Ahmad ha nacido en New Prospect, una ciudad industrial venida a menos del ?rea de Nueva York. Es hijo de una norteamericana de origen irland?s y de un estudiante egipcio que desapareci? de sus vidas cuando ten?a tres a?os. A los once, con el benepl?cito de su madre, se convirti? al Islam y, siguiendo las ense?anzas de su rigorista imam, el Sheij Rashid, lo fue asumiendo como identidad y escudo frente a la sociedad decadente, materialista y hedonista que le rodeaba.Ahora, a los dieciocho, acuciado por los agobios y angustias sexuales y ...
Tha?s ?tait n?e de parents libres et pauvres, adonn?s ? l'idol?trie. Du temps qu'elle ?tait petite, son p?re gouvernait, ? Alexandrie, proche de la porte de la Lune, un cabaret que fr?quentaient les matelots. Certains souvenirs vifs et d?tach?s lui restaient de sa premi?re enfance. Elle revoyait son p?re assis ? l'angle du foyer, les jambes crois?es, grand, redoutable et tranquille, tel qu'un de ces vieux Pharaons que c?l?brent les complaintes chant?es par les aveugles dans les carrefours…Tha?s, courtisane d'Alexandrie, est convertie au christianisme par le moine Paphnuce. Mais est-ce vraiment l'amour divin qui inspire cet homme de Dieu?
"Nick Naylor had been called many things since becoming chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies. But until now no one had actually compared him to Satan." They might as well have, though. "Gucci Goebbels," "yuppie Mephistopheles," and "death merchant" are just a few endearments Naylor has earned himself as the tobacco lobby's premier spin doctor. The hero of Thank You for Smoking does of course have his fans. His arguments against the neo-puritanical antismoking trends of the '90s have made him a repeat guest on Larry King, and the granddaddy of Winston-Salem wants him to be ...
Following Bridge of Sighs – a national best seller hailed by The Boston Globe as 'an astounding achievement… a masterpiece' – Richard Russo now tells the story of a marriage, and all the other ties that bind, from parents and in-laws to children and the promises of youth.Thirty years ago, on their Cape Cod honeymoon, Jack and Joy Griffin made a plan for their future that has largely been fulfilled. He left Los Angeles behind for the sort of New England college his parents had aspired to, and now the two of them are back on the Cape – where ...
A reclusive young man works in a San Francisco library for unpublishable books. Life's losers, an astonishing number of whom seem to be writers, can bring their manuscripts to the library, where they will be welcomed, registered and shelved. They will not be read, but they will be cherished. In comes Vida, with her manuscript. Her book is about her gorgeous body in which she feels uncomfortable. The librarian makes her feel comfortable, and together they live in the back of the library until a trip to Tijuana changes them in ways neither of them had ever expected.
Meet Macon Leary—a travel writer who hates both travel and strangeness. Grounded by loneliness, comfort, and a somewhat odd domestic life, Macon is about to embark on a surprising new adventure, arriving in the form of a fuzzy-haired dog obedience trainer who promises to turn his life around.
She doesn't want her turn on the catwalk-she'd rather be behind the scenes creating fabulous outfits! So when a famous fashionista discovers Emma's designs and offers her the opportunity of a lifetime-a feature in Madison magazine (squeal!)-Emma sort of, well, panics. She has only one option: to create a secret identity.And so Allegra Biscotti is born.Allegra is worldly, sophisticated, and bold-everything Emma is not. But the pressure is on. And Emma quickly discovers juggling school, a new crush, friends, and a secret identity might not be as glamorous as she thought.
A woman steps over the line into the unthinkable in this brilliant, powerful, and unforgettable new novel by the author of The Lovely Bones and Lucky.For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined. Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate. It is a challenging, moving, gripping story, written with the fluidity and strength of voice that only Alice Sebold can bring to the page.
In the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, prose magician Michael Chabon conjured up the golden age of comic books – intertwining history, legend, and storytelling verve. In The Final Solution, he has condensed his boundless vision to craft a short, suspenseful tale of compassion and wit that reimagines the classic nineteenth-century detective story.In deep retirement in the English country-side, an eighty-nine-year-old man, vaguely recollected by locals as a once-famous detective, is more concerned with his beekeeping than with his fellow man. Into his life wanders Linus Steinman, nine years old and mute, who ...
The Angel's Game opens in Barcelona in the 1920s. David Martin is a young man working in a newspaper office. But late one night the editor of the paper has a crisis – they have just had to drop six pages from the weekend edition and he has only a matter of hours to fill them. With most of the staff already home, he turns to David and asks if he can write a short story. If it is good, he will publish more. The resulting story is a huge success and becomes David's first step on the path to ...
Maine author Nicholson Baker (Vox, The Mezzanine, Human Smoke) has tackled some diverse topics in his esteemed literary career, and his new novel adds to the list. The Anthologist is the story of aging poet Paul Chowder, selected to write an introduction to a new anthology of verse. The novel follows his starts and stops, becoming a wildly tangential journey through the world of poetry. While Chowder may not be the most diligent worker, his active mind and keen eye reveal him to be one of the most satisfying narrators in recent memory.
This story uncovers suburbia's darkest secrets – mostly in The Flying Swan, a cosmic Rovers Return where Neville the barman and Archroy, owner of five magic beans, do battle with beasts of the occult and in particular the rather unpleasant Pope Alexander VI, the last of the Borgias.
A collection of sinister and macabre short stories by Daphne du Maurier, including "The Birds" on which Hitchcock famously based his film of the same name.
(Chinese: ????) 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 ...
Milo Burke, a development officer at a third-tier university, has 'not been developing': after a run-in with a well-connected undergrad, he finds himself among the burgeoning class of the newly unemployed. Grasping after odd jobs to support his wife and child, Milo is offered one last chance by his former employer: he must reel in a potential donor – a major 'ask' – who, mysteriously, has requested Milo 's involvement. But it turns out that the ask is Milo 's sinister college classmate Purdy Stuart. And the 'give' won't come cheap. Probing many themes – or, perhaps, anxieties – including work, war, sex, class, child rearing, romantic comedies, Benjamin Franklin, cooking shows on death row, and the eroticization of chicken wire, The Ask is a burst of genius by a young American master who has already demonstrated that the truly provocative and important fictions are often the funniest ones.
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 ...
A reissue of the 1960 novel which revolves around Dougal Douglas, evil genius and charmer who turns an entire South London community on its head. Murial Spark is the author of more than 15 novels including "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and "Girls of Slender Means".
