’s ambitious new novel is the actual pro-Nazi mystic Maximiliano Hernández Martínez — known as the Warlock — who came to power in El Salvador in 1932. An attempted coup in April, 1944, failed, but a general strike in May finally forced him out of office. Tyrant Memory takes place during the month between the coup and the strike. Its protagonist, Haydée Aragon, is a well-off woman, whose husband is a political prisoner and whose son, Clemente, after prematurely announcing the dictator’s death over national radio during the failed coup, is forced to flee when the very much alive Warlock starts to ruthlessly hunt down his enemies. The novel moves between Haydée’s political awakening in diary entries and Clemente’s frantic and often hysterically comic efforts to escape capture. Tyrant Memory — sharp, grotesque, moving, and often hilariously funny — is an unforgettable incarnation of a country’s history in the destiny of one family.

Powieść "Tysiąc spokojnych miast" została wydana w 1997 roku w Londynie. Pilch poprzez tą książkę stara się powrócić do wspomnień z dzieciństwa, które upłynęło mu na ziemi cieszyńskiej. Na kartach "Tysiąca spokojnych miast" kreśli obrazy domu rodzicielskiego, ojca, matki, przyjaciół.Jest to książka o dorastaniu chłopca- protestanta, jego stosunkach z tamtejszą wspólnotą ewangelicką, etc. Ale motywem naczelnym jest planowanie zabójstwa Władysława Gomułki przez ojca bohatera i pana Józefa Trąbę.Pilch jest uważany przez krytyków za " Mistrza Pierwszego Akapitu" i "Tysiąc spokojnych miast" to potwierdza: "Gdy ojciec i pan Trąba postanowili zabić I sekretarza Władysława Gomułkę, panowały niepodzielnie upały, ziemia trzeszczała w szwach, rozpoczynała się udręka mojej młodości". Odbiorca czytając taki wstęp od razu wie, iż skończy się tylko na zapowiedziach. Jednak powieść nie oscyluje tylko wokół próby zabójstwa Gomułki, jest także opowieścią o pierwszej, niewinnej miłości głównego bohatera. Obiektem uczuć chłopca staje się dojrzała i piękna kobieta, która niestety ma męża. Bohater stara się z nią spotkać, wysyła jej wiadomości i w końcu dochodzi do konfrontacji. Teresa(bo tak ma na imię owa kobieta, choć bohater nazywał ją "Anielicą swojej pierwszej miłości") opowiedziała mu o problemach w dorosłym życiu, rodzicach, i pokazała album rodzinny. To spotkanie miało na celu nauczenie bohatera kilku rzeczy o życiu, śmierci i osiąganiu szczęścia. Chłopiec nauczył się od niej, że należy często myśleć o tych, którzy odeszli.Rodzice Jerzyka trzymają go twardą ręką i starają się wpoić mu pewne oczywiste zasady. Ojciec nazywany jest Naczelnikiem, zaś matka jest we wszystkim mu podporządkowana. Naczelnik miał wziąć udział w zabójstwie sekretarza Gomułki, co bardzo imponowało jego synowi. W ogóle dzięki ojcu chłopiec poznaje prawdziwy świat, pod jego okiem także przechodzi alkoholową inicjację.Naczelnik osobowość miał dosyć kontemplacyjną, do życia podchodził w sposób spokojny i opanowany. oraz z. Jednak swoje usposobienie ojciec chłopca ukrywał pod maską wyczerpania walką i prowadzeniem znerwicowanego życia. Ojciec Jerzyka miał bardzo interesujące poglądy na życie i starał się za pomocą inteligentnych tez wpoić je synowi, by wychować go na odpowiedzialnego obywatela demokratycznej Polski, która dopiero ma nadejść.Kolejny bohater, Pan Trąba, to człowiek, który ma duże problemy z alkoholem, ale i zbyt bujną wyobraźnię. Jego główną myślą było to, iż trzeba zostawić jakiś ślad po sobie, dla przyszłych pokoleń. Pan Trąba uważał, że umrze za niedługo, wobec tego postanowił ułożyć poemat na cześć właśnie swojej śmierci. Niestety, ani Jerzyk, ani jego ojciec nie poznali się na talencie pana Trąby(żaden z nich nie miał pojęcia, o jakie jaskółki mu chodzi).Wówczas oboje z ojcem wpadli na pomysł zabicia I sekretarza PZPR, gdyż dzięki temu na pewno Pan Trąba przeszedłby do potomności."Tysiąc spokojnych miast" to powieść, w której Jerzy Pilch umiejętnie przedstawił wady i niektóre zalety systemu komunistycznego. Pilch, którego styl pisarski krytycy przyrównują do Milana Kundery czy Bohumila Hrabala, buduje rzeczywistość fabularną bardzo realistycznie. Jednak głównym walorem tekstu jest autoironia, którą daje się wyczuć prawie w każdej linijce.Wejście w świat przeciętnego młodego człowieka, który dorastał w czasach komunistycznych(jest rok 1963) jest bardzo intrygującą i zajmującą przygodą. Autor nie mówi czytelnikowi, co jest złe, a co dobre, czytający musi sam do tego dojść. Te groteskowe i przerysowane niby-wspomnienia są opowieścią o ciągłych kłopotach, jakie mieli i maja ludzie, niezależnie od tego, w jakich czasach przyszło im żyć. Powieść porusza być może przeciętne problemy zwykłych ludzi, nie zawsze dostrzegane. Jeżeliby w skrócie opisać, o czym jest "Tysiąc spokojnych miast", to jest to książka o niezrozumiałym dla ewangelika świecie, o piciu, bo piją tam prawie wszyscy, o absurdach rzeczywistości komunistycznej.Myślę, że do lektury książki Pilcha zachęcać specjalnie nie trzeba, jeżeli komuś podoba się styl, jakim pisze, z pewnością nie będzie zawiedziony, choć w pewnych momentach powieść może nieco nużyć."Nieuprzedzonemu czytelnikowi grozi w zetknięciu z tekstem Pilcha zaczytanie się, czyli przejściowa utrata kontroli nad otoczeniem. Jest to dziwne zjawisko, nie mamy tu, bowiem krwistej fabuły, przygód godnych kina akcji, nie trzyma, więc nas w napięciu wieczne pytanie podsycające ciekawość: no i co będzie dalej? Wręcz przeciwnie. Historia opowiedziana w książce, jest urojeniem i wiadomo od samego początku, że skończyć się może tylko niczym, czyli rozejściem się po kościach".Anna Nasiłowska, Powieść retoryczna, "Tygodnik Powszechny"