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'A beautiful little novel about books, history, ambition and the
importance of literature.' Nick Hornby 'Truly potent ... Adimi
confronts us with episodes that are simply never spoken of in
France' The New York Times Book Review In 1936, a young dreamer
named Edmond Charlot opened a modest bookshop in Algiers. Once the
heart of Algerian cultural life, where Camus launched his first
book and the Free French printed propaganda during the war,
Charlot's beloved bookshop has been closed for decades, living on
as a government lending library. Now it is to be shuttered forever.
But as a young man named Ryad empties it of its books, he begins to
understand that a bookshop can be much more than just a shop that
sells books. A Bookshop in Algiers charts the changing fortunes of
Charlot's bookshop through the political drama of Algeria's
turbulent twentieth century of war, revolution and independence. It
is a moving celebration of books, bookshops and of those who dare
to dream.
Leni crossed her arms, said nothing, and watched the fight unfold.
She was like a bored onlooker at a boxing trial, wasting no energy
on the undercard, saving her passion for the moment when the real
champions would step into the ring. And yet, at some point, she
began to cry. Just tears, without any sound. Water falling from her
eyes as water was falling from the sky. Rain disappearing into
rain._The Wind That Lays Waste _begins in the great pause before a
storm. Reverend Pearson is an evangelist preaching the word of God
across northern Argentina with Leni, his teenage daughter, in tow.
When their car breaks down, fate leads them to the workshop of an
ageing mechanic, Gringo Brauer, and his assistant, a boy called
Tapioca. Over the course of a long day, curiosity and a sense of
new opportunities develop into an unexpected intimacy. Yet this
encounter between a man convinced of his righteousness and one
mired in cynicism and apathy will become a battle for the very
souls of the young pair: the quietly earnest and idealistic
mechanic's assistant, and the restless, sceptical preacher's
daughter. As tensions among the four ebb and flow, beliefs are
questioned and allegiances tested, until finally the growing storm
breaks over the plains.Selva Almada's exquisitely crafted debut,
with its limpid and confident prose, is profound and poetic, a
near-tangible experience of the landscape amid the hot winds,
wrecked cars, sweat-stained shirts and damaged lives, told with the
cinematic precision of a static road movie, like a _Paris, Texas
_of the south. With echoes of Carson McCullers, The Wind That Lays
Waste is a contemplative and powerfully distinctive novel that
marks the arrival in English of an author whose talent and poise
are undeniable.
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Hi De Hi!: Series 3 and 4 (DVD)
Simon Cadell, Paul Shane, Ruth Madoc, Jeffrey Holland, Leslie Dwyer, …
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R85
Discovery Miles 850
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Ships in 10 - 25 working days
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Seasons 3 and 4 of the perennially popular British sitcom set in a
holiday camp in the late 50s/early 60s. In 'Nice People with Nice
Manners', Yvonne and Barry hold a party in their chalet for the
staff they consider to be 'socially acceptable'. But when Peggy
mixes up the invitations, they get a few unexpected guests. In
'Carnival Time', Joe enlists Ted's help in organising a float for
the town carnival. 'A Matter of Conscience' sees the staff at
Maplin's attempting to thwart the local council's plans to build a
new hospital right next to the camp by making as much noise as they
can. In 'The Pay-Off', the council is still determined to go ahead
with its plans to build the hospital, so Joe resorts to bribing the
local councillors. In 'Trouble and Strife', Ted's ex-wife is
demanding that he pay up his maintenance arrears. Ted has to act
quickly - and cunningly - to raise the cash in time. 'Stripes' sees
Joe promoting Gladys to Head Yellowcoat after a secret visit to the
camp. In 'Co-Respondent's Course', Jeffrey's wife sends her new
boyfriend to ask Jeffrey for a divorce. When Jeffrey is reluctant
to give grounds, her boyfriend decides to try to unearth some
evidence himself. 'It's a Blue World' sees Ted arranging a special
late-night showing of an adult film for the male campers. In
'Eruptions', Ted retaliates after having his act rudely interrupted
by a volcano in the ballroom. In 'The Society Entertainer', Spike
is a changed man after falling head over heels for one of the
female campers - much to the detriment of his act. Meanwhile,
Jeffrey has decided that Radio Maplin would benefit from having a
new voice on the airwaves. In 'Sing You Sinners', Jeffrey finds
himself standing in for the local chaplain to conduct the Sunday
Half Hour - with unnerving results. 'Maplin Intercontinental' sees
the troupe competing for a very special prize in this year's Best
Yellowcoat Competition: a transer to the new Maplin's Holiday Camp
in the Bahamas. In 'All Change', Joe appoints a new supervisor for
the Yellowcoats, but is less than delighted when he discovers that
she insists on having a chalet all to herself at the peak of the
season when the camp is filled to capacity.
"The melancholy folklore of exile," as Roberto Bolano once put it,
pervades these fourteen haunting stories. Bolano's narrators are
usually writers grappling with private (and generally unlucky)
quests, who typically speak in the first person, as if giving a
deposition, like witnesses to a crime. These protagonists tend to
take detours and to narrate unresolved efforts. They are characters
living in the margins, often coming to pieces, and sometimes, as in
a nightmare, in constant flight from something horrid. In the short
story "Silva the Eye," Bolano writes in the opening sentence: "It's
strange how things happen, Mauricio Silva, known as The Eye, always
tried to escape violence, even at the risk of being considered a
coward, but the violence, the real violence, can't be escaped, at
least not by us, born in Latin America in the 1950s, those of us
who were around 20 years old when Salvador Allende died." Set in
the Chilean exile diaspora of Latin America and Europe, and peopled
by Bolano's beloved "failed generation," the stories of Last
Evenings on Earth have appeared in The New Yorker and Grand Street.
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You Glow in the Dark
Liliana Colanzi; Translated by Chris Andrews
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R338
R312
Discovery Miles 3 120
Save R26 (8%)
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Ships in 18 - 22 working days
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A certain writer ("past sixty, enjoying 'a certain renown'")
strolls through the old book market in a Buenos Aires park: "My
Sunday walk through the market, repeated over so many years, was
part of my general fantasizing about books." Unfortunately, he is
suffering from writer's block. However, that proves to be the least
of our hero's problems. In the market, he fails to avoid the
insufferable boor Ovando-"a complete loser" but a "man supremely
full of himself: Conceit was never less justified." And yet, is
Ovando a master magician? Can he turn sugar cubes into pure gold?
And can our protagonist decline the offer Ovando proposes granting
him absolute power if the writer never in his life reads another
book? And is his publisher also a great magician? And the writer's
wife? Only Cesar Aira could have cooked up this witch's potion (and
only he would plop in phantom Mont Blanc pens as well as fearsome
crocodiles from the banks of the Nile)-a brew bubbling over with
the question: where does literature end and magic begin?
This book brings together a variety of perspectives to explore the
role of literature in the aftermath of political conflict, studying
the ways in which writers approach violent conflict and the equally
important subject of peace. Essays put insights from Peace and
Conflict Studies into dialog with the unique ways in which
literature attempts to understand the past, and to reimagine both
the present and the future, exploring concepts like truth and
reconciliation, post-traumatic memory, historical reckoning,
therapeutic storytelling, transitional justice, archival memory,
and questions about victimhood and reparation. Drawing on a range
of literary texts and addressing a variety of post-conflict
societies, this volume charts and explores the ways in which
literature attempts to depict and make sense of this new
philosophical terrain. As such, it aims to offer a self-conscious
examination of literature, and the discipline of literary studies,
considering the ability of both to interrogate and explore the
legacies of political and civil conflict around the world. The book
focuses on the experience of post-Apartheid South Africa,
post-Troubles Northern Ireland, and post-dictatorship Latin
America. The recent history of these regions, and in particular
their acute experience of ethno-religious and civil conflict, make
them highly productive contexts in which to begin examining the
role of literature in the aftermath of social trauma. Rather than a
definitive account of the subject, the collection defines a new
field for literary studies, and opens it up to scholars working in
other regional and national contexts. To this end, the book
includes essays on post-1989 Germany, post-9/11 United States, the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Sierra Leone, and narratives of
asylum seeker/refugee communities. This volume's comparative frame
draws on well-established precedents for thinking about the
cultural politics of these regions, making it a valuable resource
for scholars of
This book brings together a variety of perspectives to explore the
role of literature in the aftermath of political conflict, studying
the ways in which writers approach violent conflict and the equally
important subject of peace. Essays put insights from Peace and
Conflict Studies into dialog with the unique ways in which
literature attempts to understand the past, and to reimagine both
the present and the future, exploring concepts like truth and
reconciliation, post-traumatic memory, historical reckoning,
therapeutic storytelling, transitional justice, archival memory,
and questions about victimhood and reparation. Drawing on a range
of literary texts and addressing a variety of post-conflict
societies, this volume charts and explores the ways in which
literature attempts to depict and make sense of this new
philosophical terrain. As such, it aims to offer a self-conscious
examination of literature, and the discipline of literary studies,
considering the ability of both to interrogate and explore the
legacies of political and civil conflict around the world. The book
focuses on the experience of post-Apartheid South Africa,
post-Troubles Northern Ireland, and post-dictatorship Latin
America. The recent history of these regions, and in particular
their acute experience of ethno-religious and civil conflict, make
them highly productive contexts in which to begin examining the
role of literature in the aftermath of social trauma. Rather than a
definitive account of the subject, the collection defines a new
field for literary studies, and opens it up to scholars working in
other regional and national contexts. To this end, the book
includes essays on post-1989 Germany, post-9/11 United States, the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Sierra Leone, and narratives of
asylum seeker/refugee communities. This volume's comparative frame
draws on well-established precedents for thinking about the
cultural politics of these regions, making it a valuable resource
for scholars of Comparative Literature, Peace and Conflicts
Studies, Human Rights, Transitional Justice, and the Politics of
Literature.
A souvenir book with over 60 colour photographs showing the
University City of Cambridge.
This is a landscape format, paperback book, showing the charm of
the Cotswold Villages. It contains 160 pages consisting mainly of
colour photographs with 'single line' text descriptions. It also
includes text and colour photographs of Bath in the South and
Stratford upon Avon in the North.
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The Divorce (Paperback)
Cesar Aira; Translated by Chris Andrews; Introduction by Patti Smith
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R254
R229
Discovery Miles 2 290
Save R25 (10%)
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Ships in 9 - 17 working days
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Shortlisted for the 2022 Queen Sofia Spanish Institute Translation
Prize Shortlisted for the Premio Valle-Inclan prize for its
translation A recently divorced man trying to enjoy himself in one
of the trendier districts of Buenos Aires finds himself at the
centre a series of strange coincidences. These blips in causality
are at first easily rationalised, but soon escalate from the merely
implausible to the impossible to the cataclysmic. More, each
accident of fate, piling one atop the other, drags a new, rambling
tale in its wake, until the very ground beneath the man's feet
seems likely to buckle beneath the weight of so many shaggy dogs.
And yet, with master storyteller Cesar Aira holding their leashes,
what better vacation from reality could any reader-or
divorce-desire?
Shows colour images of the life on and coast line of the Channel
Islands of Guernsey, Sark & Herm.
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Distant Star
Roberto Bolaño; Translated by Chris Andrews
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R281
R254
Discovery Miles 2 540
Save R27 (10%)
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Ships in 9 - 17 working days
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Featuring several mass-murdering authors, two fraternal writers at
the head of a football-hooligan ring and a poet who crafts his
lines in the air with sky writing, Roberto Bolano's Nazi Literature
in the Americas details the lives of a rich cast of characters from
one of the most extraordinary imaginations in world literature.
Written with sharp wit and virtuosic flair, this encyclopaedic
group of fictional pan-American authors is the terrifyingly
humorous and remarkably inventive masterpiece which made Bolano
famous throughout the Spanish-speaking world.
Since the publication of The Savage Detectives in 2007, the work of
Roberto Bolano (1953-2003) has achieved an acclaim rarely enjoyed
by literature in translation. Chris Andrews, a leading translator
of Bolano's work into English, explores the singular achievements
of the author's oeuvre, engaging with its distinct style and key
thematic concerns, incorporating his novels and stories into the
larger history of Latin American and global literary fiction.
Andrews provides new readings and interpretations of Bolano's
novels, including 2666, The Savage Detectives, and By Night in
Chile, while at the same time examining the ideas and narrative
strategies that unify his work. He begins with a consideration of
the reception of Bolano's fiction in English translation, examining
the reasons behind its popularity. Subsequent chapters explore
aspects of Bolano's fictional universe and the political, ethical,
and aesthetic values that shape it. Bolano emerges as the inventor
of a prodigiously effective "fiction-making system," a subtle
handler of suspense, a chronicler of aimlessness, a celebrator of
courage, an anatomist of evil, and a proponent of youthful
openness. Written in a clear and engaging style, Roberto Bolano's
Fiction offers an invaluable understanding of one of the most
important authors of the last thirty years.
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Ghosts (Paperback)
Cesar Aira; Translated by Chris Andrews
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R326
R301
Discovery Miles 3 010
Save R25 (8%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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"On a building site of a new, luxury apartment building, visitors
looked up at the strange, irregular form of the water tank that
crowned the edifice, and the big parabolic dish that would supply
television images to all the floors. On the edge of the dish, a
sharp metallic edge on which no bird would have dared to perch,
three completely naked men were sitting, with their faces turned up
to the midday sun; no one saw them, of course." - from Ghosts
Ghosts is about a construction worker's family squatting on a
building site. They all see large and handsome ghosts around their
quarters, but the teenage daughter is the most curious. Her
questions about them become more and more heartfelt until the story
reaches a critical, chilling moment when the mother realizes that
her daughter's life hangs in the balance.
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Hi De Hi!: Complete Series (DVD)
Simon Cadell, Leslie Dwyer, Diane Holland, Penny Irving, Derek Benfield, …
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R1,499
R954
Discovery Miles 9 540
Save R545 (36%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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All 58 episodes of the BBC sitcom set in a holiday camp in the late
1950s/early '60s. Maplin's holiday camp is the scene of japes,
fiddles and scrapes galore as Teddy-cum-wide-boy Ted Bovis (Paul
Shane), camp entertainer, concocts yet another scheme to get one
over on haughty camp manager Jeffrey Fairbrother (Simon Cadell).
Meanwhile, razor-tongued senior yellowcoat, the glamorous Gladys
Pugh (Ruth Madoc), has her sights set on becoming Fairbrother's
muse and gormless chalet-maid/wannabe-yellowcoat Peggy Ollerenshaw
(Su Pollard) picks up and spreads rumours with abandon.
A souvenir picture book which contains over 60 colour photographs
of the Channel Island of Alderney
This is a little souvenir book with over 60 color photographs
showing images of the county of Shropshire, including Ludlow and
the Ironbridge.
A pocket sized little souvenir book with over 64 colour photographs
and illustrations of some of the towns and villages in 'The
Chilterns' area.
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