Marlowe befriends a down on his luck war veteran with thescars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a verywealthy nymphomaniac wife, who he's divorced and re-married and whoends up dead. and now Lennox is on the lam and the cops and a crazygangster are after Marlowe.
In the Washington Post Book World, Sven Birkerts called thisexuberant novel "a complex and gripping work of invention andconfession . . . I understood again how the prose of a true writercan bring us to a world beyond." The book spans almost thirty yearsin the life of a fictional "Paul Theroux," who moves through youngbachelorhood in Africa, in and out of marriage, affairs, andemployment, and between continents. It's a wry, worldly, erotic,and deeply moving account of one man's first half century - "amongthe strongest things Theroux has ever written" (New York Times BookReview).
Narrated by a fifteen-year-old girl with a ruthless regard fortruth, The Last Life is a beautifully told novel of lies andghosts, love and honor. Set in colonial Algeria, and in the southof France and New England, it is the tale of the LaBasse family,whose quiet integrity is shattered by the shots from agrandfather's rifle. As their world suddenly begins to crumble,long-hidden shame emerges: a son abandoned by the family before hewas even born, a mother whose identity is not what she has claimed,a father whose act of defiance brings Hotel Bellevue-the familybusiness-to its knees. Messud skillfully and inexorably describeshow the stories we tell ourselves, and the lies to which we cling,can turn on us in a moment. It is a work of stunning power from awriter to watch.
Sixteen-year-old Katya Spivak is out for a walk on thegracious streets of Bayhead Harbor with her two summer babysittingcharges when she's approached by silver-haired, elegant MarcusKidder. At first his interest in her seems harmless, even pleasant;like his name, a sort of gentle joke. His beautiful home, thechildren's books he's written, his classical music, the marvelousart in his study, his lavish presents to her -- Mr. Kidder's lifecouldn't be more different from Katya's drab working-classexistence back home in South Jersey, or more enticing. But bydegrees, almost imperceptibly, something changes, and posing forMr. Kidder's new painting isn't the lighthearted endeavor it oncewas. What does he really want from her? And how far will he go toget it? In the tradition of Oates's classic story "Where Are YouGoing, Where Have You Been?" "A Fair Maiden "is an unsettling,ambiguous tale of desire and control.
Marianne and Elinor Dashwood are sisters. Marianne always actsimpulsively, while Elinor is painfully sensitive to socialconvention. When each falls in love, they come to realize thatsense must mix with sensibility if they are to find happiness.First published in 1811, "Sense and Sensibility" inaugurated thebrilliant career of one of the world's most beloved literaryfigures and ranks among her most popular novels.
From the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature, a"brilliant...enchanting novel" (New York Times Book Review) ofromance, deceit, religion, and magic set in eighteenth-centuryPortugal at the height of the Inquisition. National bestseller.Translated by Giovanni Pontiero.
Book De*ion Remember when flying was glamorous and sexy, even fun? Whenairline food was gourmet, everyone dressed up for a flight, andstewardesses catered to our every need-at least in ourimaginations? This classic memoir by two audaciously outspokenyoung ladies, who lived and loved the free-spirited stewardesslife, jets you back to those golden days of air travel-from thecaptain who's as subtle as a 747 when he's on the make to thepassenger who mistakes the overhead luggage rack for an upperberth; from the names of celebrities who were a pleasure to serve(and some surprising notables on the "bad guy" list) to the originsof some naughty stereotypes-Spaniards "are" the best lovers, actorsthe most foul-mouthed. This huge bestseller, a First Class jet-agejournal, offers a hilarious gold mine of outrageous anecdotes fromthe high-flying and amorous lives of those busty, lusty,adventuresome young women of the swinging '60s known as"stews." About Author Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones were name
"I was almost born Happy." So begins The Spanish Bow and theremarkable history of Feliu Delargo, who just misses being "Feliz"by a misunderstanding at his birth, which he barely survives. The accidental bequest of a cello bow from his dead father setsFeliu on the course of becoming a musician, unlikely given hisbeginnings in a dusty village in Catalonia. When he is compelled toflee to anarchist Barcelona, his education in music, life, andpolitics begins. But it isn’t until he arrives at the court of theembattled monarchy in Madrid that passion enters the compositionwith Aviva, a virtuoso violinist with a haunted past. As Feliuembarks on affairs, friendships, and rivalries, forces propellingthe world toward a catastrophic crescendo sweep Feliu along intheir wake. The Spanish Bow is a haunting fugue of music, politics, andpassion set against half a century of Spanish history, from thetail end of the nineteenth century up through the Spanish Civil Warand World War II.
This collection of Vonnegut's short masterpieces share hisaudacious sense of humor and extraordinary creative vision.
When Jerry Delfont, an aimless travel writer with writer’sblock (his “dead hand”), receives a letter from an Americanphilanthropist, Mrs. Merrill Unger, with news of a scandalinvolving an Indian friend of her son’s, he is intrigued. Who isthe dead boy, found on the floor of a cheap hotel room? How and whydid he die? And what is Jerry to make of a patch of carpet, and apackage containing a human hand? He is swiftly captivated by the beautiful, mysterious Mrs.Unger—and revived by her tantric massages—but the circumstancessurrounding the dead boy cause him increasingly to doubt thewoman’s motives and the exact nature of her philanthropy. Withoutmuch to go on, Jerry pursues answers from the teeming streets ofCalcutta to Uttar Pradesh. It is a dark and twisted trail ofobsession and need. Beautifully written, A Dead Hand demonstrates the powerfulevocation of place and character that has made Paul Theroux one ofthe most perceptive and engaging writers today.
