Showing results for "oconnor" in Genre Fiction

It is 1938 and for Manod, a young woman living on a remote island off the coast of Wales, the world looks ready to end just as she is trying to imagine a future for herself. The ominous appearance of a beached whale on the island's shore, and rumours of submarines circling beneath the waves, have villagers steeling themselves for what’s to come. Empty houses remind them of the men taken by the Great War, and of the difficulty of building a life in the island's harsh, salt-stung landscape.

Flannery O’Connor’s astonishing and haunting first novel is a classic of 20th-century literature. It is the story of Hazel Motes, a 22-year-old caught in an unending struggle against his innate, desperate faith. He falls under the spell of a “blind” street preacher named Asa Hawks and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter. In an ironic, malicious gesture of his own non-faith, and to prove himself a greater cynic than Hawks, Hazel founds The Church of God Without Christ but is still thwarted in his efforts to lose God.

Straya lies in ruins. A once-proud nation, former Australia has regressed into a patchwork civilization cowering under the deadly heat of a merciless sun. Savage violence lurks around every corner. Affable young mutant, Franga, risks life and double-jointed limb to help provide for his makeshift family of mutie kids and increasingly senile friend and mentor, Ken Ages. After finding a strange artifact in the deadly Downlow district, Franga inadvertently starts a horrifying chain reaction.

Dublin, 1904. Nora Barnacle is a 20-year-old from Galway, working as a maid at Finn’s Hotel. On June 16th, Bloomsday, her life is changed when she meets Dubliner James Joyce - a fateful encounter that turns into a lifelong love. Despite his hesitation to marry, Nora follows Joyce in pursuit of a life beyond Ireland. But as their life unfolds, Nora finds herself in conflict between their intense desire for each other and the constant anxiety of living in poverty throughout Europe.

Brothers Thom and Archie are the best of friends and never disagree, until the beautiful, young and very headstrong Molly James comes into their life. Molly might be playing a game with the brothers - but when war strikes and they both join up to fight, it isn't a game anymore. Based on the true story of the author's grandfather's wartime experiences, At the Going Down of the Sun explores the intense bond between soldiers and brothers fighting in war, and a love that may tear them apart.

Anne Bonny is a young woman of privilege who is anything but comfortable, hell-bent on a voyage of self-realisation with or without the consent of those around her. Novelty-seeking, contrary, stubborn and bisexual, she is also neurodivergent, brave and capable of deep and enduring love. She spent all of two months actually being a pirate. Seaborne is the thrilling and sensuous imagining of the loss, frustration and desires that steer this lonely daughter of a plantation owner towards elopement, two marriages, two pregnancies, violence, trial for piracy and legendary status.

It is 1865: the American Civil War is ending. Eliza Duane Mulvey sets out from Lafayette, Louisiana, the town her mother Mary Duane called home. Alone, she walks across a devastated country in search of a youngster she has not seen in four years. One of the hundred thousand children drawn into the war, his fate has been mysterious and will prove extraordinary.

Dublin 1907, a city of whispered rumours. An actress still in her teens begins an affair with a damaged older man, the leading playwright at the theatre where she works. Rebellious, irreverent, beautiful, flirtatious, Molly Allgood is a girl of the inner city tenements, dreaming of stardom in America. Witty and watchful, she has dozens of admirers. But in the backstage of her life, there is a secret.

Three extraordinary people begin their life together. Henry Irving, the Chief, is the volcanic leading man and impresario; Ellen Terry is the most lauded and desired actress of her generation; and ever following along behind them in the shadows is the unremarkable theatre manager, Bram Stoker. Bram is wrestling with dark demons in a new city, in a new marriage, and with his own literary aspirations. As he walks the London streets at night, streets haunted by the Ripper and the gossip which swirls around his friend Oscar Wilde, he finds new inspiration.

It is 1865. The American Civil War is ending. Eighteen years after the famine ship Star of the Sea docked at New York, the daughter of two of her passengers sets out from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on a walk across a devastated America. Eliza Duane Mooney is searching for a youngster she has not seen in four years, one of the 100,000 children drawn into the war. His fate has been mysterious and will prove extraordinary.

New York Times best-selling author William Kent Krueger has won numerous accolades for his books, including the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. In Trickster’s Point, the 12th suspenseful installment in Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series, Cork is framed for the murder of Minnesota’s first Native American governor-elect, Jubal Little. As Cork fights to clear his name and uncover the truth, he discovers that events from his own past may hold the key to the real killer’s identity.

Inspired by true events, Among Kings tells the inspiring story of William Sheppard, the first African American missionary to the Congo who rescues the entire nation enslaved by Belgian's ruthless King Leopold II. Traveling 1,000 miles up the Congo River with Samuel Lapsley, his white missionary companion, the two overcome deadly fevers, dangerous animals, and cannibal tribes. Sheppard becomes a famous explorer honored by kings, queens, and presidents. Armed with a camera, he exposes widespread Congo atrocities to the world.

James Lovell desperately wants to help the American cause, but alone in a cold, dark cell in the Boston Stone Jail, his dreams seem a faint illusion. In icy March winds, pounded by the Americans’ cannon, General Howe evacuates British troops and Loyalists from Boston. James Lovell is forced into a ship bound for Halifax, while his father and family take passage for the British stronghold in the ship’s upper berth. In jail in Halifax, James can only write letters and pray for release, hoping General George Washington will hear his appeal.

When Libby Gentry's parents receive the letter that she's failed out of school, Libby is forced to pack her Prada bag and head to work for her great-aunt in rural Louisiana. Nothing about tiny Elsbury, Louisiana, entices her until she locks eyes with the Southern charmer Blaine Crabtree. Libby is used to getting what she wants, and Blaine is no exception; but as the two grow closer, bigger problems arise. When new opportunities in Chicago pop up, she is presented with a difficult situation: wait for her redneck Romeo or move on.

Set in Rhodesia 1976, this coming-of-age story delivers twisted romantic adventure. Overnight, 16-year-old Sandra Robertson finds herself alone in a hostile land where her education is terminated. Friends rally and send her to live with her grandmother. A true survivor with ambition, Sandy has little experience but manages to secure work. Hotel employment not only provides food and accommodation, but it also happens to provide education of a different sort.

An act of terrorism brings the financial system to a grinding halt. Premeditated violence and waves of unrest sweep across the continent. In a time of polarization and distrust, a more sinister force is behind this attempt to bring about a new America. However, this political subterfuge is met with violent opposition. In the confusion, the coast-to-coast chaos takes on a life of its own, bringing about a sudden collapse of American civilization.

Sylvia lives alone, dedicating herself to her job at the local university. On weekends, she helps out at a local hedgehog sanctuary because it gives her something to talk about on Mondays - and it makes people think she's nicer than she is. Only Sylvia has a secret: she's been in love with her boss, Professor Lomax, for over a decade now, and she's sure he's just waiting for the right time to leave his wife. Meanwhile she stores every crumb of his affection and covertly makes trouble for anyone she feels gets in his way.

It come out of nowhere - said the woman who found Michael, knocked into a coma by a rogue golf ball. He remembers nothing of the life he wakes up to. And there is something he can tell no one: that he can imagine things out of existence. That he only has to imagine a brick and it vanishes, that he only has to picture the catastrophes threatening his children and they are safe. As Michael's hold on reality loosens, his sense of self and the world around him starts to fray at the edges, teetering on the brink of nothingness.

You would always recognise your own child...wouldn't you? Heidi and Jason aren't like other couples. Six years ago, Heidi's daughter was murdered. A year later, Jason's son Barney disappeared. Their shared loss brought them together. By chance, Heidi meets a boy she's certain is her husband's long-missing son - but Jason is equally convinced it's not him. Is Heidi mad? Or is Jason hiding something? And can their fragile marriage survive Heidi's search for the truth?

At college in 1980s, Robbie Goulding, an Irish-born teenager, meets Fran Mulvey, a Vietnamese refugee. Together they form a band. Joined by cellist Sarah-Thérèse Sherlock and her brother Seán on drums, they set out to chase fame. Spanning 25 years, we fast-forward through an evocative soundtrack of struggle and laughter. Infused with blues, New Wave and punk, the tale stretches from the Glastonbury Festival to Long Island, culminating in July 2012, a night that changes everything.