Laimonis PursTālajos pilskalnosStāsti par vēsturiVēsturisks romāns Trešā grāmataLatviešu padomju rakstnieka romāns risina vēstījumu, kas aizsākts vēsturiskajos romānos «Degošais pilskalns» un «Krusts virs pilskalna». 13. gadsimta septiņdesmito un astoņdesmito gadu mijā zemgaļiem izdodas uz laiku padzīt vācu krustnešus no Tērvetes. Namejs, zemgaļu virsaitis, cenšas tuvoties žemaišiem un augstaišiem, dodas sirojumā uz senprūšu zemēm, lai tur cīnītos pret vāciešiem©«Liesma», 1981Mākslinieks Ādolfs LielaisNoskanējis grāmatu un FB2 failu izveidojis Imants Ločmelis

PlutarhsTālo gadsimtu slavaVēsturisks romānsStāsti par vēsturiRomas republikas noriets Plutarha biogrāfijāsNo grieķu valodas tulkojis Gustavs Lukstiņš Vāku zīmējis A. Stankevičs Noskanējis grāmatu un FB2 failu izveidojis Imants LočmelisLiesma», 1975

Nikolajs VnukovsTas, kurš sevi sauca par O'HenriSērija «Ievērojamu cilvēku dzīve». Nav ko noskumt, ja neesat lasījuši amerikāņu rakstnieka O. Henri stāstu «Sarkanādaino virsaitis» — jautru stāstu par to, kā divi blēži nolaupa bagātniekam viņa sarkanmataino resgali puišeli, viņa dēlu, un kas no tā iznāk. Nav ko noskumt tāpēc, ka noteikti izlasīsiet šo stāstu, un tad jums radīsies vēlēšanās izlasīt vēl vienu un vēl, un agri vai vēlu jūs iepazīsieties ar šo apbrīnojamo rakstnieku. Un noteikti iztēlosieties viņu kā tādu bezrūpīgu, smaidīgu džentlmeni, kas visā omulībā sēž draugu pulciņā savā istabā un stāsta savus jocīgos stāstus. Bet, iedomādamies viņu tādu, jūs noteikti būsiet alojušies.O. Henri nelabprāt mēdza nosaukt savu īsto vārdu. Viņš vairījās no fotoreporiieriem un tikpat kā nedraudzējās ar saviem amata brāļiem. Par sevi viņš stāstīja skopi un negribīgi. Kad viņš nomira, biogrāiiem vajadzēja pa drusciņai vien salasīt viņa dzīves stāstu. Pa drusciņai arī es esmu savācis materiālu šai grāmatai. Savā darbā izmantoju rakstnieka redaktora un drauga Roberta Deivisa atmiņas, rakstnieka sievas Sēlijas Koī-menas atmiņas un vēl memuārus, ko sarakstījis Eldžijs Dženingss, kādreizējais vilcienu aplaupītājs, kuram liktenis bija lēmis kļūt par O. Henri vistuvāko cilvēku.Tātad —- par to, kurš slēpās aiz pseidonīma O. Henri, par viņa sūro dzīvi un tikpat sūro literāro darbību, par pagājušā gadsimta astoņdesmito gadu Ameriku un par draudzību starp diviem cilvēkiem, kas bija kļuvuši par upuri netaisnībai, — par to visu pastāstīs šī grāmata.AutorsIzdevniecība «Liesma» Rīga 1976Николай Андреевич ВнуковTOT, КТО НАЗЫВАЛ СЕБЯ О. ГЕНРИДетгиз Ленинград 1973Издательство «Лиесма» Рига 1976 На латышском языке Серия «Жизнь замечательных людей» Перевод с русского И. Калнцием Оформление Я. РейнбергаNo krievu valodas tulkojusi Ilga Kalnciema Mākslinieks Jānis Reinbergs© Tulkojums latviešu valodā, «Liesma», 1976

In the tradition of Saving Private Ryan and Bridge Over the River Kwai, bestselling author James D. Shipman delivers a powerful, action-packed novel that illustrates the long-buried secrets and unending costs of war—based on the true story of General Patton’s clandestine unauthorized raid on a World War II POW camp.March, 1945. Allied forces are battle-worn but wearily optimistic. Russia’s Red Army is advancing hard on Germany from the east, bolstering Allied troops moving in from the west and north. Soon, surely, Axis forces must accept defeat. Yet for Captain Jim Curtis, each day is a reminder of how unpredictable and uncertain warfare can be.Captured during the Battle of the Bulge after the Germans launched a devastating surprise attack, Curtis is imprisoned at a POW camp in Hammelburg, Bavaria. Conditions are grim. Inmates and guards alike are freezing and starving, with rations dwindling day by day. But whispers say General Patton’s troops are on the way, and the camp may soon be liberated.Indeed, fifty miles away, a task force of three hundred men is preparing to cross into Germany. With camps up and down the line, what makes Hammelburg so special they don’t know, but orders are orders. Yet their hopes of evading the enemy quickly evaporate. Wracked by poor judgment, insufficient arms, and bad luck, the raid unravels with shattering losses. The liberation inmates hoped for becomes a struggle for survival marked by a stark choice: stay, or risk escaping into danger-while leaving some behind.For Curtis, the decision is an even more personal test of loyalty, friendship, and the values for which one will die or kill. It will be another twenty years before the unsanctioned mission’s secret motivation becomes public knowledge, creating a controversy that will forever color Patton’s legacy and linger on in the lives of those who made it home at last-and the loved ones of those who did not.

SkomantsTeitoņu gūsteknisgarstāstsSērijas pirmā grāmata  stāsta, kā slavenā žemaišu virsaiša Žibarta dēls, desmitgadīgais Uvis, nokļūst zobenbrāļu gūstā, kā viņam klājas Rīgā, sveču meistara mājā, kā viņš pēc tam tiek pārdots ceļojošam cirkam… Visas sērijas grāmatas vieno galvenais personāžs' žemaišu virsaitis ŽIbarts, viņa  sieva Medeina un viņu pieci bērni — - Daubars, Junda, Uvis, Eiņus un Gaile. Stāstu darbība aptver ne tikai seno .Lietuvu, bet .arī latviešu, krievu un citas zemes un valstis, ar kurām XII' gadsimtā lietuvju un'žemaišu ciltis draudzējās, karoja vai tirgojās.Pirms dažiem gadiem lietuviešu rakstniekam profesoram Kazim Almēnam tālajā Amerikā radās ideja izdot grāmatas tīņiem, kurās apvienotos piedzīvojumu literatūra ar dzimtās vēstures iepazīšanu.Tad nu Kazis Almēns sapulcēja grupu literātu, kuri sāka rakstīt saistošus stāstus par Lietuvu XIII gadsimtā.Jau pirmās grāmatas ieguva lietuviešu lasītāju lielu atsaucību (un ne tikai jauniešu vidū). Sērijas veidotāji piesaistīja arvien jaunus rakstītājus, un tagad šī sērija ir viena no populārākajām Lietuvā. Interesanti, ka visi rakstnieki parakstās ar vienu un to pašu pseidonīmu—ar jātvingu kunigaiša SKOMANTA vārdu.No lietuviešu valodas tulkojis Jānis RambaNoskannējis grāmatu un FB2 failu izveidojis Imants LočmelisRedaktore CILDA RKDLIHAMāksliniece Arta Ozola-Jaunarāja 1999 © Jānis Ramba, Tulkojums, 1999 © A. Ozolas-Jaunarājasmākslinieciskais iekārtojums, Nordik, 1999

Fransuā MoriaksTerēze Dekeirū. Odžu ņudzeklisRomāni«Terēzē Dekeirū» par galveno principu kļūst atziņa, ka bur­žuāziskā ģimene ir sprosts. Ģimenes-sprosta atveidojums kļūst par vēl vienu Moriaka darbu pastāvīgu, simbolisku tēlu. Šādā ģimenē-sprostā nokļūst nelaimīgā Terēze, līdzko apprecas ar buržuā. Atceroties, ka viņa izšķīrusies par briesmīgo soli — sava vīra slepkavību, Terēze savā rīcībā nesaskata neko sevišķu. Par noziedznieci viņu nav pada­rījuši ārkārtēji apstākli, viņa nav kriminālromāna varone, tieši otrādi, Terēze ir parasts cilvēks un viņas rīcība — sekas «normāla stāvokļa» saasinājumam. Taču «normāls stāvoklis», kādā sieviete atrodas bur­žuāziskās sabiedrības cietumā, t. i., ģimenē-sprostā, ir pretdabisks, un Terēze meklē glābiņu, galu galā izšķirdamās par tikpat pretdabisku izeju — par slepkavību. Terēze nav vainīga, viņa arī neapzinās savu vainu. Vainīga ir nevis viņa, bet tā bezjēdzīgā pasaule, kurā valda vienīgi alkatība.Ar drausmu, varenu spēku Moriaks šo alkatību attēlojis romānā «Odžu ņudzeklis» Ap romāna varoni savrupmājā sapulcējušies tuvi­nieki, kas nepacietīgi gaida viņa nāvi. Varonis pats par to stāsta savā garajā vēstulē sievai. Vēstījums pirmajā personā ir parasts Mo­riaka daiļrades paņēmiens, kas viņa romāniem vienmēr piešķir grēk­sūdzes veidu un pievērš uzmanību varoņa iekšējai dzīvei, viņa dvēselei un grēku nožēlai. Nav nejaušība, ka romānā «Odžu ņudzeklis» pagātne cieši saistīta ar tagadni, jo vēstules sākumā sirmgalvis atsauc atmiņā pagātni, bet nobeigumā atkal pievēršas tagadnei, — autors tādējādi sasniedzis saspringtu sižetu dramatismu. Šajā romānā nav slepka­vības, taču slepkavība te ir pilnīgi iespējama, to nav grūti iedomāties, jo attēlotās personas savā iedzīvošanās kārē ir gatavas uz visu. Odžu ņudzeklis — tā ir ģimene, kuras locekļus vieno nevis mīlestība, bet naids, tiem sveši jelkādi morāles principi, naudkārā alkatība tos pār­vērtusi par odzēm.Izdevniecība «Liesma» Riga 1977No franču valodas tulkojušas Lūcija Rambeka un Jausma ĀbramaNoskanējis grāmatu un  failu izveidojis Imants Ločmelis imantslochmelis@inbox.lvMākslinieks Eglons Lūsis Tulkojums latviešu valodā, pēcvārds, «Liesma», 1977

The beautiful hetaera Thais was a real woman who inspired poets, artists and sculptors in Athens, Memphis, Alexandria, Babylon and Ecbatana. She traveled with Alexander the Great’s army during his Persian campaign and was the only woman to enter the capitol of Persia — Persepolis. Love, beauty, philosophy, war, religion — all that and more in a historic masterpiece by Ivan Yefremov.

With his U.S.A. trilogy, comprising THE 42nd PARALLEL, 1919, and THE BIG MONEY, John Dos Passos is said by many to have written the great American novel. While Fitzgerald and Hemingway were cultivating what Edmund Wilson once called their “own little corners”, John Dos Passos was taking on the world. Counted as one of the best novels of the twentieth century by the Modern Library and by some of the finest writers working today, U.S.A. is a grand, kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation, buzzing with history and life on every page.The trilogy opens with THE 42nd PARALLEL, where we find a young country at the dawn of the twentieth century. Slowly, in stories artfully spliced together, the lives and fortunes of five characters unfold. Mac, Janey, Eleanor, Ward, and Charley are caught on the storm track of this parallel and blown New Yorkward. As their lives cross and double back again, the likes of Eugene Debs, Thomas Edison, and Andrew Carnegie make cameo appearances.“David Drummond is fully invested in the project…. His interpretation fits Dos Passos’s unique style…Drummond’s approach brings listeners into this distinctive fictional world with fervor and energy.” — AudioFile“The single greatest novel any of us have written, yes, in this country in the last one hundred years.” — Norman Mailer

A masterfully told tale of passion, jealousy, heroism and betrayal set in the gruesome trenches of World War I.It is September 1919: twenty-one-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a package of letters to the sister of Will Bancroft, the man he fought alongside during the Great War.But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan’s visit. He can no longer keep a secret and has finally found the courage to unburden himself of it. As Tristan recounts the horrific details of what to him became a senseless war, he also speaks of his friendship with Will--from their first meeting on the training grounds at Aldershot to their farewell in the trenches of northern France. The intensity of their bond brought Tristan happiness and self-discovery as well as confusion and unbearable pain.The Absolutist is a masterful tale of passion, jealousy, heroism, and betrayal set in one of the most gruesome trenches of France during World War I. This novel will keep readers on the edge of their seats until its most extraordinary and unexpected conclusion, and will stay with them long after they’ve turned the last page.

Dramatizes the life of the artistic genius Michelangelo, recalls his love affairs, his disputes with cardinals and popes, and his years of working on the Sistine Chapel

From the winner of the IMPAC Award and the Nobel Prize, a fierce novel about a young Romanian woman’s discovery of betrayal in the most intimate reaches of her life“I’ve been summoned. Thursday, ten sharp.” Thus begins one day in the life of a young clothing-factory worker during Ceaucescu’s totalitarian regime. She has been questioned before; this time, she believes, will be worse. Her crime? Sewing notes into the linings of men’s suits bound for Italy. “Marry me,” the notes say, with her name and address. Anything to get out of the country.As she rides the tram to her interrogation, her thoughts stray to her friend Lilli, shot trying to flee to Hungary, to her grandparents, deported after her first husband informed on them, to Major Albu, her interrogator, who begins each session with a wet kiss on her fingers, and to Paul, her lover, her one source of trust, despite his constant drunkenness. In her distraction, she misses her stop to find herself on an unfamiliar street. And what she discovers there makes her fear of the appointment pale by comparison.Herta Müller pitilessly renders the humiliating terrors of a crushing regime. Bone-spare and intense, The Appointment confirms her standing as one of Europe’s greatest writers.

(Chinese: 孫子兵法) is a Chinese military treatise written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time.The Art of War is one of the oldest books on military strategy in the world. Like a work of mathematics or science, much of the work is dedicated to defining its concepts in what has been described as a series of formulas. It is the first and one of the most successful works on strategy and has had a huge influence on Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics, and beyond. Sun Tzu was the first to recognize the importance of positioning in strategy and that position is affected both by objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective opinions of competitive actors in that environment. He taught that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through a to-do list, instead it requires quickly responding appropriately to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a competitive environment, competing plans collide creating situations that no one plans.The book was first translated into a European language in 1782 by French Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, and had possibly influenced Napoleon, and even the planning of Operation Desert Storm. Leaders as diverse as Mao Zedong, General Pervez Musharraf, Vo Nguyen Giap, and General Douglas MacArthur have claimed to have drawn inspiration from the work.The Art of War has also been applied, with much success, to business and managerial strategies.

In the spirit of Loving Frank and The Paris Wife, acclaimed novelist Melanie Benjamin pulls back the curtain on the marriage of one of America’s most extraordinary couples: Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.For much of her life, Anne Morrow, the shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has stood in the shadows of those around her, including her millionaire father and vibrant older sister, who often steals the spotlight. Then Anne, a college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family. There she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles’s assurance and fame, Anne is certain the celebrated aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she is wrong.Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. The two marry in a headline-making wedding. Hounded by adoring crowds and hunted by an insatiable press, Charles shields himself and his new bride from prying eyes, leaving Anne to feel her life falling back into the shadows. In the years that follow, despite her own major achievements—she becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States—Anne is viewed merely as the aviator’s wife. The fairy-tale life she once longed for will bring heartbreak and hardships, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life’s infinite possibilities for change and happiness.Drawing on the rich history of the twentieth century—from the late twenties to the mid-sixties—and featuring cameos from such notable characters as Joseph Kennedy and Amelia Earhart, The Aviator’s Wife is a vividly imagined novel of a complicated marriage—revealing both its dizzying highs and its devastating lows. With stunning power and grace, Melanie Benjamin provides new insight into what made this remarkable relationship endure.BONUS: This edition includes a The Aviator's Wife discussion guide.PRAISE FOR MELANIE BENJAMINThe Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb“By turns heartrending and thrilling, this bighearted novel recounts a fictionalized life of this most extraordinary of women in prose that is lush and details that are meticulously researched. I loved this book.”—Sara GruenAlice I Have Been“This is magic! Childhood, sensuality, love, sorrow, and wonder, all bright and complex as the shifting patterns of a kaleidoscope.”—Diana Gabaldon

Peter Naseby is enjoying a leisurely naval career when his ship runs down the Admiral in Command at Portsmouth. On his watch.

It is early 1915 and he had been looking forward to joining the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow. Now he must accept a posting to obscurity or volunteer for hazardous duty. To save his career, he joins the Blimps of the Royal Naval Air Service – he becomes a Balloonatic.

Sat in a flimsy cockpit under 70,000 cubic feet of inflammable hydrogen with a crew of one, a Lewis Gun, and a single bomb, he potters out every day to chase submarines in the English Channel. Occasionally, he catches one.

Onshore, he juggles the demands of Josephine, a young English rose, and Charlie, much more of a hothouse flower, while he decides just what his future shall be.

Near the end of 1942, more than 100,000 Allied soldiers board transports for what they believe will be a major invasion of Europe. Instead, they land in French North Africa to fight the German Army for the first time. In the midst of the invasion, an M4 Sherman tank rolls into combat. It is manned by five men: John Austin, the commander; Anthony Russo, the driver; Charles Wade, the gunner; Amos Swanson, the loader; and Eugene Clay, the bow gunner.

Cocky and confident in Allied victory, they expect the battle for North Africa to be a cakewalk. Soon, the Germans will teach them the harsh realities of armored warfare. To survive, they’ll have to show grit—and learn to work together.

A panoramic novel set in New York City during the catastrophic blizzard of February 1978On the night of February 6, 1978, an overwhelming nor’easter struck the city of New York. On that night, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in a penthouse apartment of the stately Apelles, a crowd gathered for a grand party. And on that night Mr. Albert Haynes Caldwell—a partner emeritus at Swank, Brady & Plescher; Harvard class of ’26; father of three; widower; atheist; and fiscal conservative—hatched a plan to fake a medical emergency and toss himself into the Hudson River, where he would drown. Jack Livings’s The Blizzard Party is the story of that night.

Three Women Who Share One Fate: The Boleyn Inheritance.Anne of Cleves: She runs from her tiny country, her hateful mother, and her abusive brother to a throne whose last three occupants are dead. King Henry VIII, her new husband, instantly dislikes her. Without friends, family, or even an understanding of the language being spoken around her, she must literally save her neck in a court ruled by a deadly game of politics and the terror of an unpredictable and vengeful king. Her Boleyn Inheritance: accusations and false witnesses.Katherine Howard: She catches the king's eye within moments of arriving at court, setting in motion the dreadful machine of politics, intrigue, and treason that she does not understand. She only knows that she is beautiful, that men desire her, that she is young and in love – but not with the diseased old man who made her queen, beds her night after night, and killed her cousin Anne. Her Boleyn Inheritance: the threat of the axe.Jane Rochford: She is the Boleyn girl whose testimony sent her husband and sister-in-law to their deaths. She is the trusted friend of two threatened queens, the perfectly loyal spy for her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, and a canny survivor in the murderous court of a most dangerous king. Throughout Europe, her name is a byword for malice, jealousy, and twisted lust. Her Boleyn Inheritance: a fortune and a title, in exchange for her soul.The Boleyn Inheritance is a novel drawn tight as a lute string about a court ruled by the gallows and three women whose positions brought them wealth, admiration, and power as well as deceit, betrayal, and terror. Once again, Philippa Gregory has brought a vanished world to life – the whisper of a silk skirt on a stone stair, the yellow glow of candlelight illuminating a hastily written note, the murmurs of the crowd gathering on Tower Green below the newly built scaffold.

This sweeping historical novel tells the dramatic tale of that most intriguing of Renaissance women, Lucrezia Borgia. In 1502, the Borgia Terror is at its height. Pope Alexander VI and his infamous son, Cesare, have murdered their way to power: no one is safe. The poor are starving to death, the rich are terrified for their lives. Rome is under seige and the River Tiber is full of new bodies every day. Born into the most powerful and corrupt family at the heart of the snake-pit that is Renaissance Italy, Lucrezia Borgia is destined to be remembered by history as an evil, scheming seductress and poisoner. If a woman in Lucrezia's unenviable position is to survive, she must use the weapons at her disposal: sex, poison and intelligence. Having been raped by her father, the Pope, on her wedding night at the age of thirteen, Lucrezia is then faced with the murder of her first husband by her lecherous brother Cesare, who lusts after her himself. When a second marriage is proposed she fears she will be separated from her child, Giovanni, the result of her father's incestuous attentions. She is surprised and delighted to find herself falling in love with her second husband. But will she have the will and the courage to protect him when he becomes a threat to Alexander and Cesare's schemes?

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Red Tent and Day After Night, comes an unforgettable coming-of-age novel about family ties and values, friendship and feminism told through the eyes of a young Jewish woman growing up in Boston in the early twentieth century.

Addie Baum is The Boston Girl, born in 1900 to immigrant parents who were unprepared for and suspicious of America and its effect on their three daughters. Growing up in the North End, then a teeming multicultural neighborhood, Addie's intelligence and curiosity take her to a world her parents can't imagine - a world of short skirts, movies, celebrity culture and new opportunities for women. Addie wants to finish high school and dreams of going to college. She wants a career and to find true love.

Eighty-five-year-old Addie tells the story of her life to her twenty-two-year-old granddaughter, who has asked her "How did you get to be the woman you are today?" She begins in 1915, the year she found her voice and made friends who would help shape the course of her life. From the one-room tenement apartment she shared with her parents and two sisters, to the library group for girls she joins at a neighborhood settlement house, to her first, disastrous love affair, Addie recalls her adventures with compassion for the naïve girl she was and a wicked sense of humor.

Written with the same attention to historical detail and emotional resonance that made Anita Diamant's previous novels bestsellers, The Boston Girl is a moving portrait of one woman’s complicated life in twentieth-century America, and a fascinating look at a generation of women finding their places in a changing world.

Did the dead exist? Were they watching? Were they ghosts? Not the kind he’d imagined as a child, draped with white sheets, with the ability to walk through walls, but the kind that lodged themselves in your heart, in your memories, the kind that came to you in dreams, that you could see when you closed your eyes and sometimes even when your eyes were opened.

In 1970s Melbourne, 22-year-old Italian migrant Antonello is newly married and working as a rigger on the West Gate Bridge, a gleaming monument to a modern city. When the bridge collapses one October morning, killing 35 of his workmates, his world crashes down on him.

In 2009, Jo and her best friend, Ashleigh, are on the verge of finishing high school and flush with the possibilities for their future. But one terrible mistake sets Jo’s life on a radically different course.

Drawing on true events of Australia’s worst industrial accident — a tragedy that still scars the city — The Bridge is a profoundly moving novel that examines class, guilt, and moral culpability. Yet it shows that even the most harrowing of situations can give way to forgiveness and redemption. Ultimately, it is a testament to survival and the resilience of the human spirit.