They wrote it off as a scare story. The Millennium Bug was the non-event of the 20th century. But they were wrong, because the bug was real. It's a computer virus and it's about to do a deadly species cross-over, from machine to mankind.

Sarah is a wedding planner who doesn't believe in love. Or, not for herself anyway. And now with all her working hours spent planning the wedding of the year, she certainly doesn't have time to even think about love… Or does she?

Jego książki, a zwłaszcza debiutancka powieść WEISER DAWIDEK, zostały przetłumaczone na wiele języków. Akcja tej powieści, określanej przez krytykę jako "książka dziesięciolecia", "arcydzieło", "zwycięstwo literatury", rozgrywa się w Gdańsku w roku 1957 i przynosi historię tajemniczego zniknięcia żydowskiego trzynastoletniego chłopca pod koniec niezapomnianych letnich wakacji oraz prowadzonego wiele lat potem prywatnego śledztwa w tej sprawie przez jednego z jego kolegów, zarazem narratora opowieści – bowiem dziwne zdarzenia jakie wówczas miały miejsce, napiętnowały go na resztę życia. Dawidek, będący przywódcą grupki rówieśników, stanowi uosobienie tajemnicy: jest kimś w rodzaju mesjasza, cudotwórcy i maga, wysłannika nieznanych mocy. Ta oparta na schemacie powieści detektywistycznej, na poły sensacyjna, na poły paraboliczna, pełna metaforycznych tropów historia, daje się czytać w rozmaitych porządkach: jako opowieść o dojrzewaniu, powieść obyczajowa, polityczna, przygodowa, wreszcie jako filozoficzny traktat.

Black humor mixed with pathos is the hallmark of the twelve stories in this adult debut collection from a master writer of comic and inventive YA novels.A young man spends a whole day lying naked on the floor of his apartment, conversing casually with his roommates, pondering the past, considering the lives being lived around him. In the odd and funny, sad yet somehow hopeful conceit of Sean Beaudoin’s story “Exposure,” are all the elements that make his debut collection, Welcome Thieves, a standout. In twelve virtuosic stories, Beaudoin trains his absurdist’s eye on the ridiculous perplexities of adult life. From muddling through after the apocalypse (“Base Omega Has Twelve Dictates”) to the knowing smirk of “You Too Can Graduate with a Degree in Contextual Semiotics,” Beaudoin’s stories are edgy and profane, bittersweet and angry, bemused and sardonic. Yet they’re always tinged with heart.Beaudoin’s novels have been praised for their playfulness and complexity, for the originality and beauty of their language. Those same qualities, and much more, are on full display in Welcome Thieves, a book that should find devout fans in readers who worship at the altar of George Saunders, Kurt Vonnegut, and Sam Lipsyte.“A deviously spellbinding collection of short stories in which strange and beautiful worlds, creations of Sean Beaudoin’s dark and sometimes brutal imagination, emerge as part of a tapestry so finely woven that we don’t see the thread. In the end, we can only stand in awe of Beaudoin’s immense talent.” —Garth Stein, author of A Sudden Light

Происходит невероятное. В начале третьего тысячелетия восстал ото сна и вернулся в мир вечный ужас и вечное проклятие таинственной Трансильвании — Дракула. И гибнет на развалинах древнего замка целая экспедиция, в крохотном карпатском городке находят обескровленный труп мальчика, в далекой Германии внезапно умирает потомок древнего рода Дракулэшти, в Москве обрывается жизнь молодого ученого, изучавшего редкие заболевания крови. Страшным, таинственным смертям, кажется, не будет конца.Многие готовы поверить в невозможное.Но не все.Лорд Джулиан, обаятельный авантюрист и баловень судьбы, вернувший однажды на атлантические просторы возрожденный «Титаник», волею случая оказывается в эпицентре событий.Ему на помощь приходят друзья.Раскрыть тайну Дракулы — ничего другого им просто не остается.

From the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of Hold It 'Til It Hurts comes a dark and socially provocative Southern-fried comedy about four UC Berkeley students who stage a dramatic protest during a Civil War reenactment — a fierce, funny, tragic work from a bold new writerWelcome to Braggsville. The City That Love Built in the Heart of Georgia. Population 712.Born and raised in the heart of old Dixie, D'aron Davenport finds himself in unfamiliar territory his freshman year at UC Berkeley. Two thousand miles and a world away from his childhood, he is a small-town fish floundering in the depths of a large hyperliberal pond. Caught between the prosaic values of his rural hometown and the intellectualized multicultural cosmopolitanism of "Berzerkeley," the nineteen-year-old white kid is uncertain about his place, until one disastrous party brings him three idiosyncratic best friends: Louis, a "kung fu comedian" from California; Candice, an earnest do-gooder from Iowa claiming Native roots; and Charlie, an introspective inner-city black teen from Chicago. They dub themselves the "4 Little Indians."But everything changes in the group's alternative history class, when D'aron lets slip that his hometown hosts an annual Civil War reenactment, recently rebranded "Patriot Days." His announcement is met with righteous indignation and inspires Candice to suggest a "performative intervention" to protest the reenactment. Armed with youthful self-importance, makeshift slave costumes, righteous zeal, and their own misguided ideas about the South, the 4 Little Indians descend on Braggsville. Their journey through backwoods churches, backroom politics, Waffle Houses, and drunken family barbecues is uproarious at first but has devastating consequences.With the keen wit of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and the deft argot of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, T. Geronimo Johnson has written an astonishing, razor-sharp satire. Using a panoply of styles and tones, from tragicomic to Southern Gothic, he skewers issues of class, race, intellectual and political chauvinism, Obamaism, social media, and much more.A literary coming-of-age novel for a new generation, written with tremendous social insight and a unique, generous heart, Welcome to Braggsville reminds us of the promise and perils of youthful exuberance, while painting an indelible portrait of contemporary America.

Hard Times is the name of a town in the barren hills of the Dakota Territory. To this town there comes one day one of the reckless sociopaths who wander the West to kill and rape and pillage. By the time he is through and has ridden off, Hard Times is a smoking ruin. The de facto mayor, Blue, takes in two survivors of the carnage — a boy, Jimmy, and a prostitute, Molly, who has suffered unspeakably — and makes them his provisional family. Blue begins to rebuild Hard Times, welcoming new settlers, while Molly waits with vengeance in her heart for the return of the outlaw. Here is E. L. Doctorow’s debut novel, a searing allegory of frontier life that sets the stage for his subsequent classics.

The novel that inspired the manga and anime!Twenty-two-year-old Satou, a college dropout and aficionado of anime porn, knows a little secret — or at least he thinks he does! Believe it or not, he has stumbled upon an incredible conspiracy created by the Japanese Broadcasting Company, N.H.K. But despite fighting the good fight, Satou has become an unemployed hikikomori — a shut-in who has withdrawn from the world…One day, he meets Misaki, a mysterious young girl who invites him to join her special “project.” Slowly, Satou comes out of his reclusive shell, and his hilarious journey begins, filled with mistaken identity, Lolita complexes — and an ultimate quest to create the greatest hentai game ever!

In her debut, Perkins-Valdez eloquently plunges into a dark period of American history, chronicling the lives of four slave women-Lizzie, Reenie, Sweet and Mawu-who are their masters' mistresses. The women meet when their owners vacation at the same summer resort in Ohio. There, they see free blacks for the first time and hear rumors of abolition, sparking their own desires to be free. For everyone but Lizzie, that is, who believes she is really in love with her master, and he with her. An extended flashback in the middle of the novel delves into Lizzie's life and vividly explores the complicated psychological dynamic between master and slave. Jumping back to the final summer in Ohio, the women all have a decision to make-will they run? Heart-wrenching, intriguing, original and suspenseful, this novel showcases Perkins-Valdez's ability to bring the unfortunate past to life.

The author of Wonder Boys returns with a powerful and wonderfully written collection of stories. Caught at moments of change, Chabon's men and women, children and husbands and wives, all face small but momentous decisions. They are caught in events that will crystallize and define their lives forever, and with each, Michael Chabon brings his unique vision and uncanny understanding of our deepest mysteries and our greatest fears.

Weronika postanawia umrzeć. Chcąc popełnić samobójstwo zażywa tabletki, jednak zostaje uratowana i rozpoczyna się nowe życie – nowe życie Weroniki. Dowiaduje się ona, że z powodu uszkodzenia serca pozostał jej tylko tydzień życia. Podczas tego tygodnia Weronika, przebywając w szpitalu psychiatrycznym Villete, uczy się życia lepiej, niż w czasie minionych kilkudziesięciu lat. Odkrywa, że szaleństwo w życiu jest niezwykle potrzebne. Po raz pierwszy zaczyna dostrzegać i poznawać samą siebie…Ciekawe zakończenie, którego jednak nie zdradzę czytelnikom…Chwile, które Weronika spędziła w szpitalu są jakby drogą, którą powinien przejść każdy z nas, aby nauczyć się w pełni przeżywać swoje życie. W powieści nie znajdziemy oczytanych i znanych pouczeń, dotyczących idealnego sposobu na życie. Autor w sposób dość czytelny, ale nie narzucający się, skłania nas do przemyślenia pewnych spraw- tych najważniejszych, ale często wypychanych z naszej świadomości przez codzienność, rutynę.Ta książka może wiele nauczyć ludzi wiodących tak zwane „normalne życie”- czyli praktycznie każdego z nas. Warto zapamiętać, że należy być tym, kim chce się być, a nie tym, kim inni chcą nas widzieć. Pod tym względem życie chorego umysłowo, „nienormalnego”, jest właśnie… „normalne”. Człowiek „nie w pełni władz umysłowych” może robić właśnie to, na co ma ochotę, nie obchodzi go zdanie „innych”- „inni” wytłumaczą sobie jego zachowanie wariactwem.Wspaniała powieść, którą czyta się jednym tchem (sprzyja temu również wydanie Drzewa Babel). Słusznie książki P. Coelho są głośne i popularne. Dzięki nim można dostrzec wiele spraw, które do tej pory mijaliśmy obojętnie…

Thanks to Hollywood and writers like Christopher Buckley, America has given the world a brand-new literary form: the revenge comedy. In the movies, maverick cops roam the world, taking names, kicking butts, and making wisecracks. For all the gore, pictures like Die Hard are essentially Road Runner cartoons with superior special effects. Audiences do more chuckling than gasping. Now comes former George Bush speechwriter Christopher Buckley with a novelized version.Even though Wet Work isn't a movie yet, we're still talking extremely high concept: Lethal Weapon 2 meets The Emerald Forest, complete with nubile Amazonian love slaves flitting naked through the rain forest. But the real innovation in Buckley's work is sociological. Instead of an impertinent working stiff like your typical Mel Gibson-Bruce Willis-Michael Douglas character, Wet Work gives us a maverick plutocrat: a self-made billionaire defense contractor and friend of the President named Charley Becker.In addition to his finely engraved Purdy shotgun, Becker owns a custom- built yacht in the destroyer class equipped with an assault helicopter, manned by a trio of retired CIA killers named McNamara, Rostow, and Bundy, and decorated with original paintings by Manet. In the words of one of the archetypal fumbling bureaucrats who plays the inevitable foil, Charley Becker is ''the Rich Man's Bernhard Goetz.''It may bear mentioning that Buckley – whose previous novel, The White House Mess, was praised by many for its satire – is the son of the prolific conservative columnist and novelist William F. Also that the yacht, according to the acknowledgments page, is based on one owned by the late Malcolm Forbes and upon which the author once journeyed up the Amazon.As one would expect of such a concoction, Wet Work's plot moves smartly and preposterously along. First comes the obligatory death of an innocent, in this case Becker's beloved granddaughter, Natasha. Before her performance in an Off Broadway play about junkies, she succumbs to cardiac arrest after snorting cocaine furnished in the interest of realism by the director, who is also her lover. Finding the NYPD uninterested in solving the crime, Becker hires professional help and begins ''working [his] way up the food chain,'' from the cowardly director to his supplier, to the Miami importer to the dissolute Peruvian gangster – a left-winger, naturally – who set up the jungle lab that manufactured the stuff.At each step, in accordance with the iron laws of revenge comedy, the villains grow more villainous, the body count gets higher, the explosions get exponentially bigger, and Buckley's jokey, hyperbolic style becomes progressively more out of kilter. Caught in the open in a firefight, our hero feels ''as exposed as a referee at a tennis match, and surrounded by McEnroes with machine pistols.'' For all of Buckley's manic wit, it's these sorts of equations that don't quite work.Gene Lyons

Well, he was losing weight and always hungry, Michael Rigsby told his wife. But Annabelle wasn’t alarmed. She was disgustingly cheerful...

Noy Holland’s second collection of stories, What begins with bird, once again finds her pushing the boundaries of language and rhythm with her writing. Delving into family relationships, frequently with female protagonists, Holland’s writing develops a tension, both in the situations written of, and in the writing itself.

On an unseasonably warm autumn day, an American teacher enters a public bathroom beneath Sofia’s National Palace of Culture. There he meets Mitko, a charismatic young hustler, and pays him for sex. He returns to Mitko again and again over the next few months, drawn by hunger and loneliness and risk, and finds himself ensnared in a relationship in which lust leads to mutual predation, and tenderness can transform into violence. As he struggles to reconcile his longing with the anguish it creates, he’s forced to grapple with his own fraught history, the world of his southern childhood where to be queer was to be a pariah. There are unnerving similarities between his past and the foreign country he finds himself in, a country whose geography and griefs he discovers as he learns more of Mitko’s own narrative, his private history of illness, exploitation, and want.What Belongs to You is a stunning debut novel of desire and its consequences. With lyric intensity and startling eroticism, Garth Greenwell has created an indelible story about the ways in which our pasts and cultures, our scars and shames can shape who we are and determine how we love.

On an unseasonably warm autumn day, an American teacher enters a public bathroom beneath Sofia’s National Palace of Culture. There he meets Mitko, a charismatic young hustler, and pays him for sex. He returns to Mitko again and again over the next few months, drawn by hunger and loneliness and risk, and finds himself ensnared in a relationship in which lust leads to mutual predation, and tenderness can transform into violence. As he struggles to reconcile his longing with the anguish it creates, he’s forced to grapple with his own fraught history, the world of his southern childhood where to be queer was to be a pariah. There are unnerving similarities between his past and the foreign country he finds himself in, a country whose geography and griefs he discovers as he learns more of Mitko’s own narrative, his private history of illness, exploitation, and want.What Belongs to You is a stunning debut novel of desire and its consequences. With lyric intensity and startling eroticism, Garth Greenwell has created an indelible story about the ways in which our pasts and cultures, our scars and shames can shape who we are and determine how we love.

The *New York Times* bestseller. A LOVE THAT TRANSCENDS HEAVEN AND HELL. What happens to us after we die? Chris Nielsen had no idea, until an unexpected accident cut his life short, separating him from his beloved wife, Annie. Now Chris must discover the true nature of life after death. But even Heaven is not complete without Annie, and when tragedy threatens to divide them forever, Chris risks his very soul to save Annie from an eternity of despair. Richard Matheson's powerful tale of life -- and love -- after death was the basis for the Oscar-winning film starring Robin Williams.