Showing titles in World Literature

Finnegans Wake is the greatest challenge in 20th-century literature. Who is Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker? And what did he get up to in Phoenix Park? And what did Anna Livia Plurabelle have to say about it? In the rich nighttime and the language of dreams, here are history, anecdote, myth, folk tale and, above all, a wondrous sense of humor, colored by a clear sense of humanity. In this exceptional reading by the Irish actor Barry McGovern, with Marcella Riordan, the world of the Wake is more accessible than ever before.

Ms Kim Jiyoung has started acting strangely. Ms Kim Jiyoung is depressed. Ms Kim Jiyoung is mad. Ms Kim Jiyoung is her own woman. Ms Kim Jiyoung is every woman. Ms Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is the South Korean sensation which has got the whole world talking. The life story of one young woman born halfway across the globe at the end of the 20th century raises questions about endemic misogyny and institutional oppression which are relevant to us all.

Charming, vibrant, witty and edifying, The Life of Samuel Johnson is a work of great obsession and boundless reverence. The literary critic Samuel Johnson was 54 when he first encountered Boswell; the friendship that developed spawned one of the greatest biographies in the history of world literature. The book is full of humorous anecdote and rich characterization, and paints a vivid picture of 18th-century London, peopled by prominent personalities of the time.

Tom Hope doesn’t think he’s much of a farmer, but he’s doing his best. He can’t have been much of a husband to Trudy, either, judging by her sudden departure. It’s only when she returns, pregnant to someone else, that he discovers his surprising talent as a father. So when Trudy finds Jesus and takes little Peter away with her to join the holy rollers, Tom’s heart breaks all over again. Enter Hannah Babel, quixotic small-town bookseller: the second Jew, and the most vivid person, Tom has ever met. He dares to believe they could make each other happy.

From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times best-selling author of Lincoln in the Bardo, a literary masterclass on how to become both a better writer and reader, on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about how to live. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders guides the listener through seven classic Russian short stories he's been teaching for 20 years as a professor in the prestigious Syracuse University graduate MFA creative writing program.

This is the history of England told in a new way: glimpsed through twenty-five remarkable poems written down between the eighth century and today, which connect us directly with the nation’s past, and the experiences, emotions and imaginations of those who lived it. These poems open windows onto wildly different worlds – from the public to the intimate, from the witty to the savage, from the playful to the wistful. They take us onto battlefields, inside royal courts, down coal mines and below stairs in great houses.

Dans ce village, c'est du corps des femmes qu'on tire l'argent qui fait vivre les familles. Car ici, on vend une denrée précieuse : le lait maternel. Sylvaine, son propre enfant à peine sevré, accueille chez elle comme tant d'autres une « petite de la ville ». Mais une nuit, en pleine forêt, elle découvre un bébé abandonné dans une clairière et à ses côtés un carnet qui raconte son histoire.

When Holly Campbell's body is found on the train tracks at Glasgow Central, police quickly rule it a suicide. She'd had a troubled past. She'd tried before. But Sergeant May Mackay can't let one detail go. If Holly never wanted to come home, why did she buy a return ticket? Driven by her own haunting loss and a promise to Holly's grieving mother, May is determined to solve the mystery. But the deeper she digs, the more sinister the truth becomes. Someone is hiding a terrible secret. And they'll do whatever it takes to keep it buried. Even if it means silencing May for good.

Annis est encore une enfant quand sa mère est vendue à un autre propriétaire. Et n'est guère plus âgée quand son maître, qui est aussi l'homme qui a violé sa mère, se débarrasse d'elle avec d'autres esclaves. Lors de leur terrible marche vers les plantations de La Nouvelle-Orléans, Annis tente de se raccrocher à la vie et aux enseignements de sa mère : se battre, toujours, avec les armes et les sagesses qu'elle lui a transmises.

Un soir, Amani, soixante-sept ans, femme de ménage à la retraite dans une cité HLM paisible en bordure de forêt, s'en va. Père et fils tentent de comprendre ce qui a poussé le pilier de leur famille à disparaître. Il pressent que ce départ est lié à l'histoire de ses parents, orphelins émigrés de Tunisie.

As the daughter of Korean bodega owners, Jia Song promised herself that she would have every luxury when she grew up. Now she’s made junior partner at her prestigious law firm, and it’s all finally within reach. So when her boss asks her to sit in on the hush-hush family implosion of a client, she accepts without hesitation – only to find out that it is one of the most famous Korean families in the world. The Parks and their mega successful Korean beauty brand are worth a billion dollars.

İstanbul’dan Ankara’ya uzanan bu küçük apartmanda, kapı aralıklarından sızan hayatın seslerini duyacaksınız. Ayaşlı İbrahim Efendi, eski alışkanlıklarını cebinde taşıyan kurnaz bir ev sahibi; kiracılarıysa Cumhuriyet’in ilk yıllarında yeni bir düzen arayan insanlar: bir memur ailesi, evlilik hayalleriyle savrulan genç bir kadın, ay sonunu getirmeye çalışan idealistler, dedikoduya meraklı komşular…

Rhyme and Reason takes you from a medieval accountant (called Chaucer) trying to entertain his lord, past a doomed love affair in the Tower of London, through adoring sonnets and notebooks filled with dirty poems, through Byromania and the Victorian hearth, understanding why people simply enjoyed poetry. From the poems of housemaids to the rhymes of kings it's the history of Britain through the poems that people read, recited and loved.

In a cluttered rent-controlled apartment in the middle of Manhattan, Barbara Rosenberg—old world yenta, committed homophobe, accomplished jazzercizer—is terminally ill, high on opioids, and writing the story of her life. Forget about her late husband, her career as the receptionist for an Upper East Side plastic surgeon, and her failed aspirations to be an actress.

The deliciously book-length story of "The Vineyard" is set in and around the little house in Oyster Ponds where the poet spends the summer months. In freeflowing lines and pages that turn with the calendar, the poem unspools impressions that seem confided rather than written, as Galassi observes the "pretend peace'' of this quiet village house and garden, his oasis in the great swirl of dailiness.

In this collection of essays, the author of Demon Copperhead and The Lacuna brings to us (out of one of history's darker moments) an extended love song to the world we still have. From its opening parable gleaned from recent news about a lost child saved in an astonishing way, the book moves on to consider a world of surprising and hopeful prospects ranging from an inventive conservation scheme in a remote jungle to the backyard flock of chickens tended by the author's small daughter.

Dreaming in the Urban Areas is a poetry collection by Lisa Bellear that moves sharply between street-smart portrayals of poverty and dispossession, and the complexity of Black love, identity and experience. Written with poetic prowess and political bite, Bellear's work is a reckoning force set against a backdrop of urban community and strength.

Was wäre, wenn sich dein vermeintlicher Feind als dein Traummann entpuppt? Jenifer erschafft als Kunsttischlerin exklusive Einzelstücke — als Frau geht sie jedoch in der Masse unter. Dabei träumt sie von der großen Liebe und versucht den smarten Banker Deacon Spencer zu erobern, doch der nimmt keine Notiz von ihr. Auch ihre Zwillingsschwester Jessica kann ihr nicht helfen, denn sie ist in New York und die Schwestern sind zum ersten Mal für längere Zeit voneinander getrennt. Seit dem Tod seiner Frau ist das Herstellen von kreativen Möbeln das Einzige, was Sean Murphys Herz berührt.

C'est l'histoire de Mara, de Robert, de Sept Lieues, d'Henrique, de Bruce, de Clotilde, de cet homme qu'on appelle Le Breton, de Flora et d'Árpád. Un retraité, un joueur de guitare, un cow-boy, un exégète de Claude Simon, une brunette maigrichonne, un taiseux, une grande bourgeoise fatiguée, un gars que la vie un jour a pris pour un punching-ball.

La novel·la que va consagrar Han Kang com una de les grans autores del segle: una lectura pertorbadora i transformadora. La vegetariana narra la història d'una dona, la Yeonghye, que per la simple decisió de no tornar a menjar carn converteix una vida normal en un malson pertorbador. Narrada a tres veus, explica el despreniment progressiu de la condició humana d'una dona que ha decidit deixar de ser allò que l'obliguen a ser.