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Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction
From the acclaimed author of The Last Checkmate comes a brilliant novel spanning from the Russian Revolution to the Nazi occupation of the Soviet Union and following two unforgettable women…their fates intertwined by ties of family and interrupted by the tragedy of war. Perfect for readers of Kate Quinn, Pam Jenoff, and Elena Gorokhova. Russia 1917: Beautiful, educated Svetlana Petrova defied her stifling aristocratic family to join a revolution promising freedom. Now, released after years of imprisonment, she discovers her socialist party vying for power against the dictatorial Bolsheviks and her beloved uncle, a champion of her cause, was murdered by a mysterious assassin named Orlova. Her signature? Blinding her victims before she kills them. Svetlana resolves to avenge his death by destroying this vicious opponent, even as she longs to reunite with the daughter she has not seen in years. USSR 1941: Now living in obscurity in a remote village, Svetlana opens her home to Mila Rozovskaya, the eighteen-year-old granddaughter from Leningrad she has never met. She hopes to protect Mila from the oncoming Nazi invasion, but when the enemy occupies the village, Svetlana sees the young woman fall under the spell of the resistance—echoing her once-passionate idealism. As Mila takes up her fight, dangerous secrets and old enemies soon threaten all Svetlana holds dear. To protect her family, she must confront her long-buried past—yet if the truth emerges victorious, it holds the power to save or shatter them. A risk Svetlana has no choice but to take.
An addictive workplace romance from the bestselling author of Love in the Time of Serial Killers. Lauren Fox is the bookkeeper for Cold World, a tourist destination that's always a winter wonderland despite being located in humid Orlando, Florida. Sure, it's ranked way below any of the trademarked amusement parks and maybe foot traffic could be better. But it's a fun place to work, even if 'fun' isn't exactly Lauren's middle name. Her coworker Asa Williamson, on the other hand, is all about finding ways to enliven his days at Cold World - whether that means organizing the Secret Santa or teasing Lauren. When the owner asks Lauren and Asa to propose something (anything, really) to raise more revenue, their rivalry heats up as they compete to come up with the best idea. But the situation is more dire than they thought, and it might take these polar opposites working together to save the day...
his is Salman Rushdie at his best. A magical realist feminist tale in an historical setting that will stay with you long after you turn the final page. The epic tale of a woman who breathes a fantastical empire into existence, only to be consumed by it over the centuries - from the transcendent imagination of Booker Prize-winning, internationally bestselling author Salman Rushdie. In the wake of an insignificant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for the goddess Parvati, who begins to speak out of the girl's mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana's comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga - literally 'victory city' - the wonder of the world. Over the next two hundred and fifty years, Pampa Kampana's life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga's, from its literal sowing out of a bag of magic seeds to its tragic ruination in the most human of ways: the hubris of those in power. Whispering Bisnaga and its citizens into existence, Pampa Kampana attempts to make good on the task that Parvati set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception. As years pass, rulers come and go, battles are won and lost, and allegiances shift, the very fabric of Bisnaga becomes an ever more complex tapestry - with Pampa Kampana at its center. Brilliantly styled as a translation of an ancient epic, this is a saga of love, adventure, and myth that is in itself a testament to the power of storytelling.
A moving and joyous novel about an elderly woman ready to embrace death and the little girl who reminds her what it means to live. Eudora Honeysett is done with this noisy, moronic world—all of it. She has witnessed the indignities and suffering of old age and has lived a full life. At eighty-five, she isn’t going to leave things to chance. Her end will be on her terms. With one call to a clinic in Switzerland, a plan is set in motion. Then she meets ten-year-old Rose Trewidney, a whirling, pint-sized rainbow of sparkling cheer. All Eudora wants is to be left alone to set her affairs in order. Instead, she finds herself embarking on a series of adventures with the irrepressible Rose and their affable neighbor, the recently widowed Stanley—afternoon tea, shopping sprees, trips to the beach, birthday celebrations, pizza parties. While the trio of unlikely BFFs grow closer and anxiously await the arrival of Rose’s new baby sister, Eudora is reminded of her own childhood—of losing her father during World War II and the devastating impact it had on her entire family. In reflecting on her past, Eudora realizes she must come to terms with what lies ahead. But now that her joy for life has been rekindled, how can she possibly say goodbye?
A box set of Toni Morrison's principal works, featuring The Bluest Eye (her first novel), Beloved (Pulitzer Prize winner), and Song of Solomon (National Book Critics Award winner). Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, Beloved transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. This spellbinding novel tells the story of Sethe, a former slave who escapes to Ohio, but eighteen years later is still not free. In The New York Times bestselling novel, The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty and yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes, that she believes will allow her to finally fit in. Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. With Song of Solomon, Morrison transfigures the coming-of-age story as she follows Milkman Dead from his rustbelt city to the place of his family's origins, introducing an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized black world. This beautifully designed slipcase will make the perfect holiday and perennial gift.
Die tienjarige Elsie, oftewel Gogga, is 'n regte rabedoe wat eerder saam met die seuns op die plaas rondhardloop as om pop te speel soos haar perfekte sussie, Riette. Dit is die veertigerjare en daar is 'n Wereldoorlog wat woed, maar Elsie se grootste bekommernis is die droogte wat die gebied teister. Saam met haar gesin moet sy veg om hulle geliefde plaas, Stofvlei, te red. ’n Innemende, universele verhaal oor familie, kontrei en die natuur.
Esther Wolmarans, die liefde van Andreas se lewe, is ’n deernisvolle,
diensvaardige, sagmoedige meisie wat deur omstandighede gedwing word om
die rol van versorger en huishoudster te speel. Volgens ou standaarde
is sy ’n oujongnooi in wording.
Scandinavian noir meets legal thriller in this brilliant, gut-wrenching story of childhood friends torn apart by gang violence and class differences in Stockholm—from the internationally bestselling author of Quicksand. Unlikely best friends since the age of 6, Billy and Dogge live in suburbs separated only by a highway, yet a world apart. From the outside, Dogge looks privileged: his family has a large home and plenty of money—at first. But his parents are addicts whose negligence becomes a form of abuse. Meanwhile, Billy’s family are poor first-generation immigrants unable to escape the no-go zone where they live, but their cramped apartment is nonetheless a bastion of love. A ruthless small-time crime boss seeks recruits, and both Dogge and Billy become runners by the time they’re 12. Fast cash, easy access to drugs, and dreams of gaining status draw them in. But when Billy wants to leave the gang and finds himself trapped, the boys must face the violent rules of the adult game they tried to play. When children commit horrible crimes, who bears the responsibility? With piercing prose and a breathless sense of urgency, Deliver Me is at once a poignant portrayal of the power of friendship and a shattering depiction of what happens when society fails to protect those that need it most. What does justice mean for these lost children, and is the law capable of delivering it?
Adrien, Etienne and Nina are 10 years old when they meet at school and become inseparable. Years later, a car is pulled up from the bottom of a lake, with a body inside. Virginie, a local journalist with an enigmatic past, follows the case. Step by step she reveals the extraordinary bonds that unite the three childhood friends. How is the car wreck connected to their story? Why did their friendship fall apart? Three is a compelling story of love and loss, hope and grief, and of the distance that comes with the passing of time. A masterly crafted story full of suspense and unexpected plot twists.
Eva Esch and her sisters are in a predicament. With the passing of their widowed mother, Eva's older brother Menno plans to move his growing family into the Eden Valley farmhouse where they all grew up, leaving little room for his three single sisters. Surely, Menno reasons, at least one of them will marry this coming wedding season. Eva does hope to marry, but she isn't sure she wants to give up her sweet shop for the life of a farmer's wife, and she has no other prospects. When younger sister, Lily, disappears in the night, leaving only a brief note, Eva fears she has been wooed away from the People by an outsider. And when Jed Stutzman, a young Amish buggy maker from Ohio, shows up in Lancaster with a photo of a Plain young woman, Eva's world begins to tilt. She feels powerfully drawn to the quietly charming stranger--but the woman in the forbidden photograph is no stranger at all. . . .
A powerful, intimate novel that masterfully explores what constitutes a meaningful life in a violent world—from the award-winning author of Open City. A weekend spent antiquing is shadowed by the colonial atrocities that occurred on that land. A walk at dusk is interrupted by casual racism. A loving marriage is riven by mysterious tensions. And a remarkable cascade of voices speaks out from a pulsing metropolis. We’re invited to experience these events and others through the eyes and ears of Tunde, a West African man working as a teacher of photography on a renowned New England campus. He is a reader, a listener, a traveler, drawn to many different kinds of stories: stories from history and epic; stories of friends, family, and strangers; stories found in books and films. Together these stories make up his days. In aggregate these days comprise a life. Tremor is a startling work of realism and invention that engages brilliantly with literature, music, race, and history as it examines the passage of time and how we mark it. It is a reckoning with human survival amidst “history’s own brutality, which refuses symmetries and seldom consoles,” but it is also a testament to the possibility of joy. As he did in his magnificent debut Open City, Teju Cole once again offers narration with all its senses alert, a surprising and deeply essential work from a beacon of contemporary literature.
Wrong time. Wrong place. Wrong man. Alex lives a comfortable life with his wife Beth in the leafy suburb of Silver Vale. Fine, so he’s not the most sociable guy on the street, he prefers to keep himself to himself, but he’s a good husband and an easy-going neighbour. That’s until Beth announces the creation of a nature trail on a local site that’s been disused for decades and suddenly Alex is a changed man. Now he’s always watching. Questioning. Struggling to hide his dread... As the landscapers get to work, a secret threatens to surface from years ago, back in Alex’s twenties when he got entangled with a seductive young woman called Marina, who threw both their lives into turmoil. And who sparked a police hunt for a murder suspect that was never quite what it seemed. It still isn’t. No one else could have done it. Could they?
Two sisters. One secret. A journey to learn who they really are… As the waves crash on to a wild Atlantic beach, Lou is at a crossroads. For the first time ever, just giving up seems like an option. In just one night, at her own 50th birthday, her world has imploded. Her mother has kept a secret hidden all her life. And it changes everything. Before Lou can take another step, she needs to get to the bottom of the shocking truth that alters who she really is. Along with her sister, Toni, who is facing her own crisis, the two women set out on a life-changing journey – one that will take them through Ireland’s wildest coastline and to Sicily’s sun-baked rocky shores. It will also take Lou deep into her relationships with her mother, her sister and her daughter to figure out how to stop pleasing everyone else – and carve out who she really wants to be.
From the author of The Stationery Shop of Tehran, a heartfelt, epic new
novel of friendship, betrayal and redemption set against three
transformative decades in Tehran, Iran.
Wat is ’n menselewe werd as jy minder as niks op jou naam het nie? Toe die regering besluit om ’n yslike dam in die diep, dorre Noord-Kaap te bou, is die skrif teen die muur vir die vergete dorpie van Bitterwater. Inwoners het ’n jaar tyd om hul dorp te ontruim en voor die groot water uit te vlug. Konstabel Cheslin Fielies is die een wat moet seker maak die hele storie gebeur betyds. Pas van die Cape Flats oorgeplaas, word hy gou in die dorpstories ingetrek: Hoekom verafsku die gemeenskap die drankwinkeleienaar Braam Pens so? Wat het Jan Boklam een nag in die dorpsdam sien gebeur? En spook dit regtig by die vervalle ou pastorie waar die Van Helsdingens probeer oorleef? Terwyl hy van sy eie spoke vlug en die Bitterwaters van die sondvloed probeer red, is dit sy onverwagse vriendskap met die dominee se vrou, Miriam, wat die krake in Cheslin se damwal blootlê. Want water is vergifnis, glo sy. Water is vergeet. Maar sommige geheime sal nie deur die vloed weggespoel word nie. Minder as water is ’n meesleurende tragikomedie wat jou gaan roer, jou gaan laat lag en uiteindelik die vraag vra: Wat gebeur met die mens wanneer hy voor syeinde te staan kom?
Now a major film starring Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Lisa Kudrow and Justin Theroux. Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar. Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train...
Liefdesles is die derde en laaste boek in Vita se trilogie. Klaskamer en Skoolgeld was die eerste twee. Daniël en Emma se verhouding is steeds ingewikkeld: Daniël probeer sy vervreemde vrou, Sally, oorreed om die egskeiding toe te staan en Emma sukkel om vir Daniël te vertel dat sy swanger is. Sal Daniël haar steeds na sy klaskamer neem? Is BDSM veilig tydens swangerskap? Sal Daniël kan vrede maak met die verlede en sy verhouding as jong seun met die onderwyseres, die verhouding wat sy seksvoorkeure bepaal het, sien vir wat dit was? Vir Daniël en Emma kom die liefde uiteindelik met baie lesse.
One of the most influential novels of the twentieth century. Originally published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature. Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person—no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots.
Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former BBC radio producer, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they’ve never quite lost touch with each other – or with their former teacher, Libor Sevcik, a Czech always more concerned with the wider world than with exam results. Now, both Libor and Finkler are recently widowed, and with Treslove, his chequered and unsuccessful record with women rendering him an honorary third widower, they dine at Libor’s grand, central London apartment. It’s a sweetly painful evening of reminiscence in which all three remove themselves to a time before they had loved and lost; a time before they had fathered children, before the devastation of separations, before they had prized anything greatly enough to fear the loss of it. Better, perhaps, to go through life without knowing happiness at all because that way you have less to mourn? Treslove finds he has tears enough for the unbearable sadness of both his friends’ losses. And it’s that very evening, at exactly 11:30 pm, as Treslove, walking home, hesitates a moment outside the window of the oldest violin dealer in the country, that he is attacked. And after this, his whole sense of who and what he is, will slowly and ineluctably change. The Finkler Question has been awarded the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2010.
When Vivian Howe, author of thirteen novels and mother of three grown-up children, is killed in a hit-and-run incident while jogging near her home, she ascends to the Beyond. Because her death was unfair, she is allowed to watch what happens below with her children, her best friend, her ex-husband, and a rival novelist whose book is coming out the same day as Vivi's. Vivi is also given the use of three 'nudges' so that she can influence the outcome of events in the world of the living. As Vivi discovers her children's secrets, watches the investigation into her own death and worries about a secret from her youth coming to light, she must decide what she wants to manipulate - and what should be left well alone. Combining Elin Hilderbrand's trademark beach scenes, mouth-watering meals and picture-perfect homes with the heartfelt message that the people we lose never really leave us, Golden Girl is a beach book unlike any other from 'Queen of the Summer Novel' (People).
You never forget your first love. 18 years ago, Olivia learned to live without Sean Kenyon. She moved on, building a life with her husband Richmond and their two children in the picturesque town Kesterley-on-Sea. But when Sean unexpectedly appears on Olivia’s doorstep, her world is turned upside down once more. As old feelings resurface, and new truths come to light, Olivia finds herself questioning everything.
A moving tale of second chances and creating a life worth living from the Number One bestselling author, Danielle Steel. Charlie Vincent feels trapped in his treadmill of a life. He's wealthy and successful doing a job he doesn't want to do, in a marriage to a woman where the romance died many years ago. All that interests Isabelle is his money to fund her extravagant lifestyle. The children have left home and there is nothing for him to look forward to. One Friday evening he leaves work in Paris after yet another row with his CEO, to head to their Normandy chateau where Isabelle has invited guests for the weekend. He's been working late every night, he's tired and he's not concentrating. Just an hour away from the chateau, his car veers off the road, down a cliff and into the sea. The accident should've killed him and he almost felt ready to die. However, he does escape the vehicle and he somehow finds the strength to climb to safety. The area is remote but in the growing darkness he sees a light on in a cottage in the woods. He knocks on the door and is greeted by Aude, an artist who is escaping her own demons. This fateful meeting will change Charlie's and Aude's lives forever.
Begin your journey into Middle-earth. Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power – the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring – the ring that rules them all – which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as the Ring is entrusted to his care. He must leave his home and make a perilous journey across the realms of Middle-earth to the Crack of Doom, deep inside the territories of the Dark Lord. There he must destroy the Ring forever and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.
A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey. Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic and domestic life of a 45-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectations while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.
Rafi and Todd are two polar opposites at an elite high school where
they bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game. It sets them up
for life: Rafi will get lost in literature, while Todd’s work will lead
to a startling AI breakthrough. |
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