Africa is a place which retains what most of the world has lost: space, roots, traditions, awesome beauty, true wilderness, rare animals and extraordinary people. In this wonderful and haunting collection of stories, Kuki Gallmann rediscovers the Kenya that she knows and loves, where every day brings challenge and adventure, mystery and magic.
Sherman McCoy mène une vie luxueuse entre Wall Street, dont il est l'un des jeunes lions, et Park Avenue. Un soir, revenant de l'aéroport avec sa maîtresse, il rate la sortie de l'autoroute, et se perd dans le Bronx. Au moment où il croit enfin pouvoir échapper à ce quartier de tous les dangers, deux jeunes Noirs s'avancent, menaçants, vers sa Mercedes... Le couple parvient à s'enfuir, mais écrase l'un des deux hommes. Pour Sherman McCoy, c'est le début de la chute. Sa vie affective et professionnelle est pulvérisée, et l'univers dont il se croyait le maître flambe sur le bûcher de toutes les vanités. Graduellement, inexorablement, l'étau se resserre, sans que l'on sache, jusqu'aux toutes dernières pages, comment le cauchemar se terminera.
In The Illusion of Separateness, award-winning author Simon Van Booy tells a harrowing and enchanting story of how one man’s act of mercy during World War II changed the lives of strangers, and how they each discover the astonishing truth of their connection. Whether they are pursued by Nazi soldiers, old age, shame, deformity, disease, or regret, the characters in this utterly compelling novel discover in their, darkest moments of fear and isolation that they are not alone, that they were never alone, that every human being is a link in an unseen chain. The Illusion of Separateness intertwines the stories of unique and compelling characters who—through seemingly random acts of selflessness—discover the vital parts they have played in each other’s lives.
L'écrivain irlandais Oscar Wilde incarne l'idéal de l'artiste libre défiant les conventions sociales, tout en étant un auteur de fascinants récits et un observateur spirituel. Reconnu comme un conteur exceptionnel, il savait captiver son auditoire pendant des heures. Le recueil que nous présentons, publié pour la première fois en 1891 sous le titre "Le crime de Lord Arthur Savile et autres histoires", comprend plusieurs récits, dont certains avaient déjà été publiés dans des revues, le plus ancien étant "Le Fantôme de Canterville", paru en 1887. La nouvelle éponyme a été écrite spécifiquement pour cette édition. Wilde aurait affirmé qu'il s'était lui-même livré à un sinistre présage à travers ce récit, une expérience qu'il aurait vécue par la suite. En 1891, après la publication du recueil, une voyante lui aurait prédit qu'il se retrouverait en prison dans trois ans à cause de ses propres actions.
The ruthlessly engrossing and beautifully rendered story of the Brodskys, a family of artists who realize, too late, one elemental truth: Creation’s necessary consequence is destruction. Each member of the mercurial clan in Adam Mansbach’s bold new novel faces the impossible choice between the people they love and the art that sustains them. Tristan Brodsky, sprung from the asphalt of the depression-era Bronx, goes on to become one of the swaggering Jewish geniuses who remakes American culture while slowly suffocating his poet wife, who harbors secrets of her own. Nina Hricek, a driven young Czech photographer escapes from behind the Iron Curtain with a group of black musicians only to find herself trapped yet again, this time in a doomed love affair. And finally, Tris Freedman, grandson of Tristan and lover of Nina, a graffiti artist and unanchored revolutionary, cannibalizes his family history to feed his muse. In the end, their stories converge and the survival of each requires the sacrifice of another. The End of the Jews offers all the rewards of the traditional family epic, but Mansbach’s irreverent wit and rich, kinetic prose shed new light on the genre. It runs on its own chronometer, somersaulting gracefully through time and space, interweaving the tales of these three protagonists who, separated by generation and geography, are leading parallel lives.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL OF THE YEAR'There are war stories and there are love stories, but we only occasionally get war stories and love stories braided together. Tim Finch has written a wonderful novel, tiny and epic both. Laced with humour and sadness, this is an intimate account of what it means to make peace, both with others and with oneself' COLUM McCANN 'A shrewd delight' independent.co.ukEdvard Behrens is a senior diplomat of some repute, highly regarded for his work on international peace negotiations. Under his arbitration, unimaginable atrocities are coolly dissected; invisible and ancient lines, grown taut and frayed with conflict, redrawn.In his latest post, Edvard has been sent a nondescript resort hotel in the Tyrol. High up on this mountain, the air is bright and clear. When he isn't working, Edvard reads, walks, listens to music. He confides in no one - no one but his wife Anna. Anna, who he loves with all his heart; Anna, always present and yet forever absent. Honest, honourable, tragic, witty, wise, an unforgettable novel of love, loss, and the human longing for peace, Peace Talks maps the darkest and most tender territories of the human heart.
Andy, Dag and Claire have been handed a society beyond their means. Twentysomethings, brought up with divorce, Watergate and Three Mile Island, and scarred by the 80s fallout of yuppies, recession, crack and Ronald Reagan, they represent the new generation - Generation X. Fiercely suspicious of being lumped together as an advertiser's target market, they have quit dreary careers and cut themselves adrift in the California desert. Unsure of their futures, they immerse themselves in a regime of heavy drinking and working in no future McJobs in the service industry. Underemployed, overeducated and intensely private and unpredicatable, they have nowhere to direct their anger, no one to assuage their fears, and no culture to replace their anomie. So they tell stories: disturbingly funny tales that reveal their barricaded inner world. A world populated with dead TV shows, 'Elvis moments' and semi-disposible Swedish furniture.
Ce roman constitue une sorte de pendant au "Bouddha de banlieue", avec ses évocations du Londres nocturne et souterrain et un héros naïf et comique, Shahid, écartelé entre la luxure et la pauvreté musulmane, entre la femme pécheresse et l'imam vertueux.
