Showing titles in World Literature

Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teacher's fierce intellect and sense of discipline.

A discarded painting in a roadside clean-up, forgotten bones in a research archive and Lexington, the greatest racehorse in US history. From these strands of fact, Geraldine Brooks weaves a sweeping story of spirit, obsession and injustice across American history. A gripping reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America, Horse is the latest masterpiece from a writer with a prodigious talent for bringing the past to life.

In a rocky cove in the bay of Hakata, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Stood in the coast's wind and cold, the police see nothing to investigate: the flush of the couple's cheeks speaks clearly of cyanide, of a lovers' suicide. But in the eyes of two men, Torigai Jutaro, an old and shabby detective, and Kiichi Mihara, a young gun from Tokyo, something is not quite right. Together, they will begin to pick at the knot of a unique and calculated crime.

Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to 12 years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding.

When celebrity aviator, Charles A. Lindbergh, wins the 1940 presidential election on the slogan of 'America First', fear invades every Jewish household. Not only has Lindbergh blamed the Jews for pushing America towards war with Germany, he has negotiated an 'understanding' with the Nazis promising peace between the two nations. Growing up in the 'ghetto' of Newark, Philip Roth recounts his childhood caught in the stranglehold of this counterfactual nightmare. As America sinks into its own dark metamorphosis and Jewish families are torn apart, fear and uncertainty spread.

“A faithful translation is rare; a translation which preserves intact the original text is very rare; a perfect translation of Montaigne appears impossible. Yet Donald Frame has realized this feat. One does not seem to be reading a translation, so smooth and easy is the style; at each moment, one seems to be listening to Montaigne himself - the freshness of his ideas, the unexpected choice of words. Frame has kept everything.” (Andre Maurois, The New York Times Book Review)

Caught between a demanding tech-job, her adoring fiance, and an unexpected new flame, Mei must learn what it means to choose herself.

Although he lived only to age thirty, Nakahara Chūya ranks among the finest of Japanese poets, evoking in his work the alienation, ennui, and romantic melancholy of a changing world. This edition collects both his published and his unpublished work, from his traditional Japanese tanka to his experiments with European modernism, and captures in a melodic new translation the beauty and intimacy of Chūya’s voice, showing why it has resonated with readers for a century.

A journey to Acapulco gradually becomes a descent into the underworld. An elderly South American writer instructs a protégé in the subterfuges of entering work for provincial literary prizes. Set in the Chilean exile diaspora of Latin America and Europe, and peopled by Bolaño's beloved 'failed generation,' this collection was the first to introduce the English-speaking world to Bolaño's immeasurable gifts as a short-story writer.

Amidst the seedy hotels and deserted campsites of the Costa Brava, someone has gone missing. A detective sets out to find them. They search among the hapless girls, failed poets, and shifty policemen that populate this dream world – but every door opens onto a nightmare. An experimental novella, spliced together in vignettes, Antwerp is Roberto Bolaño's first work of fiction.

A rat policeman comes to the startling realization that each rat is out for themselves. An elderly judge gives up his job in the city for an improbable return to the family farm in the Pampas. An elusive film-maker and the little-known Argentinian novelist whose work he's plagiarized for years, finally fall into confrontation. Unpredictable and daring, highly controlled and yet somehow haywire, the five short stories included in The Insufferable Gaucho are some of Roberto Bolaño's best.

A young party animal collapses in a Parisian disco and dies on the dance floor, only to watch his soul departing his body. Two embittered police detectives debate their favourite weapons. A violent man looks back on his childhood and seeks out the now-aged male porn actor his mother shot movies with.

Auxilio Lacouture is trapped. For twelve days she hides alone in a lavatory on the fourth floor of her university. A highly charged first-person semi-hallucinatory novella, Amulet is a potent stream of consciousness through which the poets of Mexico rage and swirl.

Par une belle soirée d'été, Maya voit sa vie basculer : son mari fait ses valises et la laisse seule avec son chagrin. Elle n'a plus qu'à arborer son plus beau sourire pour jongler entre une carrière exigeante, des enfants pleins de vie et tenter de faire taire sa douleur. Quand celle-ci devient trop forte, elle peut compter sur le soutien sans faille de son gang de copines, de son imprévisible frère, et d'un jeune père divorcé qui ne la laisse pas indifférente... Et si le naufrage de sa vie parfaite lui offrait la liberté d'être enfin elle-même ?

Dropped from the Olympic figure skating team, Nuria Martí's fate pivots her into a world of corruption, jealousy – and revenge. Cushioning her fall from grace, a besotted admirer builds a secret ice rink for her in the ruins of an old mansion on the outskirts of their seaside town. What he doesn't tell her is he paid for it using public funds. Such deceit is not without repercussions, and the skating rink soon becomes a crime scene.

Paris, 1938. The Peruvian poet Cesar Vallejo lies in hospital, hiccupping himself to death. When the doctors struggle to offer a diagnosis, his wife calls on an acquaintance of her friend Madame Reynaud, the mesmerist and reclusive bachelor Pierre Pain. But on a night that 'smells of something strange', things soon go awry...

Taxé d'immoralité, condamné et censuré, Baudelaire est, contre son temps, celui que Rimbaud définissait comme « le premier voyant, roi des poètes, un vrai Dieu » et dont l'influence perdure jusque chez nos artistes contemporains. Des Fleurs du Mal, son œuvre maîtresse, aux extraits de ses journaux intimes ou de Lettre à sa mère, les comédiens tels que Jean-Louis Barrault, Jean Desailly et Pierre Blanchar redonnent vie à cet albatros le temps de quelques vers.

DS Katie Maguire and her team are stretched to their limit. A gang of dognappers is terrorizing Cork. The city's drug trade is at an all-time high. Now a girl has gone missing – and all in the glare of the media spotlight. As Katie closes in on the truth, she realizes that the three cases might be connected. But with every second she spends investigating, the clock ticks on for the missing girl, trapped in a living death...

Freedom comes with high risks and disillusioned dreams. "Snow in Seattle" is the second book in the Snow trilogy and is the sequel to Amy M. Le's debut, historical fiction novel, "Snow in Vietnam." After escaping Vietnam with her daughter and nephew, Snow finds herself living in the refugee camps of Galang and Singapore. When she receives news of sponsorship to America, Snow’s dream of starting a new life of freedom in Seattle comes true. Life in the United States, however, is nothing like the grandeur she imagined.

Dirty South Haiku is a fictional work about life in the Deep South. Each haiku is vivid with imagery embodying the colloquialisms, cuisine, attitudes, and music of the Creole culture.